Thursday, November 25, 2010, Nashville, Tennessee, 3:54 a.m., C.S.T.~

Happy Thanksgiving to each and every one of you!  

Yes, it's that time again: that time where it is perfectly okay to stuff yourself and not feel guilty afterwards!  It's also the time for parades, football, family togetherness, fun, laughter, and the blessings of God and giving thanks for all that He has given to us, His children.

I am not cooking this year: for the past several years we have gone out as a family to eat.  Let somebody else do the cooking.  We will be dinin' at our favorite waterin' hole, Golden Corral, later this morning, after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has ended.  Then we can stuff ourselves silly and enjoy each other's company.

I know I am certainly thankful for what God's given to me.  If it were not for His blessings, His provision, His grace, His mercy upon me and the lives of my family, I wouldn't even be here.  He's given me sixty three beautiful children who range in age from three on up to twenty seven and has also given me nine rambunctious grandchildren.  It's like seeing my own kids as babies or young children again, and the memories always come flooding back!

I am thankful for a loving and supportive husband who has stood by my side through thick and thin.  Even when I have been anything less than kind, Bill (bless his big, fat heart!), he has encouraged me and has proven to me that he will stick by me for the long haul.  I guess we are stuck with each other!  LOL  He is my rock, my soul, my everything!

I am thankful for each and every one of my children.  Hard to believe that some have already flown the nest to start their own lives or are working, trying to make their way in a cold, mean world not geared for their disabilities.  Yet they refuse to give in, and they are proving to us, their parents, that, with God's help, they will make it through whatever life throws their way.

Seems like only yesterday when they were babies or at least little!  Now look at them: they are quickly becoming young adults, teenagers, or pre-teens (or, in the case of our youngest, Ian and Isaiah, preschoolers)!  Yes, my kids run the gamut in age:  adventurous toddlers.  Kids navigating the world called school and learning all they can about our world and our community.  Rebellious teenagers with attitude (and a mouth) to spare.  Tentative college students trying to map their way in life, trying to decide what type of career to pursue.  Family men (or women) carrying on the cycle of life all over again, giving us grandchildren to spoil.

I am thankful for my job as a nurse.  While the hours are long with little in the way of pay, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.  I have met so many people their faces and names tend to meld together.  It's no wonder I have to write their names down; otherwise I would forget!  I've been blessed to still keep in touch with some of the patients I took care of when they passed through the doors of the hospital where I work; we've since become good friends.

I am thankful for my family at Christ Community Assembly of God Church.  They have proven to be mighty saints of God, men and women who have cried out to God whenever our family has faced heartache or strife; if it were not for their prayers, I don't know how we possibly could have emerged from the fire without any damage!  I owe my church family my life; they mean everything to me and my own family!

I am thankful to be living in one of America's most vibrant cities, Nashville, Tennessee.  Even though I am not a native Tennessean, I have come to love everything about "Music City USA" and appreciate the music culture that is the very heartbeat of our fair city.  I am also thankful for my home back in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, where I was born, and lived until I was seventeen years old, when I birthed my first child.

I am thankful for God getting us through the worst flooding in over 35 years.  While we did have some flooding (a few inches of water in our home), compared to what others went through, the damage we had was nothing.  We were in Louisiana, at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival.  Maybe it was God's way of telling us that it was meant for us to be there; otherwise, we would have been caught up in that mess.

I am thankful that Nashville is on her way back and that the Grand Ole Opry, eighty five years young, is still makin' music.  I don't know what Nashville might have done if the Opry was unable to return: that would be one of the worst things that could ever happen to our city:  the Opry is the centerpiece of the country music industry here.  It's the heartbeat, the very reason why there is a Nashville, Tennessee, in the first place!

Well, I am going to try to get some extra sleep because when the troops start rising for the day, I might was well hang it all up.  Then I'm up for the long haul!  LOL  Until later, this is Louisiana Sandusky saying may God bless you this Thanksgiving Day and remember to give thanks for all you have: so many people don't have what we do here in the greatest nation of the world, the United States of America!  Happy Thanksgiving and don't eat too much in the way of turkey and all the trimmings!

~Love, your friend in Tennessee, Louisiana M. Sandusky.  :)