Giving Thanks

There are so many things to be thankful for!  Sunshine. A comfortable bed. New friends. Old friends. Letters from home. A heater for a cold day. Internet. Pets. Food. Smiles. Seeing and talking to family. These are just a few of the things I am thankful for today on this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.

Last night I got the opportunity to Skype with my whole family, except the Court’s.  Thank you Nikki for the idea!  I had to figure out timing of when they where getting together their time and then after that I needed to make sure I was going to have internet. My host family turns the internet off at night and the time that was going to work the best was about 11pm my time.  So they kindly left the internet on just so I could talk with my family and be a part of their Thanksgiving weekend.  I don’t know if they really understand how much they blessed me by allowing me to do that.

I am a family person and when I am home I usually spend most or all of my time with family.  I was trying to remember if this was one of the first times I have missed a family Thanksgiving meal. There might have been one year during my Bethany time that I went else where, but I can’t remember.

Other than the connection not being great, it was so nice to talk to them all, or make funny faces at them. I got the chance to say hi to all of them and then chat with a few of them.  At one point I was just talking with Mikaela, she was sitting on the stairs and had Katie and Jakob with her.  She had asked me if I was sad I was not there.  And I said, “Yeah it’s hard sometimes but I know, that if I was there I would probably just be sitting there listening to all the conversation anyway.”  And she said, “Yeah, you and I would probably just be sitting on the stairs talking like this anyway too!”  And she was right, we probably would have been. 

I miss them all a lot. But I am also thankful for this experience. I knew coming here would be hard but I know it’s also a good thing.  But I have to take it one day at a time.  When I sit and think about missing them it’s harder, but when I am distracted and have things to do or people around I am usually fine.  There are going to be days when it is harder than others, but I know I have a family that is 100% behind me to support me.  I love you guys!

Until next time, take time to be thankful for the little things, like internet working! (Sorry this is so cliche, especially for this time of year, but here is just one more reminder just incase you did not get it from anyone else) :)