Back in NC

I'm back in NC now. I drove home from Charleston, SC yesterday with my mother. We had a really great drive back and a great visit with family and friends in Charleston. As I was walking up the driveway from getting the mail I looked up at the sky to the stars. They were so clear last night. So bright too! I stood there in awe of what God has created. I'm so thankful I can see them here. I'm even more thankful that while I was in China, I couldn't see them. It helped me to be more appreciative of moments like last night when they're so bright and clear. There were moments when I was in China that I was "without" some things or things weren't the way that I had always known them to be, but God gave me perspective. He taught me through that. He taught me to be thankful for the little things in life because you never know when they're going to be gone. To look at each day as something new and exciting. Some things that I'm thankful/grateful for now that I may have missed before China:

1. the stars in the sky
2. a heated home (whenever and however much I want it)
3. provided toilet paper and napkins
4. soap in the bathrooms
5. people who understand what I'm saying and I can understand them
6. relatively clean air to breathe
7. grass to sit in and walk on
8. an abundance and trees and flowers all around me
9. ice
10. freezer space
11. carpet
12. right to privacy
13. shower curtains

And there are many others, but this may have to revisited. It's never a bad idea to write down what I'm thankful for.