Refrigerators and Other Blessings

Theres a new saying in my life, "We have a refrigerator."Andrew will look up from whatever he's reading, smile and nod and repeat, "We have a refrigerator" and go back to reading. He knows that I have just stopped myself from having a private pity party and am currently feeling extremely blessed by all that we have.
A few months ago in the midst of our last finals week of our first year of med school we were headed to our favorite coffee shop in Phinney Ridge with the barista that makes the drinks perfect every time and always plays music appropriate for studying. We were listening to Radio Lab on the way there and they were recanting the story of an escape artist who would habitually steal things, go to jail, escape and hide out for awhile until he was either found or stole something else.
He started stealing as a child when he was so poor and neglected that he and his brothers and sisters would eat paper to fill they're bellies enough for the hunger pains to go away so that they could sleep. He would sit on a hill with his brother and dream about stealing a car and driving them away from all of it to a better life. So one day he did, steal a car that is. This was the start of his lifelong habit of stealing moving vehicles. He started naming off every type of automotive he's stolen in his life time, everything from tractors to semi trucks and even once the tour bus of country singer Crystal Gayle. In between thefts he would return home to his wife and daughter. At one point in the story they interviewed his wife about life with him and why she stayed with him. She described a time in their marriage where he held down a job and promised not to steal anymore, "Things were good for awhile" she said, "We had a trailer that didn't have wheels and a refrigerator."
Here I was lamenting the fact that I had to spend yet another day studying and drinking coffee in a warm dry place across the table from the guy I love who on occasion reaches across the table to hold my hand and somewhere a woman is reminiscing on the time in her life when she had a refrigerator. Now I try to remind my self that I have a life others only dream of. I get to go to med school, I get to clean my house, I get to make dinner and clean my dishes. We have a refrigerator and life is wonderful.