Walking by Faith: Turkey Day full of Thankfulness!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE :)

I hope you have a wonderful day filled with family, friends and Jesus! I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Elijah and I decided to just stay home... make all of our favorites... and have our first Thanksgiving as a couple alone. Hopefully it will be our last alone though too (even though we enjoyed it SO MUCH!) We're hoping to start a new Thanksgiving/Holiday traditions next year... we want to start inviting all the Arabs we know to our house every Thanksgiving. It would be such a great opportunity to share with them the one thing we are truly thankful for! But we'll share about that more in detail in our newsletter.

I have so much to be thankful for today. My God has truly blessed me abundantly and I do take so much of it for grant it so often, I'm sad to say. But praise the Lord for never giving up on me.

Today I am particularly thankful for my husband!

He's such a crack up! This is from last christmas, when his whole family took photos by the tree as couples, but I was in Germany.... this is what happened....

....OH MY!

I can't get over this guys quirky sense of humor.

Sometimes he's just a dork and it's great! I'm so proud of all the work he does, the time he invests in his students and the friendships he makes. He's so geniune but so silly... and so cool. Oh is this boy cool. When I first met him I actually thought he was too cool for me (so I ignored him, which made him think I was cooler. Girls... take note ;) )
I completely admire his private life with the Lord... every morning he faithfully goes and has his quiet time and it just blesses me so much. I can't help but admire my husband. I am so thankful for the man I will get to spend the rest of my life with... and I'm so previleged to do so! I don't deserve him and all his silly faces and witty remarks. He smiles at me and my heart just melts... and he's so cute when he has a surprise. He can't wait to tell me... he jumps around the house making noises just trying to keep it in.... it's an internal fight with himself ... he gets so excited. I love when he's excited, it's the best.

I'm so thankful for my family!! My parents and my brothers. (We'll start with my brothers first). Just look at these two. Are they not the two most handsome men you've ever seen.... and guess what ladies, they're still single! Cream of the crop right here.
My brothers have been there for me my whole life. Both of them will always take the time to listen to any problems I have, they've always been faithful in threatening boyfriends, and they make me laugh soooo hard!!! They're both hilarious.They both call me little sister, even though I'm older than them. I can spend hours with these two and have the best time (or be really bored... C'mon we've lived with eachother for 20+ years... what can you expect) But I don't mind being bored with them either.... just being in the same room with them makes me happy.

Me and my youngest brother Austin.... I can't believe he's already 22yrs old! He's got a beard and everything... it's crazy. We're kind of inseperable when we're together. He's one of the most friendly outgoing guys I know... he gets himself into wayyy too much trouble and is wayyyy to good at talking himself out of said trouble. I can't imagine someone not liking this kid.

Oh ya and he loves when I punch him, wrestle him, fight him.... he just loves it! Whenever he's feeling down, I just have to slap him and he pops right out of it. It's the weirdest thing... but I wouldn't want it any other way. He's in Bible college right now and I couldn't be more proud of him... God will do cool things with him one day... I'm sure of it.

This is the middle brother Bryan. He's probably one of the nicest guys you'll ever get to know and definitley one of the most generous... he gives SO willingly! He's secretly the funniest person ever and says the most hilarious things, his fake mood swings are the best! He also happens to be the best digital artist in the whole world (I'm not exagerating. He's the best. He's my brother). He can do anything that has to do with art, literally anything and he's also... YES! also again... amazing at leather work. He makes masks... bags... and so much more amazing other leather things.

He's humble about it... he has no idea how good he is... but this boy is going places! He's such an amazing artist and I'm so blessed to have him as a brother.

Just had to add this picture of my mom cause she's so cute.

My dad lookin' all handsome with his son :)

My parents:

My parents are amazing. My dad knows so much about the Bible, I love it. Whenever I'm too lazy to look up a question I have about the Bible, I can just ask my dad... normally I think that will be the quicker way, but it never is.... he never answers my questions, he always asks me questions and makes me figure it out on my own. I love talking to him about the Bible.

My mom is also amazing, my whole life she has completely sacrificed herself for me and my happiness. She's done everything for me, from washing my clothes to making me dinner, to putting in extra time and effort to help or bless me with anything I found important. She always made all my halloween costumes, she decorated for all my birthday parties, even my wedding she spent so much time on crafts and organizations and decorations. She's amazing! I'm so blessed that I got such a selfless mom.

And both my parents have blessed me so much with trying to give me whatever I wanted.... they blessed me with the most beautiful wedding and didn't say no to anything, even though they don't have much. They were just so sweet and I'm so thankful to have them.

Then there's my in-laws. Goodness how I love these two! I love spending time with them, I love sitting around the dinner table with all of them just talking... we end up talking about some pretty crazy things. I love Dawn's spunky personality, she's so cute! I love how much Elijah loves and respects his parents too. I think it says a lot about them too. We both wish they lived closer, but I'm so thankful for skype and all the times we talk to them.

Then there's Aden and Ruth...
I admire these two soooooo much! Soooo much :) I love their hearts, the way they serve, the work they do, their marriage, their personalities.... I just think they're great! I'm starting to see a pattern here, everyone I love dearly makes me laugh my socks off.... and they're no exception. Their dynamic together is classic, whenever we hang out with them it's just so funny.
I've seen them both be in really difficult circumstances and handle it like champs, trusting in the Lord and waiting on Him. Ruth is such a faithful woman of God and it blesses me so much to see her heart in all sorts of different circumstances, she's great.. and Aden's just so good at making the best of every situation. I love these two so much and I'm so glad they're my brother and sister now!

So silly!

And then there's Ian and Siona...

They're so cute together. Whenever Siona isn't around Ian's always talking about how lucky he is to have caught her... and how crazy she is to have married him. Siona is just the sweetest girl! When I first met Elijah all he could talk about was Siona and what a great sister she was.... and she totally blessed me during my weddin' days and planned a ton of stuff, drove around looking for wedding things, totally made my bachelorette party wonderful and helped me so much on the actual day... she was prepared for everything! These two are soooo talented, it kind of blows your mind. They both play like a gazillion instruments and half the time when Ian's talking about music I don't have any idea what he's saying, he just sounds super smart and musical and I knod my head and pretend I get it all... and then Ian goes off about how Siona is so much better then he is at playing and that's just sweet. We get to see them in a couple days and we're just so blessed to spend the time with them.

Most importantly I'm thankful for my Lord and Savior.

All of these people I'm thankful for, are people He's blessed me with, by putting them in my life. He's the one who has surrounded me with such love and fun... He's the one that wants to bless me beyond my wildest dreams. He loves me so much and not only can I never be thankful enough for it, but I can't even comprehend it! Just look at all these people in this post alone... and He loves me more than all of them combined. I'm so thankful for Him and what He did for me.

We're also so thankful for our extended family. Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Cousins! And all our friends and our supporters constantly encouraging us and praying for us :) We're truly truly blessed people!

Lastly, here was our Thanksgivin' spread. Hopefully our first and last Thanksgiving alone... next year I hope to fit at least 30 people in our living room... we'll see :)