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by Hope

I hope no one is reading this. I hope you have stepped away from your computer, your phone, your tablet and are caught up with your friends and family. Eating a ton of food. Watching football games. Laughing and rough housing with your family or friend’s kids. That is what today is about.

I am so grateful to be here in Texas with my 4 siblings, 2 of my kids and my parents. I am grateful that my mom mostly still remembers who we are (my mom has Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinsons so we know our time with her is destined to be different these days.) It is kind of funny, and I’m grateful that we can all laugh, when she calls my dad her father, or my sister her friend or just plain forgets who one of my three brothers is to her. (This summer she told one of my twin’s, her grandson, that he was her favorite nephew and she meant it!) I am grateful that I am in a better financial place then I have been in years. I am grateful for work I truly love, clients who challenge me and trust me and (mostly) pay me.

There is just so much I am grateful for. And not just today but every day.

Things We Take for Granted

And thinking about these facts, that so many of us take for granted, makes me even more grateful:

• According to the FCC, nearly 1/4 of people in rural areas do not have access to high speed internet. So if you are reading this on your computer or tablet in the comfort of your home, using your home based internet. You are blessed.
• According to No Kid Hungry, more than 11 million kids in the US live in “food insecure” homes. That’s essentially 1 in 7 kids live in hunger.
• The Washington Post reports on the dismal numbers regarding homeless in the US, “more than 550,000 Americans experience homelessness on a typical night, and 1.4 million will spend some time in a shelter in a given year.”

And these are just the big ones. There are lots of other circumstances that can make you realize just how much you have to be grateful for. So today, put it away, and focus on your “haves,” not your “have nots.”

And in the comments…after you come back from this break…tell me your favorite food that you feasted on today. And something that you are especially grateful for!

Hope

Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.

But life has a way of rewriting your plans.

A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.

Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.

Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.

She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.