Thanksgiving

I can't believe it's been a month since I have posted last. I really enjoyed Thanksgiving and Autumn this year but I just haven't been sharing it enough I guess. So in blog world we skip from Halloween to Christmas.

Before we leave Thanksgiving (mine was nice by the way) this quote has been on my mind and I wanted to share my thoughts...

"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving." ~H.U. Westermayer

I know we are supposed to give thanks in all circumstances but reading that quote made me realise that sometimes a thankful heart comes out of depending upon the Lord just to get you through each day rather than living in bounty and blessing. This year has been full of huge changes, challenges, blessings and losses. Through this year God has provided amazing peace day in and day out... more faithful than a best friend, a husband or a fat bank account. Knowing this peace came out of incredibly trying circumstaces. I can truely say I am thankful for each one of those trials because I would never have known the Lord's greatness without them!

My Thanksgiving prayer:
"Thank you Lord for my house, my job, running water and the other comforts of my world. Thank you for the friends, family and social workers who have helped me with Rachel this year, and for swaying hearts and minds to do what is best for Rachel, leading to our upcoming adoption. Thank you for Rachel, her spunk, her growth, and her healing, and for the joy of being her parent. Most of all thank you that no matter what you call me to do now or later, you are with me. You were with me through Rachel's testing, you were with me when I sat by my Papa's hospital bed as he died. You were there when I got the phone call that Jessica was dying, and when I fell apart crying at work. You were with me when my friends Matt and Alina moved away and then Jake and Wendy too. You were with me when I sat in big meetings faced with losing Rachel, or when I felt fear and anger about Rachel's relationship with her family. You were there when I felt helpless to soothe my sister's broken heart, or help my brother with his injured knee. When I was overwhelmed and hopeless with other brokeness in myself, my family and my friends you were there. You have been there in my deepest quietest sorrows, my most vunerable doubts, in my loneliness and in my grief. I thank you for the priveledge of knowing that you are a tangible God who can be trusted in difficulty and who always brings hope, redemption and peace. Thank you for an imperfect life lived in the palm of a perfect God's hands."