The Gallery: I’m Grateful For

This week a lovely lady and Mum to four, Chris (of ‘Thinly Spread‘ blog), is on an incredible journey to see the children of Mozambique. She has embarked on a journey, with Save the Children, for the ‘No Child Born to Die‘ campaign, which I blogged about recently.

Chris hasn’t left her own children for more than two nights in the last 15 years. She hasn’t flown at all in those 15 years. As she says,

‘I am a home bird but the call from Save the Children is one I cannot ignore, one I will shift mountains to answer, one that I will spring out of my comfort zone for.’

In light of her journey the theme on ‘The Gallery’ this week is, ‘I’m Grateful For‘.

I took the above photograph today. Both my school girls were home with coughs and colds, this first day of winter in New Zealand. The weather was far from wintery, so despite their colds they took some time in the sunshine. Often fresh air is the best medicine for a cold. I am so grateful that the air we breath is fresh, that the water we drink is clean and that medicine and vaccines are a given.

My three daughters freely painted and expressed themselves, whilst I popped in and out to supervise between cleaning and laundry. I am so grateful for their love, their health and their freedom of expression.

I turned my back for only a moment and found my youngest had climbed into the bucket of warm, soapy suds I’d left out for them to clean their paint splashed hands in…

I am enormously grateful for clean, readily available, warm water.

And I am so grateful to live in a country where my children have every opportunity to live healthy lives.

I wish the handprints of every child in the world had the opportunity to reach to adulthood.