A Thai Thanksgiving

I can vividly remember the first time I went "home for the holidays"- Thanksgiving 1999, my freshman year in college.  We sailed south on US-23 until it splits with M-14 and came around the curve by Barton Drive, you know the curve, right?  The one right before you cross the Huron River.  As we came around the curve, my favorite view of Ann Arbor came into sight: downtown lit up, with the Christmas tree made out of lights on the roof of the one building.  My heart was home for the holiday. 

Last year I had the privilege of going to real Thanksgiving with my family in Michigan, but for the three years prior I was in Argentina.  My first year I celebrated with a large group of friends from school and church at the beach.  It was wonderful, but it wasn't Thanksgiving, you know? I'm big on traditions when it comes to the holidays.  My family is pretty big on traditions, and I generally lead the charge.  No one messes with certain things, with watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade, with tree ornament placement, with roast beast and yorkshire pudding, with Log, or December Dim Sum.  My last two years in Argentina I didn't actually "celebrate" Thanksgiving, and I'm okay with that. When it's 80 degrees out, you don't miss the turkey.  When it's just another Thursday to the world/culture around you, you don't feel left out for not being with your family.  Sometimes, if I think about my family being together, I miss it, but since it doesn't actually feel like Thanksgiving here, it doesn't really bother me that much to be gone. 

That said, I'm going to give Thanksgiving Abroad another shot tomorrow (I am calling it Thai Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Abroad to appease my friend, who insists that I stop calling it Fake Thanksgiving).  I am confident that I will have a great time. I am confident that the food will be delicious.  I am less confident that it will be Thanksgiving. But that's okay. 

No proper Thanksgiving blog post would be complete without giving thanks at least a little, so here's my list.  I am thankful for...

• A God whose Love Will Find Me, even when my home is on the far side of the sea.
• A family who loves me enough to give me 'freedom to fly' and pursue God's calling in my life. 
• Friends- in the US, Argentina, Thailand, and scattered throughout the world who love me, support me, pray for me, and make me laugh.
• Music and the way it has inspired me and soothed me and ministered to me recently. 
• Little tiny Thai oranges that melt in your mouth. 
• A great job and a wonderful boss- I am quite confident that he is the best boss I will ever have in my life. And I am not the only one of his teachers who thinks that. 
• Life in a school and in a country where I can freely speak of the Good News of Jesus Christ, where I am allowed and even encouraged to let my primary passion bleed into every corner of my life.  
• Air Conditioning, even in Bangkok's "cool" season. 
• That there has never been a day in my life where I have known hunger or homelessness or poverty or the devastating affects of natural disaster.