In the developing world...

For Thanksgiving day, I wrote a letter to my whole extended family... to be read out loud after the meal. At first I started the letter as a way to be present to my family from so far away on a special holiday, but it became a beautiful gift to reflect on things while living in the developing world. I felt compelled to share it here on the blog, as well:

Hello Family!

Happy Thanksgiving! This morning, my site partner, Andrea, and I are heading over to the convent to cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal for the nuns we work with. We will be cooking all morning, along with 2 other volunteers. We purchased a turkey in a big city an hour from here, so we are excited about that. We are also going to be making sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, and 2 apple pies! Also, the nun in charge of the whole order (flew in from Poland) will be here, so we have a lot of people to impress! I am just so excited to be eating food similar to you guys today, as I will be thinking about you all day! When discussing beverages that we could serve, I asked for sparkling apple cider! (totally out of the question here). :)

I really want to find some time today to reflect on everything that I am thankful for in this past year... there is so many blessings to count, and also blessings that I am not mindful of or aware of to count. First of all, I am thankful for my family, immediate and extended! What a huge blessing, one of God's great gifts to me that He gave me a family who loves each other, takes care of each other, family who I know will always be there for me (even if it does mean that they support me going to a developing country for a year). Working at an orphanage has only enhanced my appreciation for my family and my parents. These things are not givens here. And so many don't have parents, or their parents abuse them, or abandon them. It is painful to see what a child's soul looks like who does not know true unconditional love.

Also, living in Bolivia has given me a new found appreciation and thanksgiving of conveniences that make living easier - things that are so easy to look over in the everyday. For instance, I am thankful for running water, for sewer systems, for a hot shower, and a shower with decent water pressure. For sinks with ribbed sides to wash your clothes (instead of soley using the heel of your hands)... let alone a washer and dryer. Potable water. Dentists and flouride. I am thankful to be an American, and to be as blessed as we are in our country. Also, despite America's continuing fight to rise above racism, I am thankful for our acceptance of others of different skin color, and our tolerance and embracing of differences in people, our respect for the gift of creativity and the liberation that this can grant us to be individuals.... and I need to say that I am so thankful for real coffee, for chocolate, for great tasting food, and growing up with enough money to eat a balanced diet. Here in Bolivia, one of the ways that God is asking me to be in solidarity with His poor is by sharing in their all-white diet, and gaining weight from eating only bread, rice, milk, pasta. I never fully appreciated having the money to buy vegetables, fruit, and whatever meat whenever I wanted.

I am thankful for finally graduating from architecture school! And for God asking me to go on this mission. It is very challenging every day, and there are definitely days when I ask Him what He wants me to be doing here?, why me?, why here? But I am still so thankful for His continual love, for Him calling me to try and lead out my Christian life, for Him asking me to love His children who others refuse to love. I know that through this mission, God is calling me closer to His heart, and I feel so lucky and blessed that He knows me (better than I know myself), and loves me (and boy, does He love me, more than I can comprehend, just as He loves each and every one of you). It is a gift to be living in these circumstances in Bolivia, as each day, each moment I need to rely solely on Him for all; and even if I don't think it in a moment, I am learning more and more that His love is sufficient, because it is unending. And I just need to trust that He knows what I need, and if I don't receive it, I know I don't need it, I only need Him.

I am sending a huge, huge American bear hug to each of you. Happy Thanksgiving! Feast extra on my behalf! I love you all, and miss you, and am thinking of you. May you rest in His arms always, knowing that His yoke is light, and may you draw any love or patience that you don't feel you can give from His Sacred Heart, which can supplement our mere human efforts; it has the power and Love to buoy us up on stormy waters with strength to persevere!

I love you,

Melia