My Granny was a hypochondriac. We used to joke that she’d had every affliction except prostate cancer, and for that, it was only a matter of time. Granny did have many genuine health problems, though, and she took so many pills she needed one of those pill boxes to separate them for each day.

I’ve worked for two health charities, hearing the stories of previously healthy people who suffered vicious attacks on their bodies by the diseases I worked to eradicate.

One of my closest friends from college was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis last year, a diagnosis made even scarier by the fact that she’s watched her dad and aunt struggle with the same disease for years.

A dear friend from high school died of colon cancer a few years ago. I had lost touch with him, but reportedly, he was diagnosed in the late spring and was gone before fall. Just that quickly.

And of course, last year, I became seriously ill as I entered my third trimester of pregnancy, spending eight days in the hospital and delivering my daughter seven weeks early.

For all these reasons and the dozens of stories I won’t tell here, I’m truly thankful for my health. I may be overweight, asthmatic and allergic to everything that grows. I may have a shoulder that throbs when under any stress and a leg that aches when the weather changes. But really, compared to the struggles that so many people face each day, these things are like a paper cut. Irritating and slightly painful, but nothing to lose sleep over.

I’m amazed at the strength and courage I’ve seen in people who face chronic or deadly illness. The most striking thing from my time with ALS patients was the unstoppable joy so many of them had. But I’ve also been reminded – each time I see someone facing pain or illness, each time I hear another story of cancer or disease – that I’m so very blessed to be healthy. I’m thankful for my health.

Today wraps up my month of thanksgiving. I could name so many other things, people, places and experiences that I’ve been blessed with, that I’m thankful for. What about you? What are you thankful for?

I have a list. (Surprising, no?) A list of questions that I plan to ask God as soon as I get to heaven. It’s not a real long list, but it has some of the most important questions in my heart:

Why did my friend Carrie have to die in that car accident?
Why did Mark’s mom have to die before she was even 50?
Why did God send me to grad school? (Why didn’t I love grad school?)
Why didn’t the church plant work?
Why did I lose my job while I was pregnant?
Why are Photobaby and I okay and healthy?

These are the hard questions of life. Don’t ask me to ponder why the sky is blue or why birds sing or if zebras are white with black stripes or black with white stripes. We can figure out those things (some of us can recall our biology classes, the rest of us can look it up on Google), and they don’t impact my heart anyway. But these things that don’t make sense, that don’t fit into a box, that don’t stay resolved – these are the things I long to ask God.

Until then, though, I’m thankful that God has the answers. Even if I don’t. No, especially if I don’t. Because when it comes down to it, I don’t have to understand or even like the way things are. But I believe that God has a reason, an answer. And part of me is glad that my God is so big that no one can know His thoughts but Him.

I’m thankful to love and serve and know a God big enough for my questions…and His answers.

What are the questions in your heart?

When I was in seventh grade, Smitty and I did a report in science class about lightning. In eighth grade, we went on a school trip to Washington, D.C., and took our first hold-the-camera-ourselves photo. In ninth grade, I rode home with her after school and celebrated our grades and class ranks with her mom. In tenth grade, Smitty gave Mark her stamp of approval when he asked me to the Homecoming dance, reminding me that he used to live down the road from her house. In eleventh grade, we starred in our school’s production of “Arsenic and Old Lace.” (Well, Smitty starred. I was just in it.) During our senior year, we traveled to Kirksville with our parents for a campus tour, both of us leaving with revelations: her, that she did not want to go to Truman; me, that I did. We held a joint graduation party, then went our separate ways. So as freshmen, we figured out how to stay close while living three hours apart, sharing details about boyfriends and classes and piercings and changed majors over the phone and this new technology called e-mail.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point. Smitty and I have been friends for a long time. What’s funny (to us) is that I recently found a picture of my 6th birthday party, and she was there. We didn’t even remember it!

Smitty is absolutely my best friend, my person. And I’m so thankful for her! But she’s not my only true friend.

In college, I met T-Rex, Triple and Chelley (as well as my Family Group at the BSU and my dorm friends who became life friends), the Iowa-loving, truth-telling friends I will have for life. In grad school (short-lived though it was), I met Amber, the person I may have more in common with than any other. At my first job, I met Colleen, Heidi, Jenn and Jill, the girls who walked with me through rough times with my marriage, as well as amazing successes and devastating failures at work, all while laughing at my ability to become “drunk” over Diet Cherry Cokes. You know about Kevin from my first agency job, but it’s also there that I met Daphne, my copywriter friend who loves country music and small towns and animals and family more than anyone I know. And I can’t forget my church friends – Mandy, Amy, Katie, Jacqueline, Elizabeth – who became so much more than “church friends.” So much more.

These women – along with childhood friends and my new bloggy friends – have listened to me, prayed for me, encouraged me and loved me. And they have made me who I am today. I love my friends, and I am so thankful for them.

What friends are you thankful for today?

My family has issues. I mean, we are full of the crazy. But gosh darn it, I love these people. Even if it’s true that in our family, it’s not a holiday until someone cries.

We love board games, especially Yahtzee. We love stupid movies, especially ones starring Chevy Chase. We love the Lord, even if our journeys are unique and ever-changing. We love to eat, and feel the consequences as a result. We love Don Chilitos, a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in Mission, Kansas. We try to make burritos like they do, but it’s not quite the same. Just like the restaurant has never been the same since they took down the fish tank. We love to travel. We love home decorating shows and musicals and the History Channel. Well, Dad doesn’t love musicals, and I don’t love the History Channel. But we all endure these things for the others.

We are family. And I love them. And I’m so very thankful for them.

Happy Thanksgiving, from my family to yours!

As I may have mentioned a time or twelve, I have much angst about my career path. I’ve had several jobs since graduating from college, all of which started as my dream job and ended as…well, something else entirely. I’ve also talked about money and how we just never have enough of it.

But what I haven’t shared with you is how my husband is an incredibly hard worker, and how he’s been blessed with a great job.

The story is a long, winding one, but the short version is this: I pushed Mark about finishing college for several years, afraid that he would waste his potential and end up as a truck driver, like his dad. And then Mark realized that he enjoys driving and wanted to be a truck driver.

Of all things!

So, a few years ago, he embarked on a determined journey to become a truck driver. He worked long, hard hours at FedEx Ground, driving and delivering in snow, sleet and ice, working through injury and illness – all for not much pay. He then jumped through a lot of hoops to move from that job to a job at FedEx Freight (yes, it’s a separate company), spending time, money and hope on his belief that working there would be good for him and good for our family. Finally, three years after first applying to work there and just a few months before I got pregnant, he was hired part-time. The bad news was that he was working two jobs for most of my pregnancy. The good news is that he eventually moved to working full-time at Freight, earning shorter hours, a better salary and better benefits.

And even though he doesn’t get to drive as much as wants yet, and sometimes he gets an old forklift to use on the dock, and his hours keep him away from his loving wife – Mark loves his job. He’s doing what he wants to do and being rewarded for it.

I love – and am so thankful – that one of us has an angst-free career. And more importantly, I’m so very thankful that Mark is a hard worker who provides for his family.

This hasn’t changed how I feel about driving a truck and unused potential. I won’t be surprised at all if God has something else for Mark later down the road. (Ha! “Road” – no pun intended, but ha!) And I still cry buckets when I hear Alabama sing, “Roll On,” the song about a truck driver who gets stranded in a snow storm. But for now, I am thankful that God has provided this job for Mark. And I’m thankful that Mark does it.

If you weren’t doing the job you currently have, what kind of job would you like to have?