Happy Thanksgiving!

I am overwhelmed with thankfulness to God as I look back on this past year. The things He has done for us and the people he has used to show us his steadfast love and faithfulness to us. God has stretched and changed us, showing us what it really means to depend on Him through some difficult circumstances.
I am thankful for my husband's and my parents who have cared for us in numerous ways during this challenging year and taught us what it means to trust in a faithful God. I am thankful for the sacrifices they have been making for us since we born, to give us a love I so often have taken for granted that many children don't ever experience. I know they'd do anything for us. I am thankful for the truth they speak into our lives so that we can see the bigger picture of God's plan and purpose for us.
 

I am thankful for my brothers and sisters who pray for and encourage us.
I am thankful for our Church family at Crossroads and the deepening of relationships there.

I am thankful for the new job I started in February at the Health Clinic and the many things I have learned and look forward to learning.
I am thankful for the house God provided for us in April.
I am thankful for my grandparents and extended family and the reunion we had in July and the opportunity we had to worship together in song and in sharing our lives with one another.

I am thankful to have my Mom's parents living closer then ever before and getting to deepen those relationships through visits and shared meals.

I am thankful for new friends that were made, the encouragement they were as we shared in our struggles.
I am thankful for the work God provided my husband in August.
I am thankful I was able to see 2 of my best friends get married in September.
I am thankful for those who sacrificed rides, car, time, money, and energy so that our truck could get fixed and we'd both have a way to get to work.
I am thankful for new life in the baby my sister-in-law carries that will make me an aunt again and that it now only takes us 1.5 hours to visit their family compared to 8.
I am thankful for my best friend and her beautiful baby girl that was born in October, making me a pseudo-aunt.
I am thankful for the chance to go to Haiti in February on my first medical missions trip as a nurse.
Saving the best for last... I am incredibly thankful for my husband who has taught me perseverance, patience, and faithfulness. Bearing the brunt of the challenges we faced, he never gave up, but leaned on our Savior. He has shown me grace and loved me well. I can't put in words how thankful I am to have this man as my husband.

Thank you God for the many ways you have blessed us even beyond all of this and how you will continue to do so in our lives.

Psalm 95:1-7

"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand."