thankfulness

A few weeks ago I met Aicha for the first time. I was in the women's restroom at church, washing my hands when Aicha came in and immediately went right to the sink to start washing her hands. I noticed she was struggling to turn the knobs, so I quickly went over to help her. That's when I noticed that she didn't have any fingers, her hands were just fists. As I was turning the hot water on, she quickly claimed it was "too hot" so I turned on the cold water and she said "too cold". Seeing her big, beautiful smile brightened my day and I wondered who she was because I had never seen her at our church before.

Last Sunday, Aicha was brought up to the front (along with a family that goes to our church) and we were all introduced to Aicha. She is a little girl from Africa who has come to the U.S. in hopes of having surgery that will give her fingers. You see, in the village where Aicha is from, you cannot go to school if you can't hold a pencil with one hand. Can you imagine flying halfway across the world all alone to a place you've only heard and dreamed about but have never seen. Then you come live with a family that looks different from you and doesn't speak your language, in fact, no one here speaks your language...all at the age of seven? How brave! A family from our church took her in, gave her a home, took her to doctor's appointments, and loved her so she might be able to have the opportunity to go to school.

This time of year always causes me to reflect on my life and all the wonderful things I have to be thankful for. During this uncertain economic time for all of us, there is still much to be thankful for and I thought I'd share with all of you some of the things I'm thankful for this year...

• Anthony--my best friend and life partner; thankful that we are closer than we've ever been and that I get to share each day of my life with him
  
• Family--my constant reminder of unconditional love and my sounding board
  
• Friends--the old ones that I can laugh with about past experiences and know me better than most & the new ones who are a breath of fresh air and that I still have so much to learn about
• a church family that joins together in prayer when people need it most
• a job where I get to open the eyes of students to a world they might have ever known about otherwise
  
• that Maggie Cole (baby of our friends Matt & Brooke) is finally home with her family after a long road. She was born 2 1/2 weeks ago with spina-bifada, had a shunt put in earlier this week, BUT is doing wonderfully well and is definitely an answered prayer.
  
• And finally, I am thankful that yesterday Aicha had surgery on her right hand and now has 3 fingers. Soon she will have another surgery on her left hand and will have fingers made for that hand too. Now, she can go back home and start going to school because she'll be able to hold a pencil by herself. What a wonderful gift to Aicha! Her world has been forever changed, and my world has been changed just from the few seconds I interacted with her a few weeks ago.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving and remember to be thankful for not just the big things but the small things as well this season!