Thankful Reflections

Looking back over this past year I was honestly shocked at all that has gone on this year. This has been the craziest year of my life. I've had the most horrible hurts and pains, physically, mentally, and spiritually. But yet, at the same time I've been blessed beyond my wildest dreams.

As Thanksgiving draws closer, I have really begun to look at my blessings, if I were to "Count them one by one" I'd be writing all day long. So, I'm going to try to focus on big things, and hopefully I won't overwhelm you, although I'm slightly overwhelmed myself!

One huge blessing was my family coming to visit me in NY for Thanksgiving last year. That was a HUGE and amazing blessing, and an amazing surprise. Only God knows just how much I needed my family at that time.

By Christmas break, I was REALLY, REALLY sick, which resulted in a not so fun Christmas break. However I learned so much through that sickness. God taught me some VERY important lessons. As funny as it might sound, I am thankful for the pain and hurt, because through it all, God drew me closer to Him.

To add to that blessing, I'm so thankful that the doctors were able to figure out what was wrong with me, just in time, and I was able to have surgery before my break was over, so I didn't have to miss any school.

My second semester of school brought some very important friends into my life. The McMahons, and Phillips' became like my second family and without them I don't think that I could have survived through my last semester in New York.

Oh, a crazy blessing about New York, and a thing I'm very thankful for, COFFEE! Before college I thought coffee was of the devil, NOW HOWEVER…mmm….it's great stuff! :) I love Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks is pretty good as well.

Coming back from NY I was once again sick, actually, I had been sick since Spring break. I was trying to see a blessing in that, and it was kinda hard. So I thought, and thought, and the blessing I could find was that through all the doctor visits, I got a good dose of Dunkin Donuts, cuz there is a DD about 3 miles from the doctors office! I know…that was crazy!

In June my family went to Antigo, WI for my best friends mom's memorial service. It was really hard and sad, but at the same time it was wonderful to see how Mrs. Pieri's quiet, loving personality was able to bless so many people. It was also nice to see Bro. Pieri, and Faith, and Joseph and spend quite a bit of time with them.

On June 16 my parents celebrated their 20th anniversary! I have to say that I'm VERY thankful for that because without them getting married, well, needless to say I wouldn't be here right now. I was able to throw a surprise party for my parents! Well, dad knew about it (that's because I clued him in on the whole thing), but somehow I managed to pull it off on mom, which was my main goal! It was AWESOME! :)

Also, not intentionally, on June 16 God brought the biggest blessing into my life. Many of you already know this, but I'll put it in here anyways. I sent an email to a Navy sailor who is stationed in Japan, who a friend of mine had been telling me about for quite awhile…actually, bugging me about! ;) Finally because I was tired of her bugging me, I gave in and sent Jason Hunsicker an email…hoping that I would never hear anything back, and also hoping that it would get Amanda off my back. Welllll….neither one of those things happened. Jason did send me an email back and I responded and the rest is history. Now after thousands of emails back and forth, and countless hours spent on the phone we have developed a relationship that goes beyond my wildest imaginations. Wow! I could go on and on…but lest I bore you with the wonderful details of my life, I will move on! :)

Other blessings this summer included seeing my friend LeAnne, whom I hadn't seen since 8th grade, the Pieri's coming to IN for a weekend, Samuel getting to go to flight camp, and then going on a missions trip to Canada.

Then in August I began college at Shawnee Baptist College in New Albany, IN. This is my first year here, but I'm still a Sophomore, which reminds me of another blessing…all my credits from International transferred without any problems. So far this semester has been jammed packed with school and work and trying to cram a few extra things in every once in a while.

The Saturday before Labor Day my former roommate got married in TN and I was able to go to her wedding and also was able to see some friends that I hadn't seen in a long time.

In September my Grandma Drazich visited my family for a few weeks, and one weekend they came down here to visit. It was nice to see my family, and I hadn't seen my grandma since my high school graduation!

October brought some bitter sweet news, Jason isn't going to be able to take me to the Christmas banquet in December, but he is still coming home, just a week later than originally planned. It did work out though that we will end up getting to spend more time together than if he had been able to come home the week earlier.

November also brought a WONDERFUL blessing, my brother got saved! That was the best news that I had heard in a long time!

I guess to sum it all up, this year has been the most amazing year of my life, and I'm sooo thankful to God for all that He has done for me!