giving thanks

This year, I'd like to share what I'm thankful for. This year, I want to share how thankful I am for the people in my life, the people I love, the people who have touched my life and made it better.

I'm so thankful for my parents. I'm adopted and they chose me. God provided me with an amazing family and my mom and dad are incredible. I've had love and support no matter what from them for my whole life, and I know that's a huge gift. It's more than I ever deserved and I'm so blessed and I love them so much.

I'm super thankful for the friends in my life.  And, I'm at a point in my life where I can say I'm thankful for the struggles that brought me to where I am to have the friends that I do.  It's a marvelous and beautiful thing to have people that you can trust, that you can be your true self around, that you share a multitude of inside jokes with, that you can take your hurts to and know they'll hide you and protect you until you can stand again. These are the people you can call, the people you would kill for and die for and hide the bodies for. And I've got them. I would move mountains for them, throw a punch for them, drive a hundred miles if they asked. I'm grateful for each joke we've exchanged, each serious conversation we've built a foundation on, each drink we've shared, each hug whether given for gladness or comfort. My life is immeasurably better because they are present, my beautiful minds, my brave hearts, my courageous souls. I love each of you more than you know!

And I'm thankful for my faith. I'm thankful for a living, active God and a relationship with Christ. He has brought me through every storm thus far and I know He will continue to do so until the day I am called home. And it amazes me to think that no mater how much I love the people in my life. Christ loves all of them more and better than I ever could. That every person in my life has been fearfully and wonderfully made. That Christ knew me before I existed, knew what and who I would need and has been there with me all along. I'm thankful for His grace, which I need every day.

So, yeah. While there are things about my life that I would change, I'm a very grateful woman and I'm super blessed. I hope, wherever you are this Thanksgiving, that you've got people you feel that way about, too.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Gabi

running up that hill

Let's not talk about how long it took me to mess around with this blog layout and have it still look ridiculous.

So, it's National Novel Writing Month and if you've got a calendar handy, you'll notice that's it's the 19th of said writing month. If you use the math NaNoWriMo gives you,  writers should be at 31673 out of 50000 words today. I'm sitting pretty at just over 22,000.

Really I'm going to get to 50000 by the end of this month if it kills me. I've been writing stories since I was a kid and do you know I've never finished a draft? I've got lots of skeleton drafts, and halfway finished stories, and I have completed lots of fan fiction. However, never once, not ever, have I finished a novel draft of my own original work.

I'm twenty-seven years old and quite frankly, it's time I quit mucking about. I love to write. I love creating stories and worlds and characters and weaving together a series of events. Finishing a project terrifies me, I think. The time has come, though. I don't want to get to the end of my life and have nothing to show for my work except scraps and bits I never had the wherewithal to stitch together.

So my NaNoWriMo book this year is about a young woman who discovers that if she gets angry enough she can wield dragon-like powers and properties. (Or the dragon-like powers and properties wield her, depending on which end of her powers you're on.) Because it's NaNo and I decide to write a fantasy, my brain thought it would be a great idea to mashup fashions and social niceties of the 1950's with a wild west-esque atmosphere and maybe a dash of gaslight.

December is for editing, ya'll.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? What's your book about? Have you conquered the 50000 word mountain in the past?

There are still ten days left. Keep writing!