Thankful

November is upon us. 


My favorite month. 


My favorite holiday is 3 weeks and one day from today. 


I can't wait to go home for Thanksgiving for the first time in FOUR long years. 

The last time I had a Thanksgiving meal in my parents' home was during Thanksgiving 2009.  I had done a 5k that morning with one of my best friends from high school and her husband.  I remember it was freeeeeezing cold that morning but what a feeling it was to do that race then eat all day without feeling guilty...ha!

Look how little Clark and Mason were 4 years ago!  How amazing it is to look at this picture and think that six short months later I would be led to move down to NC to be with them all the time...and that they would have two brothers four short years later as well as a cousin with another cousin on the way.  How incredible a family's love is...I'm so blessed to be part of a large one and to have the siblings & parents I have.

I can't wait to sit at that long oak maple redwood wooden table in my parents' dining room with all of us squeezed in and crowded around it as the loud chatter & conversation gets under way and we sneak extra rolls onto our plate when we think others aren't looking.  I wonder if there will be a ton of pies served after dinner that I will skip because I will want ice cream instead.  Will there be freshly made Boilo and more importantly will we see snowflakes falling?? 

Maybe I'm delirious from all the writing/revisions I've been doing on my Chapter 5 of my dissertation today.  Maybe I'm extra thankful due to the daily reflections I've been composing on Facebook in honor of my favorite month.  Maybe I finally realize that through the trials and tribulations, through the pushing yourself beyond what you thought you were capable of, through still standing even after others have tried to beat you down in all arenas, through losing friends along the way but also meeting life-impacting people on the journey, through looking at all that has happened since that fateful day in early May 2010 when I said, "Yes", to plans that differed DRASTICALLY from where I thought I was heading....maybe that's why I'm extra grateful for the valleys and the hills so that I can more deeply appreciate the good that surrounds us.

A Red Sea Place

Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life,
Where in spite of all you can do,
There is no way out, there is no way back,
There is no other way but through?
Then wait on the Lord with a trust serene
Till the night of your fear is gone;
He will send the wind, He will heap the floods,
When He says to your soul "Go on."

And His hand will lead you through - clear through -
Ere the watery walls roll down,
No foe can reach you, no wave can touch,
No mightiest sea can drown;
The tossing billows may rear their crests,
Their foam at your feet may break,
But over their bed you shall walk dryshod
In the path that your Lord will make.

In the morning watch, ‘neath the lifted cloud,
You shall see but the Lord alone,
When He leads you on from the place of the sea,
To a land that you have not known;
And your fears shall pass as your foes have passed,
You shall no more be afraid;
You shall sing His praise in a better place,
A place that His hand has made.

Annie Johnson Flint