Birthday & Gratitude

As birthdays go, this one was pretty damn perfect. A pamper day followed by dinner out with hubby (gorgeous slow cooked lamb and sticky toffee pudding dishes while the snow came down outside), lie in, pancakes for brekkie, snow and sledge action, pub lunch, a cake made by my gorgeous boys, a roaring log fire and a wriggly baby.  I can't describe how lucky and blessed I feel right now. 

True gratitude for all you have is a real blessing in life and something that I appreciate now in a way which, perhaps, without the past year or two could have not been such an important part of my life.  I used to read this passage from a book of mine again and again and it always gave me comfort, as well as a huge ache in my heart:
" I don't know why we must go through such struggles to bring our children into the world. But I do know that when we look into our babies' faces, they will never have to wonder if they were really wanted. Ours are the children who, no matter what, will look at their parents and know, from the deepest place in their heart, how much we cherish them, and how we laboured to give them life. And in that there is no greater security and no greater gift".