3eid Isshukr

This post is a bit early, but I live in the middle of the world and so I'm ahead of half of it and behind the rest.

So Happy Thanksgiving!!...Or 3eid Issukr(holiday of thanks) as it's known here. You celebrate thanksgiving in the Middle East? No, but we Americans do and while yes, we have to go to work and school, we usually celebrate at night or on Friday-since no one works on Fridays.

The holidays are always hard away from family, mostly because I sit and watch all the facebook posts of people getting to be home. It makes me want to also be home. But since I went to college, I've rarely been able to be home for Thanksgiving, so I've gotten used to being away from family.

This year I get to celebrate 2 dinners. One with my team and the other with friends and I hosting all the teachers at our language center, which I'm stoked about. My teacher today asked me if there will be American food or Jordanian food and I said American. The traditional American Thanksgiving food-you know-green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, stuffing, turkey...oooooo I'm so excited! and she was too!

Lately I've been trying to focus on being more thankful for the things in my life, because it's when we are the most thankful that we are the most joyful and content and that is the key to surviving in this country. Here's a list of some things that I find myself thanking Him for:

• My family-their constant support and love-could not do what I do if it wasn't for my family.
• My dad- he just had a quadruple by-pass surgery-so thankful for his life! and his influence in my life.
• My friends- bottomline: I LOVE my friends. I have some pretty amazing friends all over the world, writing me notes from America and other timezones to read when I wake up in the morning, or friends here who drink coffee and bubble tea with me and understand my experiences here better than anyone can.
• Bubble tea.
• Coffee
• The chance to live in this country and learn it's language and culture.
• My Arabic teacher. I LOVE her, and I love that I get to sit and talk with her for 3 hours a day and learn about her culture and life.
• The things I get to do and experience-the places I get to travel, the people I get to interact with-I'm truly blessed.
• 5 dollar dry cleaning-dropped my coat off today and had to celebrate that.
• My name. I used to think it was a boring name. But it has opened countless doors no matter what country I am in-"Ahhh Sara! Egyptian name", "Arabic name" "Spanish name!" Whatever the country they know how to say it, they claim it, and they usually have a daughter or wife named the same, which makes me automatically family.
• Heat. Yes, I am always cold and in buildings of concrete-it's a guarantee
• My status. Being single without children is NOT easy in this country and to be honest it's HARD for me to be thankful for it most days, but I'm serving a specific purpose with specific people because of it and for that I have to TRUST and be THANKFUL.

I'm just full of JOY to be living this life that I've been asked to live. No, it's not always easy, but the rewards that come from it are worth it and for that I'm thankful.