July 4th

Being away from the U.S. on July 4th is hard, especially when in a place where you are really counting your blessings for being an American. I'm so overwhelmed with gratitude that there are endless opportunities to work in personally meaningful ways, that we have CHOICE to do something amazing with our lives. I'm grateful to vote and have a voice. I'm grateful that our roads, hospitals, drinking water, medical facilities, plumbing, food, and street lights are nice! I'm grateful for soft carpet! I'm grateful for police that try to keep communities safe. I'm grateful for those who run for office whose true motive is to preserve our countries freedoms and privileges. I'm awestruck by men and women who have and do and will fight for the freedoms we often take for granted.

I started a new tradition this year. For the weeks leading up to Independence Day, I'm going to read a book about those revolutionary years, or about the lives of our Founding Fathers. This year I read Founding Brothers, an excellent book about different issues the founding fathers faced after the Revolutionary War. It brought my attention to the political climate of the day (much like today), the strengths and weaknesses of founding leaders, ideas and approaches to the controversial issues of the time; the pre-party finger pointing and perspectives. It opened my eyes to how lucky we are that those founding fathers put into motion a huge experiment that they weren't sure would work out! It was perfect preparation for thoughtful gratitude for our nation's birthday.

We wanted the day to be a little celebratory and different, so we checked into the Marriott and spent the night, swimming and eating familiar food and enjoying ourselves immensely.

We stayed the whole next day too. It was great, and I'm glad we did it, but we're all glad to be at a guest house, which is much more a part of Ghana than inside the walls of a Marriott. And our bottle of fancy water cost half a month's minimum wage salary. That put things into perspective for all of us really quick! Again, so grateful to be an American.

God bless the U.S.A.!