so many reasons to be thankful

our tree

the collaboration of ideas. tres bel!

last week we celebrated American thanksgiving. one of the great things about living in a place where there are people from different countries is that we get to celebrate holidays, such as thanksgiving, more than once each year ;-) The morning started out rather crazy as we worked to get 23ish volunteers and team members to their respective occupations for the morning. once things settled down, the decorating began! the tree was set up and decorated with little lights and silver and red ornaments. paper chains were put together to hang around the dining area, garland was intertwined with lights and hung up the stair railing, and more garland and christmas balls were hung throughout the main floor. christmas music filled the house as we worked together to decorate. once the bulk of the decorations were in place, we started to get crafty and create more things with which to embellish the house. my personal favourite, mostly because i was doing it and it involved glitter, was painting pine cones and needles from Ft Jaques, and twigs from the yard, then sprinkling glitter all over them. i never knew i liked glitter so much! 

the stairs :-)

food was being prepared throughout the morning, and once i finished adding some bling to leaves and such, i did my best to pitch in. by 3:00 pm the meal was nearly ready, and food was laid out on the buffet table. 50 + people joined hands to pray before we filled plates and sat down to enjoy the thanksgiving meal. it was a very full and festive house! and the meal was excellent :-)

this time of year is a good time to be reminded of all the blessings we have. although we should always be thankful, i know that i, personally, can easily let myself get bogged down with concerns and worries. sometimes the most basic things like life itself escape my notice. life really is a beautiful thing. to be able to wake up each morning with a fresh day ahead with which to serve God is pretty amazing, as well as a big responsibility - one that i often don't take seriously enough. other times i have to remind myself just how amazing it is to be in the position i am. i'm in a beautiful country surrounded by vibrant people and wonderful friends. each day i have the opportunity to play, hug, and kiss babies. there is something very special about entering a room and having five (or more) little people run to you with big smiles, outstretched arms, and calling out 'na-na-neen!' (Emelyne). it's heartwarming, if not a little overwhelming, to sit on the floor and have a bunch of kids get as close to me as possible. it's amusing to watch their antics and the way the interact and 'talk' to each other. it's a pretty cool thing to be even a tiny part of what goes on in this large organization, and to play a small, albeit indirect, roll in the process of adoption. in the past year i have experienced more than i'd have imagined. when i first came to Haiti nearly four years ago, my life took an unexpected turn. ever since then it's been a bit of a crazy mountain road ride, never really knowing what lies around the next corner. it's not something i would trade for anything! 


so for now, i just want to be thankful for life, for the opportunity to be in this place, for the fact that Christmas is just around the corner, and that i'll be home to visit in three weeks. Yey!