HAPPY THANKSGIVING/HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

One year ago today Bruce and I were leaving the Missionary Training Center headed to Ukraine. IT WAS THANKSGIVING AND IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

I am blessed to be one of those people who gets to celebrate her birthday on a holiday. My birthday falls on Thanksgiving every few years and last year was one of those years. I have always loved it because I get to spend my birthday surrounded by family.

Last year was a little different.

We spent the day traveling to Ukraine

We were beginning a wonderful adventure to live in another country for 18 months.

It was an interesting Thanksgiving........

an interesting 50th birthday that I will never forget!

When we arrived in Donetsk and were taken to the mission home I felt like I was in a daze.

We tried to stay awake long enough to visit with the Mission President, President Andersen and his lovely wife. She even offered us a turkey dinner but I had no room left after the lovely turkey dinner they served on the airplane.

So we did the thing I love best. Slept. We crawled under the thick, warm blankets in the Andersens guest room and fell into a deep sleep ......................

that lasted until about 3 am and then I was wide awake, in a strange bedroom, in a strange house, in a strange land...............................

and that is how we spent Thanksgiving and my birthday in 2007

this year will be different....

we are no longer sleeping in strange beds, in a strange house, in a strange land.

Tomorrow we are going to celebrate my birthday with my Ukrainian friends.

Marina, Nastia, Anya, Olga and Tanya (my Ukrainian girlfriends, actually more like Young Women friends)

and my mission friends,

(the Clark's and the missionaries in our District) are all coming over for brunch.

I decided that I wanted to spend my Birthday with the people who have made Donetsk our home this past year. The people I have come to love.

SO I AM THROWING MYSELF A PARTY!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to me!!!!!!!