ORANGE-oranges

My far distance from home and the modern luxuries of a first world nation have caused me to become extremely thankful for the small, ordinary things of daily life. Let me tell you about some of the things that I have been thankful for lately. A few weeks ago, I was going through the food line in the dining hall. I was approaching the fruit section of the line when suddenly, I spotted a glorious piece of fruit in front of me. I could not believe my eyes... ORANGE, oranges! I was so excited! It was like Christmas morning! I was so pumped to have a proper colored orange. We are extremely blessed on the ship and we eat very well, but our produce section is often limited. We have oranges on a regular basis, but they are green. Can it actually be called an orange if it is green? The oranges we get are ripe and totally ready for eating, but green. I just cannot wrap my head around the idea of eating green oranges. ORANGE, oranges, are just better! The small things in life remind me how much Jesus loves me and this past week He decided to bless me with another tasty treat; carrot sticks! Oh, my goodness, I jumped up and down when I saw carrot sticks in our food line. I ran around the dining hall, with the excitement of someone who has won the lottery, telling all my friends about the carrot sticks. It is a rare treat for us to get fresh produce, partly because of the work that the food preparation takes. Our galley staff has to bleach, wash, bleach, and again wash all our vegetables before they can even begin slicing them. So, you can imagine how hard it is for the galley staff to prepare carrot sticks for 400 people. I was so excited about the carrot sticks that I skipped all the other dinner components and filled my entire plate with carrot sticks, covered them with ranch dressing, and that's all I ate for dinner. In case you are wondering, yes, Africa is changing me...Not only was I excited about a vegetable, but I also ate an entire plate full of the vegetables! Many people have asked what I want to do first or eat first when I return home. I have been craving Mexican food and steak! I have already informed my mom and dad that I want to head to my favorite Mexican restaurant as soon as I return to Idaho and then eat steak after that. To my incredible surprise, my craving for steak was met on board just the other day. We had the most amazing steak for dinner a few days ago! The dinner was complete with baked potatoes and A1 Steak sauce! Holy Cow it was so good! (soon to be uploaded a photo of me and my amazing dinner) Every good thing comes from God. I am thankful that He knows what is best for me and He blesses me with small things and bigs things too!