Lots of blessing and Thanksgivings!

Today was a wonderful day. My mom and I have been cooking a TON of food and last night by the time I went to bed my feet were throbbing from being on them all day long cooking. We enjoy our sweet fellowship together as we cook, and as we listened to Christmas music. Our family came over along with some other guys who couldn't go home for Thanksgiving so they were part of our family today. My aunt, Grandma and Uncle made a lot of food as well so it was quite the spread. Mom and I woke up at 5;30am to put 2 turkeys in 2 big crock pots. After that I spent time in God's word read from Daniel and was SO challenged on pride, and how the Lord will put down those who raise themselves, it was so convicting and wonderful! Last night as I wrote letters to my family and took a shower I was in tears many times thinking upon the wonderful goodness of the Lord and the MANY MANY blessings He has given me over the past year. He has been so faithful and good to me.

It was great today as we went around the table and talked about what we were grateful for as we reflected upon the past year. As my parents shared it was so sweet to see that through this trial God has blessed us and grown us SO much as a family and grown us together closure to HIM.

The top things (they have to be different every year and had to happen that year( dads rules)) for me that I was grateful for was for this financial trial the Lord has given us, He has taught me about dependency upon Him in everything- from future, to present, to housing etc. Without this trial I wouldn't have learned to totally depend upon Him, because I wasn't forced to before. What a sweet journey this has been! Its hard, but I am honored the Lord would take the time to work on us. The other thing I was grateful for was the opportunity to travel to China (with the precious Nolans) and to Jordan. God used those in great ways and it was an awesome experience! What are you grateful for?

Grandma's house for the week :)

This week has been a blessing staying with my little precious Grandma. We have had so much fun and have eaten so much food :) Enjoyed homemade sundays, and our wonderful tea and sweet conversations. One day I went and made a big dinner for my Mom and Dad and us, it was our version of a restaurant within our budget :) There are a couple of those pictures on here to. The other pictures are of my cousin and I getting into my Gramcrackers night gowns, she was cracking up at us and we had a wonderful time laughing and being girls.

Been a crazy week with balancing taking care of my family, my Grandma and work and church stuff but it has been a wonderful one with many answered prayers (thats another post in itself.)

The pictures aren't working out so great so I will have to post the rest later