Even though we are in Guatemala, nothing could stop the squad from planning a full Thanksgiving meal equipped with every traditional meal possible. While it was different than my usual Thanksgiving, I felt completely at home the whole day. I was awoken by a squamate screaming “Happy Turkey Day!” through the walls and from there the festivities commenced. We spent the morning cooking together, decorating, and singing Christmas songs since we all finally agreed that it was Christmas season. We sat altogether on one big long table, adorned with our bed sheets as table cloths, and leftover wildflowers from a recent woman event. It was breathtaking. Throughout the day I made a little list of things I was grateful for. I realized if I made a list of everything I was grateful for, the list would never end and no one would read this blog because it would be too long. Instead I just made a list throughout the day of every little thing I noticed and was thankful for in that moment. Without further adieu this is everything I was thankful for November 22, 2018:
- My incredible team
- The weird way the south calls stuffing, “dressing” and how long it took me to figure out they weren’t referring to ranch
- Breakfast starting at 8 instead of 7
- My trust in the Lord that he will change the chocolate jello into the pudding we thought it was ( Spanish is hard to understand sometimes)
- Crazy amazing community
- Lots and lots of fellowship
- Tylynn’s hair braiding skills
- Christmas music (most importantly Feliz Navidad)
- Seeing the squad all dressed up and if we were lucky, with their hair brushed
- Recipes from home
- Great food (even if Guatemala lacks most the essential ingredients for Thanksgiving food)
- The intentionality of everyone to help out, give compliments, and make others feel loved
- Trying to explain the origin of Thanksgiving and realizing everyone has a different version they learned in school
- Having a gorgeous base to host thanksgiving and the ability to invite others to celebrate with us
- Flowers, place cards made out of hand-turkeys, and the whole decoration team
- The atmosphere of a stuffed kitchen and everyone being eager to help and learn
- The sun FINALLY coming out
- Realizing that once we were eating the sun was actually so hot we started sweating, but then realizing at home its snowing so God is good
- Seeing different parts of Jesus in each of my squad mates
- Using the $10/day data plan to FaceTime my family in the middle of the mountains
- Rotisserie chicken
- Laughter. So much laughter
- Sitting around a table with enough room to fit 53, and thinking about how at Gods table everyone can fit, and all are welcome
- Inviting people to our table and treating them as honorary guests filled with premium seats and of course letting them be at the front of the line
- Learning new things about friends
- Friends who get gross bugs out of your hair
- Gracie’s sweet potato casserole…wow… I would go to Alabama ONLY to eat that again. Truly Gods creation.
- Discussing the cinematic masterpiece: La La Land
- Naps
- Eating more cake 30 minutes after lunch and only slightly regretting it
- Making my debut at the weekly ultimate frisbee competition and getting over my fear of the frisbee
- The sunset being millennial pink, distracting us from the game which was probably the reason team Bri and the lightening sharks didn’t win (definitely not because I can’t catch a frisbee)
- Deep talks at night and newfound discoveries
- Sharing dreams with new friends
- The ability to open-up with people with no restrictions or fears holding you back
- Number 36. The last one, written at the very end of the night: the gift of another day. Tomorrow is filled with an endless number of more things to be thankful for. I find my joy in this reality moving from glory to glory. Each day growing more in appreciation and gratefulness of my life and the people I get to spend it with.
Happy Thanksgiving! Eat an extra slice of pumpkin pie in honor of me.
P.S I am so incredibly close to being fully funded. Deadlines are starting to come up and I would love to be fully funded by Christmas. You can donate to me in the link in my bio.
