I am a patriot.

You know what? I really am proud to be an American. Not that it was a question up to this point, but yesterday, to me, really drove my point home. This has truly been an election for the ages. One for the record books, history has been made on several levels. Someone commented to me yesterday, that regardless of the winner, history would have been made. The first woman, the first African American. Wow. Did you ever in a million years think that we'd see either one of those, much less both, in the same election? Our kids are experiencing history in the making. To me, that's so terribly exciting.
Yesterday morning, I parked my car far away from my polling place, walked across a dew covered field, and went to stand in line with my fellow Americans. Hundreds of us, thousands of us, millions of us. The turnout was amazing. The fact that we are able to do this at all is staggering. Those who don't participate, well, I have to say, you're missing out. Missing out on what it means to be an American, missing out on a chance to have your voice heard, even if only for one small vote. Do you have any idea how rare that is? We can go to the polls with confidence, with no fear, and make our choice. We don't have to worry about being killed for it. We can just do it.
Even my kids were interested. Jeremiah even knew who the candidates were. The first thing Riley said this morning was "who won?". And this morning, when I was watching Obama's acceptance speech and McCain's concession speech, I found myself tearing up several times. Obama's speech was inspiring and to watch the crowd respond was amazing. McCain was nothing but class. I was so impressed. And it made me believe, even if just for a minute, we really can move beyond the bipartisanship that has plagued us for so long. And maybe we can. I hope so. But nonetheless, God Bless America.