Thankfuls everyday keep the woes away

Whenever I start feeling sorry for myself about something, and start feeling like "woe is me", I try to remember some very sound advice I once received.

When I was pregnant with Lindsey, as I neared my due date, I was, like most pregnant women, READY. I was ready see my feet again, ready to sleep on my stomach, ready to eat without having heartburn, all those things. I wanted my baby in my arms instead of inside me. I'd never gone overdue with any of my other babies. Alexis came 3 days early, and the other 3 I was induced either a few days before, or on their due date. I just naturally assumed that Lindsey would be the same. Induced right around her due date.
So, the week before I was due, I went in for my prenatal visit, hoping it would be my last. Much to my dismay, it wasn't. My doctor was going to be out of town the next week, and my cervix was not favorable to be induced yet, so we scheduled a tentative induction for 2 weeks later, a week over due. But my doctor was optimistic and he said he really didn't think that I would make to that date. It was, afterall my 5th baby!

When I left his office and got in my car, the flood gates opened. It seemed like an eternity away, 2 more weeks. I cried as I told my husband that we'd have to wait another 2 weeks, and I cried some more when I called to tell my mom. (I blame some of it on pregnancy hormones.) The response I got from my mom was not what I expected. She said, "But at least you get to have the baby...Think about those you don't get to..." She also said that maybe I could think of ways to serve others, and that it would help the time go by faster. My first reaction was "ugh, I wanted sympathy!!" But I got over that quickly and realized how selfish I was being, and how precious the gift of this baby is, and waiting another two weeks was not going to kill me. I started thinking about all the reasons I had to be thankful, and tried to do things for others, and it totally changed my outlook.

I did make it to my next appointment, two weeks later, much to my dr's surprise, and even made it a couple more days to my induction. But once I changed my attitude, and focused on what I have to be thankful for, it was easy. It just wasn't important to me, how long I had to wait after that.

Since then, off and on when I've found myself feeling sorry for myself again, I think about this experience, and find reasons to be thankful again, and find my attitude changes and I think less of myself and more of others. So I find myself continually trying to be always thankful.