If I wrote everything down that I was thankful for, I wouldn't have time to do anything else, so I'm going to share something specific:

Yesterday, I drove my minivan for the first time since going around with my mom to look at Christmas lights in December.  I definitely haven't lost my touch--in fact, am driving so much better, as my legs aren't as swollen with my lymphedema and the largest seeping wound I had on my legs is almost closed.

In a great sense, I'm thankful for my recent health problems, because I lost a lot of those everyday things one takes for granted because of them, and it makes me extra thankful when one of those abilities is given back to me!

For example, I was to the place (when I was fighting a three-bug infection) when I was so weak and stiff that I was using a bedpan in bed, and about six people were needed to get me off and on it.  Now, I'm easily walking to and from the toilet and getting up and down from it.

I ended up having a Fourth Of July celebration that lasted over 12 hours, and--when I got home--I was definitely tired enough to go to bed...and, yet, part of me could have gone in, turned on this computer, and gotten online for awhile, and only wisdom and discipline kept me from it.  This means that my old stamina is back and better than ever!

When I went from the bedpan to the bedside commode, I still had to be gotten out of bed and taken to it.  At first, about four people helped me.  Then, it was down to two.

I couldn't wipe my own butt for the simple reason that, if I leaned over too far, I would have fallen off the commode.  I had to hang onto the bars on the side to stay on it.

To be wiped, I was helped up and held onto a walker that was being steadied by a nurse or orderly while another one cleaned me up.

Excuse me if I seem to be giving out TMI to you, but I just need to tell it like it is so that you will understand why I'm so especially thankful for those everyday parts of life that you just do without thinking about them until something happens where they're taken from you.

The music video I'm sharing with you today is about losing a boyfriend--but the chorus of it has a couple of lines in it that express so well how I feel about my life and all that has transpired during the past several months...

Not for merely the sake of being famous, but, if my being famous would help me to leave the world a better place than I found it, I would love to be famous.  In the meantime, I'll just work with what I have now.  We all make a difference, and we don't have to be famous.

It's like George Bailey in my favorite movie, It's A Wonderful Life.

He had all of these big dreams and thought that achieving them would make him successful--but he would learn from his guardian angel that he had been a success all along just by being there for others when they needed him.

Me--and I'm still at it and doing well!!!

Of course, I've had a lot of help from God, medical people, my mom, my "adopted" siblings, and others.

Thanks to everyone who has been keeping me in their prayers, love, and positive thoughts!

I want my visiting nurse and wound specialist to hurry up and get here.  They were supposed to have arrived between eleven and noon, and it's now almost 20 minutes of one.

Wonder what's holding them up...