Happy Thanksgiving!

(stolen from dear Lyds :-P)

We have so very much to be thankful for and it seems that each year our list grows. Here are just our top five:
1. Each other--What an amazing blessing marriage is! Neither of us can imagine life without the other. Lamentations 3 rings true daily in our relationship: "His compassions never fail. They are new every morning."
2. Our BFF's--From the Nutters, the Remys, the Whites, the "former" Bang cg crew, the K-Marc group, Nurse Jess, and oh so many others! We are rich in friendship! We love you all so very, very much and thank God for you!
3. KG--Oh man. What fun we have with you all! Our singles group is bar none the best care group out there. Fellowship, laughter, food, and encouragement mark every meeting it seems. We cherish the memories we've already made together (does Neal go to bed earlier on Thanksgiving? should kg start standing for 'Kingdom of God' instead of 'Kless Group'?) and the time we've spent together before our Father. We are spurred on to follow God more because of you all--not simply because we are humbled and out of our league in trying to care for you but because of your godly examples to us.
4. Our families--We are so blessed to have both families living nearby. We know that it's not a common experience to be able to pop in to visit either family whenever we like. We're so grateful for the way that our parents and siblings love us, pray for us, and enjoy spending time with us. We're so grateful that God created our new family from two wonderful families that both happen to live in MoCo.
5. Our home--What an amazing blessing our little love nest is. Almost every day I look around me in disbelief that this lovely, well-equipped, warm little home is ours. We are so grateful for the physical provision and the wonderful family who opened their home to us. What a joy it is for us to know and share life with each of them: Denny, April, Conner, Jake, and soon-to-be Elijah, we thank God for you!

And hopefully our acknowledgment is obvious but the reason we're able to enjoy each of these things, the reason we have any of these things is because of our great and glorious Creator! These "things" make us amazed but our hearts are truly in awe when we consider what God has done for us in sacrificing His perfect sinless Son for us, opening our eyes to that glorious truth, and then beyond that blessing us with such a comfortable life here on earth.

"Oh, enkindle a flame of undying gratitude to You, on the clay-cold altar of my heart. I mourn and lament that I am so little and so feebly affected by the magnitude of Your mercies, and especially by the riches of Your grace and love manifested in Jesus—that my affections are so little alive to the incalculable obligation under which I am laid to Him who has 'loved me with an everlasting love.' I am doubly Yours. Creation and redemption combine in claiming all I am, and all I have, for You and Your service. Good Lord, preserve me from the sin of insensibility to Your unwearied kindness—of taking Your mercies as matters of course, and thus living in a state of independence of You. May my whole existence become a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving—may all my doings testify the sincerity and devotion of a heart feeling alive to every gift of the great Giver; and, especially, may I be so brought under the constraining influence of redeeming love, as to consecrate every power of my body and every faculty of my soul to Him who so willingly consecrated and shed His very life's blood for me." (John MacDuff)