November 10th

I am thankful today for computers.  I am a military wife and have been for 25 years.  At the beginning of that we didn't have a computer.  We relied on phone calls which at that time was expensive.  At least it was expensive for a young family with only one income.  In those days phone calls were billed by how far the call was.  Long distance wasn't cheap.  When we were in Germany we would wait by the phone waiting for our families to call because calling from the USA to Germany was much cheaper than a call from Germany to the USA.  When the phone would ring it was like a present had arrived.

In the early 1990's we purchased our first computer.  It was really just used to do word processing.  I wrote numerous newsletters and created data bases for the military wives.  A little later in the 1990's we got a computer that we could go online with.  We learned how to email.  It took some time before the rest of the family caught up but they eventually did.  By the time we moved to Germany again in 2001 everyone was online and we could communicate every day, send photos, chat on and on.  Not to mention shopping online :) 

I am truly grateful for the computer.  It connects me to so many people.  Family, friends, people I have never even met in person but have been online friends with for years.  When I am far from those that I love and care about in body I can still connect with them on the computer.  It is a wonderful invention!