Thanksgiving has always been a family focused time. We have so many memorable Thanksgivings. Some of our first Thanksgivings were spent with Dwayne's Brother and his wife, Tim and Stacy. I shall not forget the time Stacy and I were in their kitchen and we had the Turkey in the oven Josh was out with Uncle Tim and Daddy , Justin was napping in what would be Emily's crib. We told the guys to keep an eye on the Turkey and listen out for Justin.
Upon our return we see Justin standing at the door with a tear in his eye ( where he had been obviously crying). What we found was that the guys were so engrossed in their "bow and arrow" practice that they didn't even hear Justin. All I could think of is what if something awful had happened. That was the start of our Thanksgiving morning - but the most memorable thing was that when we went to pull the Turkey out of the oven- Low and behold- We forgot to take the Plastic off of the Turkey! UGH! We laughed so hard - but the Turkey was still good! :)
After we arrived on the field in China- we had other memorable Thanksgivings. Family has a whole new meaning to us now. While we love and adore our parents and siblings we have realized that we have a much bigger extended family outside of our parents , aunts and uncles, siblings and cousins. Our overseas family has in some ways grown to be just as close as our own families in the states.
One of our favorite Thanksgivings on this side of the world was the time we decided to get together with some close friends/family. There were 3 famlies, Minick's, Rumples, Hughes and one single, Ericka. We all brought food ( we brought the Turkey) :) And we traveled by bus, plane and taxi to Mongshi. It was a wonderful thanksgiving - We all stood around the food and held hands and I have to tell you it was so nice to just give thanks to God for all He had seen us through over the past 1 year 1/2.
This last year as many of you remember- we had just moved into our home a year ago this week and had no kitchen. The builders were hopeful they would have it completed just before Thanksgiving. It was such a blessing to have the kitchen completed the day before and we had our First Thanksgiving here in Thailand. It was just the 3 of us but it was wonderful.....
I've shared some of our memorable Thanksgivings from the past and we are planning to make another wonderful memory this year -
Thanksgiving is coming quickly and this year we are going to plan another extended family dinner. Some dear friends and I study the word together each Friday . This Friday we all discussed what we all were doing for Thanksgiving. We all had not shored up our plans but we decided it would be fun to get together and Celebrate Thanksgiving together!
So, Minicks, Hughes, Harbinson's, Graybil's, Jones are getting together. 11 kids, 10 adults - I think we will have a memorable time. The kids don't get off school so we are going to head over to the Harbinson's house around 4pm and then dinner will be served at 5ish.. ;) I can't wait!
Oh, and just so all of you know! Josh will be Auburn having Thanksgiving with a girl friend and her family. It's not a dating relationship but they are very interested in one another. :) She's a great young lady and her parents love on Josh just as if he was their own. We are so blessed that He has had such amazing people to invest in his life!
Well, that's our families plans.
We hope you all have a Wonderful Thanksgiving Day Celebration!
