Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is usually a time to stuff your face with family and friends… but while being here in Ukraine, it became so much more! I now realize that it isn’t the feast that makes the day wonderful! It is all the family gathered around with smiles and wonderful stories to share. It is the kids running around, too hyper to sit because they see the desert and can’t wait to throw their faces in it! I also realized that I don’t want it unless I am with my family… though I love the people here in Ukraine, I could not participate in their Thanksgiving party for it wasn’t with my family and I finally realized that they were trying to have the American experience in Ukraine…

This is Ukraine and none of them have ever heard of Thanksgiving. I chose this day to spend on myself. I decided to complete some homework and to start reading my scriptures again. It was time I started thinking of myself and not others! This was definitely the day to do it! Nobody was home for most of the day so I was able to sit on my bed and accomplish a lot of things I would otherwise left undone. I am so thankful for this time to be able to write! Though it will not be published on Thanksgiving I want to tell everybody all that I am thankful for!

I am thankful for my families (Ukrainian and American), I am grateful for the love of my friends and their support which has given me the ability to know what I am capable of and to know that I am worth something! I am so glad that I was able to come here to this country and be able to experience a whole new way of life! I am so thankful for that!! I am especially grateful for my mommy in America… She has seen me through a lot of pain, troubles, problems and happy times, also. She is the one I know I can turn to for help! I know this because my Heavenly Father gave her to me for that reason! I am thankful for my wonderful computer that allows me to talk to my family and friends half way around the world and still be able to be connected in their lives! Hey! I am being honest here, so I also want to thank those “cosmic forces” in my life that caused my Ipod to die a terrible death because it showed me that I need to be more responsible…. I only hope that I can be lucky and get another one someday soon! :D

I just want to share my testimony at the closing of this blog… I know that my Heavenly Father loves me for he has given me so much to be grateful for! I can finally see the blessings through all the pain and sorrows. I want to thank him for that perspective on life and for the ability to have so many people who cared and could help me through those points in time! I love Him so much and I love living the life He gave me so much! I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.