truly thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!  Today is one of my favorite days of the year not only because of the Thanksgiving Day parade or eating turkey and pie or possibly pulling out our Christmas tree later to decorate.  No, today is my favorite because we get to spend time with the people we love and say "thank you" to our Father God who gives every good and perfect gift (James 1:17).  We don't deserve even one good thing, and yet He takes great delight in giving abundantly! 

The Lord has given us an incredible church family here, and we are blessed to spend our Thanksgiving dinner with some of them.  A fun twist of events happened and we'll now be having dinner at our house... which could be convenient if their baby decides to make an appearance today!  Who knows what excitement may happen ?!?

Thanksgiving is a little sad for me too, because we haven't spent it together with our families since our first year of marriage, seven years ago. I'm tempted to just go sit in the corner and cry about it, but I know many of my friends feel the same. Today I will remember and be thankful for them instead of feeling sorry for myself! I am thankful for T and S who serve our great country in Iraq and will be returning very soon after months away from their precious families. I am thankful for C K and A who serve the Lord obediently in Mozambique and W and C who serve in Brazil. I am thankful for the little child who lives on the other side of our planet that we'll get to welcome home (not soon enough!), and I long for him or her to take up another seat at our table.

My friend D reminded me this week of when we bought our dining room table.  I have always wanted a huge dining table for our home, in hopes of many family dinners together around it.  I have many sweet memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at my Gramps and Grams' house, with at least 15 people eating together.  I wanted to buy the biggest table I could get my hands on, so we saved and bought a table when we lived in Japan.  It comfortably seats 12 when it's extended but we've squeezed in a few more.  For those of you who know where the table was actually made, that is the exact country where our third child is right now. 

Just the thought of it makes me want to jump in a plane and go pick up our child for dinner tonight! 

Hope your day is filled with joy and thanksgiving.  Many blessings, angela

Some pictures from this morning:  the kids watching the Thanksgiving parade... if you haven't seen our FB photo album about our little fashionista, this is true Peanut form.