Haiti & my new thankfulness

I'm sure I'm not the only American emotionally affected by the Haitian tragedy. It has been on my mind constantly yesterday and today.

I think of all the things I take for granted every day. I can go to any faucet in the house and get hot or cold water. Water is now the currency in Haiti - money is worth nothing. At night, I lay in a memory foam bed. There are elderly people, babies, orphans, and families laying on concrete tonight. Everyone I know personally is in a warm, comfortable house.

We're really low on groceries right now - peanut butter and jelly and Hamburger Helper for dinner. But I was so thankful for it. People are fighting through rubble to search for food. I think of the mothers who have lost their babies, or whose children are laying beside them right now - hurt, with broken bones and bleeding, with no medical help. I have ibuprofen for my children's littlest aches and pains. I was just complaining the other day that I have no money for new drapes, which I felt I needed desperately. They have no homes and are sleeping in the streets.

It's going to be a struggle to pay property taxes this year, but I have property - a charming, semi-cluttered home that holds the people I hold dear. I want for nothing. Tonight, I wanted to say I'm thankful.