Gratefulness

I would like to express some things I am grateful for.

-Jesus Christ, and His courageous act of love

-God's Word in our own language and freedom to read it at our leisure

-My parents, Mom and Dad. I always knew Mom and Dad were observant,
but recently I've become so much more grateful for it!!!!! You don't know how
grateful I am that our parents didn't just take one child's word over the other,
but tried to get to the bottom of the true situation. Also our parents did not
compete Annah and me against each other when we were younger. They
taught us to love each other. They wanted us to be friends. Not just with
us, but other children too! Oh, I could go on and on. Yes, sometimes our
parents made mistakes and didn't always get it right, but you have NO IDEA
how much heartache, anger, and much more Annah and I have been spared
through their keen eyes! I wouldn't trade that for anything!

-Dad. He works super hard, it's in his blood. He faithfully goes to work everyday
and comes home to us every night. He talks with us, prays with us, and does things
with us.

-Mom. She is diligent and steadfast. I've spent many hours late at night sharing my
heart with her. She feeds us and takes us places, even for our projects when she'd
rather stay home sometimes.

-Annah. She's my sister and my friend. Yes, sometimes we have our quarrels about things
and OUR own idea of how something should look in the living room or such, but we enjoy
sharing our hearts with each other. We feel pretty much the same on certain convictions and
other things. Lord willing, someday , no we are not having a double wedding, because we each
have our own preferences and tastes on how we would like things.

Annah likes to organize, and is very good at it. She reorganized our kitchen and actually
helped Aunt Jean at her house too.

Annah gleans from God's Word and finds it a daily strength and help for her throughout
her day.

-My dog, Chloe. I love our sweet, funny, amusing, soooooooo adorably cute, lively,
loyal dog. She's the best dog we've ever had and I'm grateful for God bringing her to us.
Though I love rough collies, the Lassie dog, I wouldn't trade Chloe for all the rough
collies in the world! She brings so much spark to our lives. I cannot imagine what
life would be like without dogs! Thank You, God for Your great idea when You
decided to make dogs! They're great companions. For those of you who have had
bad, frightful experiences with dogs, I'm terribly sorry. For those of you who just
don't like them, well, that's too bad!

-My home. Our home is a good size. I'm comfortable. I'm grateful for all of our
appliances (though our washer is down right now) and all our possessions.
I like my purple bedroom. I'm thankful for our vehicles.

-Freedom. Freedom is important to me. We have many precious liberties in this
country that I am not ashamed of. Let's not abuse those liberties, let's take advantage
of them to use them to be good stewards of them to use for God's glory and help
others, give them something good to look at in this suffering, dark world.

-Health. I'm thankful for eyes to look and see with, ears to hear and listen with,
a voice to speak and sing with, nose to smell and detect with, a mouth to eat
and taste with, hands and arms to move and make things with, legs and feet to
run and walk with, organs to work together and functuate together, and a mind
to think and remember things with. I'm thankful I can live each day without
chronic pain. Even though I have drop foot from an accident that occurred 4 years
ago yesterday, and though sometimes I wonder if it'll ever get better, I'm just
thankful that I can walk and run again, as there was a time when I couldn't for about
3 weeks!

-God's creation. Beauty, delicate flowers, majestic mountains, pure snow, vibrant colors,
and much more.

-Friends. I'm thankful for good, kind friends we have.

-Family. I'm thankful for extended family.

-Prayer. I'm thankful that we can speak to God and brings our requests to Him. BTW,
thanks to all of you who lifted us up in prayer and encouraged us earlier this year when
Dad was having his heart procedures and we almost lost him both times! Thank you
for your support.

-Decent, abundant food to eat and decent, abundant clothes to wear.

-Cameras. Oh, they help capture wonderful memories!!!

There's many other things I'm grateful for, but I just can't name them all right now.