Something to be thankful for....

I had trouble thinking of something to write for Thanksgiving. Of course I am thankful for my family, my church, the many material blessings God has given us. I am thankful that my kids are home for the holiday and that they made it here safely. I am thankful my parents are with us for a little while longer.... but I did think of something I am thankful for this year, in particular.

I have great neighbors.

We had three hurricanes impact us this year. Most of us had minor roof damage, fence damage (my dogs can still get out if I leave them unsupervised!), and lots of branches and perhaps trees to clean up. Others had more serious damage right up to having to completely redo the insides of their homes because of water damage. For some of these folks Hurricane Charley damaged the roof enough so that Frances and Jeanne could finish things off with lots of water. I know people who are still in temporary housing. But for most of us, the greatest inconvenience was doing without power for days at a time.

What I like about my neighbors is that they take care of each other. Our next door neighbors managed to snag a generator. They ran an electric cord for us so that we could have fans, TV (we had cable during all three outages, for some reason) and internet. It made things so much more bearable. And when we got power back on our side of the street, they loaned their generator and window air conditioner to an across the street neighbor who still did not have power. In fact, there was a section of our neighborhood that did not get power back until two days after the rest of us did because of a tree that had taken a power line down in their grid. Many of us had neighbors across the street who did not have power while we did. What warmed my heart every time I went out and everytime I returned home was seeing the power cords stretching across the streets all around our part of the neighborhood. My neighbors were taking care of each other. We are a community.

I love my neighbors. They are a reason to give thanks today.

---Katie