T is for THANKSGIVING

yeah, yeah, i KNOW it's the day after christmas.

but right now, right here i am going to do some THANKS giving.

i'm so alert this year...so thankful...

what a year.

where my heart once beat with fear, it now beats with gratitude.

where worry once ruled, freedom now reigns.

and life is GOOD.

i am thankful for my family.

i look back at the last 16 years and think the odds were against us. but God wasn't. and if he is for us, who can be against us?

i look at these four crazy kids of ours...and think WOW. they're really mine. the dream i've had since i was small...of having a big, happy family...it's become my reality. (some days i will admit that i have the desire to do a little reality escaping, but that's normal, right? LOL).

each of my children has added such depth and character to our family. and i love them more than they will ever, ever know.

i am thankful for my family afar as well. i love my parents...my sisters, my brother, all my sister in laws, my brother in laws...and while it seems the standard to have issues with your mother in law, i don't. she is an absolute angel.

i am thankful for my friends. i have been blessed beyond belief in the 'friend' department...let me never, ever take this for granted. i am thankful that, while i have left dear friends back home, i continue to make new friends along the journey that we're on. of course, the new friends don't REPLACE the old...but they add joy to my daily life here on the other side of the continent and it's amazing that we've only been here for a little over a year and that they are friendships of depth...and for that i am so grateful.

i am thankful for my home. sure, it's not ours yet...not according to the bank. but considering all we've been through, we are blessed to even HAVE a place to live, let alone some place that pleases the eye :)

i am thankful that even in the midst of all of the challenges, God has allowed me some items of beauty...we sold most of what we had to make this move...and yet, if you walked in our front door, i think (i hope) that you would find it comfortable and lovely...it is to me. and yet, as i look around, most of it has either been given to us or has come from moving sales, craigslist, trash piles...(yes, yes, it's true...but it was DARK and no one was looking LOL). and for this i am thankful. i don't mind being poor. (okay, maybe just a little). but i would mind it if i couldn't have a side of 'pretty' with my poor.

have i lost you yet?

i am thankful for this amazing journey that we have been on.

i am thankful that we had the courage and the grace to JUMP when asked to jump.

looking back, there is no doubt in my mind that the faith we were walking in was an absolute GIFT. because i don't think that most people would up and move...to a place they've never been before...with their four children...and no job...and leave everything they know...just because they thought God was telling them to.

i don't mean for this to sound prideful. but at the same time, i AM proud...proud that we obeyed...but realizing that the faith to do so was the gift...does this make ANY sense at all?

and what did we receive as a result of our obedience?

A NEW BEGINNING. a brand new start. an altered destiny. WOW.

we had been praying for SEVEN years that bobby would be brought into full time ministry...that God would give him a job that would allow him to use the talents that he had worked so hard to sharpen during his 20 years at the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). seven years of praying.

to see that come to fruition...as a direct result of TRUSTING...no striving, no pushing...

what a gift. a gift that our entire family will continue to be thankful for.

it is amazing to me. seriously. seriously amazing.

we have much to be thankful for.

YOU TURNED MY WAILING INTO DANCING,
YOU REMOVED MY SACKCLOTH & CLOTHED ME WITH JOY,
THAT MY HEART MAY SING TO YOU AND NOT BE SILENT.
O LORD MY GOD, I WILL GIVE YOU THANKS FOREVER.
(psalm 30:11,12)