Thursday, November 26, 2009

I Am So Thankful


--- for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

--- for my wonderful loving wife, Angel Linda, who makes every day special.

--- for my two beautiful and smart daughters, and their great husbands, who work so hard to do so well in order to live securely.

--- for my four precious grandchildren, so innocent and with so much potential, and so much fun to be with.

--- for my enthusiastic father, who provided a large New England ancestry to research, and passed on an undying love for the game of baseball.

--- for my loving mother, so patient, supportive and kind, who saved so much and whose ancestry provides such fascinating research challenges.

--- for my brothers, their wives and children, who are interested in the family history and remember more than I do about our growing up years.

--- for my grandparents and earlier ancestors, who worked hard, played by the rules, raised healthy families, and provided a firm foundation for their children.

--- for my aunts, uncles and cousins, who opened their homes and their hearts and shared their memories.

--- for the brave passengers on the Mayflower and other early ships who colonized New England, and instilled a republican form of government based on personal freedom and responsibility.

--- for the immigrants that populated our country, diversified our culture, worked hard to succeed, and are woven into the country's fabric.

--- for the courageous citizens who revolted to secure our freedoms, and created the institutions that are the foundations of the USA.

--- for the soldiers, sailors and pilots, of every historical time, who have defended our country and kept us safe and free.

--- for the entire Constitution and Bill of Rights - especially the freedoms of speech, religion and assembly. I am awestruck that the Founders wrote such a magnificent set of documents that have stood the test of time.

--- for educational opportunities, whereby every and any person in this country can be the best that they can be, but they have to really make an effort.

--- for the free market and free enterprise economic system that encourages and rewards work and innovation, and has allowed me and my family to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

--- for the marvels of science and engineering, that drive our health, transportation, communication and entertainment industries.

--- for the wonders of nature that beautify our world, inspire us and occasionally overwhelm us.

--- for my genealogy society colleagues, ProGen and TGSG groups, genea-bloggers and blog readers who challenge, educate, encourage and appreciate me.

--- for Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, FamilySearch.org and other genealogy companies that provide online databases to explore into the wee hours of the night.

--- for genealogy software that organizes our family structures and provide incredible reports and charts to share with our families

--- for repositories that collect, preserve and provide papers, photographs, books, manuscripts and artifacts to expand our research.

--- for genealogy conferences, magazines, books and newsletters that inform and educate us.

This year, I am really thankful for good health and the joys of being with our daughters and grandchildren.

What are you thankful for on this Thanksgiving holiday?

4 comments:

Greta Koehl said...

A wonderful list; there's not much I could add. I suppose I would add all the animals, both pets (cats in our case) and wild (such as the birds at our feeders) that make us laugh and smile.

Joan Miller said...

Beautifully said, Randy. Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends and geneabloggers!
-Joan in Canada

Aylarja said...

Thanks, Randy. A thorough list of much to appreciate. May we never take these things for granted.

Janet Hovorka said...

Beautiful Randy. Thanks. Hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday.