Thankful!

Thanksgiving is approaching QUICKLY and I just wanted to write a little post to say that I am so thankful for so many things...I probably won't even remember all that I would like to say, but I will give it a try.

I'm so thankful for Joe.
He is a faithful, loyal provider for us and he is such a great, caring and forgiving husband to me and such a wonderful daddy to our girl. I'm SO blessed to be married to this man.

I'm thankful for our families.
I just love my brother and all of my brothers and sisters in law. God gives us such a gift in providing us with family to call our own. And to have all of our parents to be able to spend time with and love on our girl....wow, such a gift.

I'm thankful for friends! College friends, friends from even farther back than that, friends from blogs, friends from church, friends from the community and work. Have loved being able to get together more with friends because of being at home - and also having playdates with Lucy's little friends and their Mommies :) such fun!

I'm thankful for Pinterest and blogs where I can get new recipes, cleaning and organizing ideas (I need a lot of help in that department...), where I can read fun tips and hilarious experiences and encouraging stories and testimonies of God's faithfulness.

I'm thankful for our little house. Having a place to call our own in this season has been such a blessing to us. It's teeny and we love every little square inch!

I'm thankful for all the little things, like occasional starbuck stops, for walks into town, for pumpkins to decorate the house, for living close enough to both of our parents so that our little LJ can know them and love them already, for halloween candy and warm meals at home with my love. I just want to treasure all these days and all the little things that fill them.

I'm thankful for our church! It's such an amazing body of believers who encourage and challenge me constantly. It is such a unique place and we are just so thankful for a place we can go to freely worship our Lord and for the people of God who are our family.

I'm so thankful for our little baby. Having a miscarriage got us to a place of greatly desiring to be parents sooner than we had imagined and then trying to get pregnant for 10 months increased that desire all the more and after those hardships to be given Lucy, is just an indescribable joy to Joe and I. I am trying to cherish every single day and moment with her as it all is going so fast already. But just thanking our Lord for this good and perfect gift from above.

Most importantly I am SO thankful for Jesus. For His death on the cross for all of my sins: past, present and future. I'm thankful that I am able to see how sinful I am, especially lately, so that it is utterly clear in my mind that there is no amount of good that I can do to earn God's favor, to be worthy of spending an eternity with Him or to gain salvation. It is only through Jesus that I can be saved from my sin and be given new life. Praise God, there is no greater gift than this!

"Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling"

Thankful!

It's almost Thanksgiving, which is good because I stink at posting things I'm thankful for. Doesn't help that we don't have internet at our house yet...

Thankful for generous friends who helped us move, brought us meals and are continually offering us help with whatever we would need.

Also thankful that tomorrow is my last day of work for the week and we will be off through Sunday. And my parents come on Thursday and we'll work on painting, finshing unpacking, hanging pictures, Mom and I can work on our window boxes and fun projects...will be a great time!!

Thankful for Jesus and the gift he's given us of salvation through his death on the Cross. That is the biggest and best gift of all!

It's Done!!!

HOORAY!!!!!!!!
We own a house!!!
Can't believe how well it all went and fast too. Very thankful!!
Now on to moving - woo hoo!!!
Thanks for praying and for the encouraging words :)

Thankful for Ethiopia

Today I am so thankful for Ethiopia.
November 7 was Orphan Sunday (http://www.orphansunday.org/) and our church had a presentation and Orphan focus both in the a.m. and p.m. service and it was so awesome. Just to understand that we are adopted by God and grafted into His family through Jesus and also understanding our call to love and care for the fatherless in this same way.

There is an adoption ministry at our church and there are several families adopting (one from South Korea) and a few from Ethiopia which includes Joe's brother and sister-in-law. Don and Sara are hoping to bring home a little boy (or twins!) in 2011. We are so thrilled to be adding another little Jones to the bunch -it will be perfect timing with our little one - they will be cousins and besties, I just know it!!

I just wanted to share with you guys a link to order a shirt to support their adoption - they are great shirts, so comfortable - I wear mine all the time.
http://donandsarajones.blogspot.com/p/t-shirt-fundraiser.html
Another exciting piece of news is that they received a matching grant, where if they raise $5,000, they receive another $5,000 from an organization! I'm so excited about this - that will be a huge help to them!! So if you are wanting to give in this way, here is a link to that as well or you can email me for more info too. I'm just so excited to share this with you and so thankful for this country where my little nephew will come from and for Don and Sara as they bring this little one into their home.
http://donandsarajones.blogspot.com/2010/10/matching-grant.html

Thankful for Grace Church

Ok - so I was thinking, what am I thankful for today and I thought: Grace and the people there and then I thought, shoot, I'm totally copying Sari...oh well :)

Why I love Grace Church:
It's such a unique place. It feels like a family, even as it grows. And the youth group has been so wonderful and welcoming. We just love those kids so much. I feel like a half mother, half sister to like 30 girls :) :)
It is the first church that I have ever been at long term where my dad wasn't the pastor and that was hard at first, but now I can't really picture being anywhere else.
Everyone is so generous. With their time, talents, treasure, everything and they are always offering one of those things in our direction, whether for youth group needs or for us personally.
We are just so grateful - God has been so good to lead Joe's family there 18 or 19 years ago and to keep Joe and I there through college and now.
Our Marriage Builders Group last year

The fam outside the church

Thankful for Friends

Ok, so here's a little photo tribute to "friends." I realize it's leaving a lot of people out, but it's what I was able to grab off of facebook fast :)
I feel so very blessed to have friends from so many walks of life - friends that I share a lot of past memories with, get together with occasionally or regularly, see at work, chat on the phone with, see at reunions once a year, email or message here and there or throughout the day or week :)... All of you are so special to me and have impacted me greatly! LOVE YOU FRIENDS!! :)

Hooray for the House!!

Sorry for not posting the thankful posts (Sari), but I just got an email and have to share my thankfulness!!
We were approved for our loan and are good to go for our November 18 closing!!! Thank you Lord!! We are so excited and thankful and cannot wait to move into our new little place :)

Thankful for...Parents

Was at my boss's dad's funeral today. He was 87 and had lived a very full life, but it's never easy to say goodbye.
Just made me thankful for my parents. My dad was diagnosed with Leukemia when I was 6 years old, it's crazy just thinking how different life would have been without him. I'm so thankful the Lord choose to heal him and that he's been able to raise me and love me for the past 26 years and shepard his churches and love the body of Christ for the past 31 years.
Feel very blessed and thankful for their influence in my life.

November = Thankful

A friend of mine is posting things she is thankful for each day and encouraged her friends to do the same...So here I go.

I am stressed with house, loan and moving stuff - it is becoming very overwhelming. And I'm very tired with working these 10 hour + days and not having many evenings to recover and not getting enough sleep for what I need.
So with that said...I am off tomorrow (the only perk of working four-10 hour days...)
and I'm so thankful to have Thursday to be with Joe, sleep in (hopefully), pack up more, figure out any remaining loan details and cuddle on the couch with Molly who is staying with us for 2 weeks while my parents are out of the country.

*Also, could you pray for safety for my parents as they travel and that despite the fact that my dad will be teaching for a week, that it will be a restful and renewing time for them since the last two weeks have been really crazy for them with three deaths of my dad's church people. So that not only meant 3 funerals for my dad, but three personal losses - just a big toll on them physically and emotionally.