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During the opening assembly of a Bible study I was attending, a woman shared a Thanksgiving tradition her family participated in each year.

She said that on Nov. 1 each year, she would find a branch in her yard for construction paper leaves that would be hole-punched at one end.

Each family member would take a leaf daily and write something on it that they were thankful for.

On Thanksgiving, the leaves would be gathered off the tree and read by the person who added them as a way of remembering their many blessings as they thanked God for what He had done for them.

As she described the activity, it instantly sounded like something my then 3-year-old daughter, Hannah, would enjoy. Hannah was all about fun activities, especially if they involved construction paper and scissors.

After lunch, while my children napped, I walked through our yard trying to find the perfect branch -- a small one with many sub branches that would resemble a small tree -- to place in a plastic cup full of sand.

As I walked, my mind replayed the past six to eight weeks. In late August, we happily discovered we were expecting our third child.

By mid-September, we were told I had miscarried this much-anticipated baby.

I began to wonder how in the world I would be able to do this project while still feeling the deep pangs of loss. I knew I was blessed but did not feel very thankful at the time.

My heart was broken and I wondered what I could possibly write on a paper leaf each day.

As I walked through our yard, I was reminded of 1 Thessalonians 5:18, which says, "Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus."

I found a branch I thought would do and scooped up some sand with a large plastic cup from the kids' sandbox in the backyard. I stuck the branch deep into the cup so it would stand up steady.

I found our package of construction paper and began to cut out simple leaves of red, gold and orange. I punched a hole in each so they would fit easily over the branches.

When my daughter woke up from her nap, I told her about our project. She enthusiastically embraced the idea, as I knew she would.

She told me what to write on her first leaf. She also took the opportunity to tell me what her 1-year-old brother was thankful for, too, as he was too little to come up with something on his own.

In the weeks to come, I numbly wrote what I was blessed with -- a warm home, a husband who loved me, two beautiful children and our respective parents. We had friends and food and my husband had a job that God used to provide for our needs and wants.

Hannah never let me forget that we needed to write on our leaves each day. My husband took part, as well, writing on his leaf before leaving for work each day.

Thanksgiving arrived and we admired the colorful Thanksgiving tree, now covered with paper leaves. After removing all of the leaves, we divided them according to who they belonged to and began to read each one.

With every person or thing mentioned, the blessings we had written filled our hearts with gratitude.

God used this activity to reach my hurting heart. I learned to be thankful, not only in ideal circumstances, but the difficult ones as well.

Linda Vestal is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend living in Gibsonville. Contact her with comments or story ideas at lindavestal@triad.rr.com.