Thanksgiving 2006: Part 2

We spent Tuesday through Sunday in Abilene, Texas, celebrating Thanksgiving with Jason's family. It was a great time and great food. This year we fried the turkey for the first time...delicious!!! I love Thanksgiving! Our friend Justin mentioned on his blog that TG was his favorite because it is the least commercialised holiday....i.e: no gift giving. I wholeheartedly agree.

We caught up with some friends, too, while in Abilene. Steven and Wendy Gist came by with their three little ones...Matthew (almost 3) and Anne-Marie and Andrew (four month old twins). We were Mito AETS together in Japan. We always enjoy catching up with them and caught a sneak peak into life with three little ones. Whoa!!!!

We also visited with some Aussies. Damien and Miranda who are students at ACU invited us over for dinner. Chris and Michelle Malan were also there...they are students at OCU. We had a blast. It has been a long time (other than actually being in Australia), since I was able to hang out with Aussies. We laughed a lot and it was fun to share stories from home and stories about being Aussies in the US. It was nice to just be Australian and not worry about word selections or pronunciation....although between the 6 of us, you'd have to say we have quite a mixed dialect now!!! Jason and Damien were roommates for about a year in Australia so I had heard a lot of stories...so it was nice for me to meet these guys for myself. I really enjoyed our time together...thanks to the Lawries and Malans for their hospitality and new friendship.

Now we are in Greenville, Texas visiting Jason Green. Today is the last leaf of our journey. We are about six hours from Memphis if all goes smoothly (it didn't last night....major traffic delays!). We are both excited to get back home to Memphis. But I thought it would be appropriate to bring Thanksgiving to a close with a short list of things that have made me thankful this year:

- our families, of course. They continue to show us love and support even though they know our plans will mean we will be separated geographically in a year or so.
- our teammates: Shawn, Kendra, Darian & Brenna Griffith, Jon, Sara, Nina & Jack Grizzle. They love us even though they have seen the best AND worst of us on both sides of this world! Great friends, great ministry partners. We love you.
- four years in Memphis, Tennessee. It is a great place to call home. Memphis means HUGSR, friendships, community, Bland Sundays, just-like-family friends, four seasons, sweet tea, southern drawls...
- my job...what more could I have hoped for? My job has provided for us and allowed us to travel through the Caribbean and the US - to places I would never dreamed of going.
- God's peace. I feel it even though we will be in the face of transitions. He has brought us to this point in our lives...I have peace He will be guiding us here and beyond. I am reminded of the steadfast love of the Lord...His new mercies...His great faithfulness. So I will say 'The Lord is my portion. I will trust in Him'.