Giving Thanks

"I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich."

- Dan Wilcox & Thad Mumford, M*A*S*H

Family can means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  Sometimes we're born into them and other times we make them for ourselves.  Last year I spent Thanksgiving on the other side of the world, far removed from everything I had ever known and from everyone I ever cared about.  Although that Thanksgiving was important and unforgettable in its own right, it only made this Thanksgiving all the more special.  It really made me think about how far I've come in the last year and the importance of all the amazing and wonderful people in my life.

It has been a long year of adventure and change.  These four families of mine, which I thank my lucky stars for, are what made it all worthwhile.  This is what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving.





The family I was born into, the one I inherited when I arrived wide-eyed and excited in this world, is by far more than I could ever wish for.  Although we are populated with slightly off-kilter characters, we are supremely real and always full of love.  They are the people you want to have in your corner, the ones who would do anything for one another.  They are everything, and I don't know where I would be without them.  We are the island for misfit toys, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Its been said that friends are the family you choose for yourself, and I hope that everyone is as blessed as I am to have ones like mine.  We love each other even when we hate each other, and we have far more stories of our misadventures than I can even begin to keep track of.  Although none of us know what is ahead for us after graduation doomsday rolls around, I know that they will always hold a place in my life and in my heart.

My third family is the one I spent last Thanksgiving with.  Luke said it best in his Thanksgiving toast: our experiences are defined by the people we share them with.  We crash-landed on the other side of the world and found ourselves part of a new kind of family.  When the world was hard and difficult to understand, we found comfort in each others embrace and connection in each others knowing glances.  We shared an immeasureable amount of Tusker, chapati, hilarity, and hard times.  Together we braved an indefinable experience and came out not only alive but a bit better for it on the other side.  It may be long before I see many of them again, but they will forever be a part of me.  They are my spirit animals.

If you are ever blessed enough to have a family welcome you with open arms and loving hearts and call you one of their own, you will know what it means to be loved.  In both Uganda and Rwanda, my two families called me their firstborn, their sister, their auntie, and their friend.  They told me their stories, taught me their ways, and listened intently as I shared my own.  My Mama Rose in Gulu laughed as Bridget plaited my hair and told me she would start saving that very day so she could fly herself and my sisters to my wedding someday.  If that doesn't make me her daughter, I don't know what does.  My own mom told me that Mama Rose's spot was already reserved at the family table for that day.  I think its safe to say that yes, they can be counted amongst my family.

If you subtract anyone from this equation, I would not be the person I am today.

This Thanksgiving, and every Thanksgiving before and after this, I am thankful for the people who help make me who I am.  Who laugh, learn, and grow with me day in and day out.

I love you all more than you will ever know.

"The family.  We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."

- Erma Bombeck