Thanksgiving

This has been one of the most memorable, thought provoking, thankful Thanksgivings I have ever had.
On Tuesday, we drove to Atlanta to spend our Thanksgiving holiday with our dear friend Julie and her children, 2 year old Ava and 9 month old Karsten. Unfortunately, Julie's husband John (another dear friend) is out of the country on business so we missed spending the holiday with him. None the less, it was amazing to see Julie and the kids. Caden and Ava were fast friends and spent the entire week playing, singing, hugging and encouraging potty activity. Caden is still asking about her. They were adorable together.
Jason and Julie had arranged for our long-time friends Desmond and Kristy (and their little doggy, Brody) to be there as well so they showed up on Wednesday night completely surprising me. It was amazing to spend time with them. I've missed them so much.
Julie went all out to make Thanksgiving special, cooking some of the best foods and desserts I have tasted in a LONG time and opening her home to people who had no family close to share the holidays with. The kids were adorable together, the dogs were adorable together and the adults shared in some special time, reminded of how awesome friendship is.
I was overwhelmed with thankfulness this weekend. I'm thankful for my marriage. I have an amazing husband who loves me more than I deserve most days and I have an enormous amount of love and respect for him. I'm thankful for my little boy. Caden is growing into such an amazing little person and when I get to spend long chunks of time with him like I did this past week, I'm reminded of how blessed I am to have him as my son.
I'm thankful for our life. Even though we long to sell our house and our budget is more than tight most days, I am so incredibly thankful for what we have and the memories we're making within the walls of our home.
I'm thankful for friendship. Real, authentic, friendship. The kind where you can go a very long time without seeing one another and when you come together it's as though you never parted. I'm thankful for people who make me laugh to the point of crying. I'm thankful for honesty and trust. I'm thankful for understanding and how a sense of family can exist between people who aren't related. True friendship is an incredible and rare gift.
I'm mostly thankful for the love, power, peace and mercy of Christ in my life. Where in the world would I be without God? Where else would I go? I don't even want to know...
This week (especially this weekend at church) I was reminded once again of how much bigger God is than anything...how He hears us when we pray....how He loves us more than we could even possibly love our own spouse and children. I'm able to breathe a heavy sigh of relief and gratitude knowing I serve a God like that. Time alone in God's presence can get me through anything and I am so thankful that He allows me the privilege of sitting in the quiet with Him.
We drove back on Saturday, hitting a ton of traffic in the beginning but finally making it home 7 hours later (it should only be a 5 hour drive) and we woke up at 5:30am the next morning for church. I got home around 4:00pm, much too late in the day to take a nap, so we took Caden and Dakota for a walk around our neighbourhood. We have dirt roads so every now and then Caden would drop to his knees to play in the 'sand box'...which we had to explain to him was our street :)...oh the joys of living in Crawfordville...
After our walk I completely re-organized all the bedrooms. I changed Caden's room around and was able to fit the majority of his toys in there, freeing up serious space in the spare room...then I was able to move the weight bench and dumbbells from our bedroom into the spare room. It was a successful evening. I think the house will show better now. I'm trying to get everything ready for the moment when God decides to send a buyer our way. I'm saving boxes and planning for the move. Should be any second now...
I took a million pictures of our journeys...but since I am writing this blog at work (shhhhh!) I can't post them right now and I may not get home this evening until about 10pm, at which time I won't be in the mood to upload. I'm hoping to get them up by tomorrow night...so wait eagerly in anticipation :)
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
God is good.