I've Been Blessed

I'm sitting over at my sister's house this morning and it is a quiet morning. I got up at 6:00 this morning and put the turkey on to cook and crawled back in bed for awhile, then have been loafing. My sis and brother in-law are in bed still and Libby is playing Sudoku and I've been making the rounds on the Net seeing what's happening. I've been sitting here looking at the pictures on the wall and rehearsing the years in my mind. For those who don't know, my sister and her husband took me in and raised me when I was 11. That was over 38 years ago. As I have sat here and thought, I realize how blessed I have been over the years. No, we've never been rich, and in fact, there were times we were down right poor... but we were happy. All the money in the world cannot buy you love or true happiness. I was looking on my Myspace this morning and I have friends who have been there for me for 40 years. Money doesn't buy friends like that. I also saw new friends and family members that I dearly love, and I realized I am blessed. As I looked, I realized I had friends from Florida to Washington, from New York to California, from Texas to Canada and everywhere in between... and again I realize, I've been blessed.
On my Plaxo account today, I had messages from friends from Germany, Bulgaria, Poland several other countries that greeted me and spoke of their prayers for me, as I got on line. I was especially moved by a message from a minister in India as he spoke of the attacks that they witnessed yesterday, but spoke of God's great love and protection over them... and again, I realize just how blessed I am.

Today, I will sit and eat Thanksgiving dinner with my nieces (who are more like my baby sisters) and their husbands and children, and with several other family members and we will probably overeat and then eat some more later... and I just read a message from a dear brother in Russia that will feed a group of orphans today in a cold little building, or I recall another family working with children in Croatia and brother Dinko working with street kids in Bulgaria, and I have to stop and realize just how blessed I am. God, please never let me forget how blessed I am and how blessed I have been! Lord, you've been so good to me... and today, I just want to say "thank you, for all you've done for me!"