What a Thanksgiving. We went up to Atlanta for the day to celebrate with my family: my mom, my sisters Andrea and Melissa, and their families. Everyone was so excited to get up there (Sophie had been asking for days when we would be seeing cousin Dane again ;)) so there was no complaining when we had to get up early to get on the road. We split up the Thanksgiving menu and I was assigned to my favorite: desserts 🙂 One chocolate chip bundt cake, one chocolate pie, two pumpkin pies and one pan of lemon bars accompanied us up to Atlanta for the festivities. We spent a good bit of the day talking, laughing and finishing up the other dishes that would be served at our dinner-time meal. Everything came together without any major faux pas, which, at Thanksgiving, is one more thing to be thankful for. Aside from a few dishes not getting heated through, everything was perfect. It was such a blessing to be surrounded by the love of family at this time of the year, laughing about times past and anticipating the wonderful times ahead. Our kids just love each other, much like we sisters have always been close and it is my prayer that they all remain close in the years to come, although I might have to draw the line sometime soon as Avery has been discussing the legality of marriage between cousins lately… I think she has her eye on either Asher or Dalton 😉
It is at this time of year that I think more often of the many blessings we have in life: a warm house, clean sheets, the laughter of children playing, the sound of rain, a dog to snuggle with, family dinners that last an hour or more, the love of Jesus, even though I am so undeserving, an honest and devoted husband and seven incredible children, each of whom warm my heart in their own special way.
I am also reminded how thankful I am for the ways our family has changed through the blessing of adoption. It is with awe and reverence that I have witnessed how adoption has changed the face of our family, figuratively and literally. Tori said it beautifully when she said, “Each of our adopted children have added to our family so uniquely. Each of them has been an incredible blessing in their own way.” And I am forever grateful to God for building our family His way. We are all blessed indeed.
Sounds like you had a fabulous day. Every time I see your picture I do believe that you get younger looking ~could you share your secret?
What a wonderful Thanksgiving!
I just love all the photos of your family, it must be so nice to be able to ‘drive’ to them.
ooh lemon bars, please share the recipe!
Hayley
I love visiting your site…you are so blessed!
What a great post. Full of thankfulness and love!
What a magnificent post – I got all weepy thinking about how truly blessed we all are. Thank you for doing that for me today. So glad you enjoyed time with everyone near and dear.
God Bless,
Heather
What a beautiful post! Sounds like you all had a fantastic & blessed Thanksgiving! May the blessings continue for all of you!
And yes…please share the lemon bar recipe! 😉
HUGS!!
Patricia/NYC
What a special Thanksgiving with family. It is nice you are all so close, in distance and in your relationships! It truly is a blessing to see how God chooses to grow our families.
it’s a beautiful post – we are blessed, indeed.
and Chloe would like to marry her cousins, too!
It was nice peeking in on your Thankgiving. Looks like such a nice day! And I always love seeing pix of your sisters handsome little man and doesnt he just get cuter and cuter?! 🙂 Sophie announced recently that she just can’t be a grown up yet (she really wants to be and she said it like this is her only obstacle) because she doesnt have anyone to be her husband. What on earth gets them thinking about such things so young? LOL I told her she didnt need to be looking for one of those for many years…like after she goes to COLLEGE. 🙂
what a beautiful beautiful family you have.
Wow Stef… what a beatituful post, you had me in tears with this one. I am so blessed to know you and to have had the opportunity to bask in the love of your family, even if only for a moment and now from a distance. You, as you know, remain such an inspiration to me as a mother and a person. I look forward to the day we can sit together and catch up, take pics of your gorgeous kids and compare notes… and most of all, the day Macey and I drive up to see all of you, especially her China “cousins” :O)