Thanks

I had been writing in my mind all day. I love days off with my children driving around town or hanging out at the house listening to music for that reason. If you love to write or create art, you probably know what I mean. Anything can trigger a phrase or monologue in my mind and I have to stop whatever I am doing and find a pen and somewhere to compose. Although now, thanks to technology and a fully charged Blackberry, I can use my thumbs to type in an idea into my notepad when I am in a crunch. 

Until now, I have avoided the 30 days of Facebook thankfulness, mostly out of rebellion. I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook (I will leave that for another time).  As I reflect on the last 23 days and re-read my blogs, I am thankful for adoption. If you are a faithful reader, you probably could have predicted I would say that. Maybe this is where I am at for the month because it is National Adoption Month. We began the month as a family celebrating orphans and adoption by praying and fasting corporately with others around the Earth who have a heart for those orphaned from HIV/AIDS, earthquakes, tsunamis, and parents who just knew they were not ready to be parents.

Yesterday my children and I saw thankfulness, hatred, impatience, love, duty, courtesy, and incompetence all acted out in preparation for today (Thanksgiving Day). One woman even went so far as to wildly gesture and give me a talking to from her car window as she drove the wrong way down a one-way lane in the parking lot at Hy-Vee. These acts cause me in each moment to reflect on thankfulness and the season upon us. I am thankful that I have been taken through the pain of endometriosis, without which I would not have been brought to foster care and adoption at the right time in my life. So on Thanksgiving I am thankful for the reminder of those who have no family. I am thankful for my adoption into God’s family, and for my opportunity to see adoption worked out in my family. I am thankful for the reminder of the students who have been in my life who have not had a family and have lived life in a group home or foster-care situation. I am thankful for the tears I shed for them. I am thankful for the hope that lives in my heart every day that the One who has saved me has the power to save them. He will give them the desires of their heart, too. And maybe it goes without saying, I am thankful for my family (those by blood and by love) who has made me the person I am today and continues to support me pursuing the desires of my heart. As a teenager would I have thought twice or even once about adoption? A life devoted to missions with orphans? Or working with children who have severe special needs? Nope.  I am a change in the making. Thank you! What are you thankful for? How has it transformed you?