So Much To Be Thankful For

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. Since Thanksgiving is a time of year to share the things that you are thankful for, I want to take a moment to do that now. I am especially thankful for each of you, my family and friends. Your love and support of me over the years, as well as your wisdom and advice has helped to shape me into the person I am today. I am thankful for the example that each of you has shown me in how to love and care for others and how to use what I have been given to make a difference in people's lives locally, regionally, and globally. I feel like "thank you" can never fully express my gratitude and appreciation, but I just wanted you all to know that I truly am thankful for each of you and for your selfless sacrifices that have impacted my life.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I had a wonderful day spent with friends here. Our friends that have been in China for 7 years were able to order an American turkey for us to have for that day, which truly was a treat since you cannot get turkey here. We ate all day, played games, and just enjoyed the fellowship of one another. One of my Chinese teachers (she teaches my classes on Wednesday and Thursday) also joined us for most of the day. Obviously Thanksgiving is an American tradition; however, the Chinese that are like-minded usually set aside a day (usually on the weekend) around Thanksgiving to gives thanks to Someone. It was fun to have her spend the day with us and it really reminded me of all the things that I am truly thankful, but that I sometimes take for granted...things that others risk their lives for.

I am also thankful that I will be home for Christmas this year. Since I was in Colombia last year during Christmas I really wanted to be with family this year if that was possible. My friends here strongly encouraged it as long as I was not gone for more than 3 weeks. My parents and I started looking for plane tickets back in August / September and found a really good deal on one. So, my Christmas present from my parents is a plane ticket for me to come home for a few weeks at Christmas. I am so excited. I will be in Georgia the whole time, so unfortunately for my Florida friends, I will not be making it down that way during this trip. With the short amount of time that I will actually be in the States it seemed more logical to stay in one place instead of spending most of my time traveling. I would love to chat with any of my Florida friends while I am in the States, so if you do not have my phone number please email me and I will send it to you. I will be missing classes during the time I am in the States, but our school is really unique in that they realize foreigners will miss classes around the holidays, so they have built in times that I can make up the work.

I know I fell a few days behind with my post due to the holiday, but I will be back to once a week posts starting this week. Again, I am thankful for each of you and the different roles you play in my life.