Happy New Year!

So I'm truthfully not one to set New Years Resolutions.  I always think, why set a goal you're just going to screw it up?  Life just happens and our priorities change.  I'm one wants to do it right, or not at all.  BUT, I'm going try.  Better that we shoot for the stars and miss, than shoot for a cow pie and hit it dead on, right?  It could be that today, I'm not thinking clearly.  I had way too many stuffed mushrooms, jalapeno poppers, and shrimp and stayed up way too late playing hearts and canasta.  Regardless, I'm making a New Year's Resolution.  I'd like to send 365 thank yous...it can be a card, an email, a Facebook message.  I just sent my first one to Joyce.

Vanessa, Shu-Yan, Joyce, Me, and May.

Joyce was from mainland China.  At the time, families weren't supposed to have more than two kids.  Joyce's mom loved her family and wanted more children.  So she had more.  She was fined by the Chinese government and had to work hard and long to pay the fines that she could keep her children.  When many women would abort or leave their babies, this woman had the courage to pay the price to keep this precious soul.

Joyce joined the church in Cambodia and came to BYU-Hawaii as a student.  She had to learn English in one year, and then complete college courses in her second language.  She worked hard on her degree and at her job.  She then decided to serve a mission for the church and served an honorable full-time mission in California.  She then went back to BYU-H to finish her degree.  Met a wonderful man, married in the temple, and now lives in Taiwan with her husband and two beautiful little boys.  Is that not inspiring?  Yup, she is my first thank-you of the new year.  Her example inspired me then, and continues to inspire me.

Here is to many more thank yous this new year!

Happy New Year!