I'm thankful...

* for family, first and foremost. For my husband and partner and best friend, who has helped me build a family and life and all that a girl hopes for since childhood. For choosing me to be the mother of his kids. For his patience and gentle spirit and kind soul. And of course for my kids, my two favorite people in the whole wide world who have shown me new depths and greater heights to every emotion under the sun.

* for our families. Mine and John's. And all the love and warmth and support that we still feel from them even those at times like this they feel a million miles away. We miss and love you all.

* for my heritage. For everyone who is before me that had a faith in Christ strong enough to pass it down to their children and teach them about Him, so that the Message would one day reach me, and my family, and theirs....

* for Jesus. For the peace and joy and salvation that I have experienced in having a personal relationship with Him. For a friendship that has been constant since day one, that remains just as strong no matter what else is happening in this world.

* for the priviledge to live in a country, and be from a country, where I am free to worship who and how and when I choose. I hear stories of people sneaking pages of a Bible into countries and delivering them to desperate hands who just want to read one page of what they already know is true. I am thankful that I do not have to hide in a attic to pray, or meet in underground places to have fellowship with people who believe like I do.

* for the wonderful friends I have made in this lifetime. For memories I have with so many of you reading this, and for all the fun and good times ahead. For the seasons and ups and downs in life that have revealed to me what true friendship really is, and who mine are.

* for fun things and all my favorites. That I am able to indulge every now and then in things I love. That I live an overflowing life, in so, so many ways. But more importantly that all the "things" I have or blessings in life, I am so thankful that I have been raised not to take anything for granted, that I recognize what to be thankful for, and I take the time to do that (or try to) every single day.

For me, Thanksgiving is a lot more about WHO I should be thanking than about WHAT I am thankful for. And because I know that "Every good and perfect gift is from above" I will remember today where and who it comes from. God, thank you for a life abundant. For my life and all the good in it. For all the gifts I have been given, those I know and see and those that have not yet been revealed to me. For the comfort in knowing that they are all from you. You truly are the reason for every, single season. Amen.