My List

As we have just passed the official day of Thanksgiving, and I am chomping on my fourth plate of leftovers, I thought I would make a short list of things for which I'm thankful.  These are in no particular order of weightiness or importance.

1. I'm thankful I could video-Skype with my 90-something year-old grandmother on Thanksgiving who said, "Kate, honey, you're clear on the other side of the world!  I don't believe it!"  That being told, I'm thankful for Skype for allowing us to talk with family and friends at all!

2.  I'm thankful I didn't step on this in the dark, with my bare feet like I almost did last week.  Ugh squared.

3. I'm thankful for my hubby and for his good preaching, even when the sound system goes kaput in the middle of his sermon.

4. I'm thankful we don't have these running around our village.  Tarantulas are enough.

5. I'm thankful for the kids here.  Mary slipped me a scrap of paper last week that read: "Dear Miss Brueck I love you very much I hope you have a good time thank you"  We're still working on punctuation, but she's got the sweetness covered.  And even those days when I have to discipline and be tough, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.  I love these kids.

6. I'm thankful for the butcher shop run by Indians who capitalized on the Americans here and sold fresh turkeys for Thanksgiving, even though we ordered a 14 lb. turkey and cooked a 19 lb one.  Have I mentioned leftovers?

7.  I'm thankful that Richard recognized a girl I graduated from Furman with at lunch today and had the gumption to talk with her and her husband.  New friends!  That leads me to be thankful that this really isn't such an impossibly large world after all.

8. I'm thankful that Christmas isn't about snow.  If so, we'd be sunk.  I'm typing this wearing capris and watching the banana trees sway in the wind. 

9. I'm most thankful that Christmas is about God becoming man so that He could redeem and restore us to Him. I'm thankful that God loves us more than we can imagine, so much so, that He gives salvation for free, even to someone like me.

10.  I'm also most thankful that God has called us here, to Kenya, at this time, to work in this place, with these kids and fellow workers (for whom I'm very thankful!), and for all of you who have made that possible through your prayers and love and other support.  It makes me cry in a happy way.