Gobble, Gobble...

…and cluck, cluck – words that Mia has learned to say with enthusiasm! Happy Thanksgiving!

We were able to celebrate in grand style here on campus – cozily snug in our apartment. Bartlesville posted a record high on Wednesday – 80 degrees, and a record low today (Friday) of 14 degrees. What?! No matter how many times I click my heels, I really don’t think I’ll be seeing Arizona sunshine anytime soon. It appears that winter has come to roost on our doorstep.

However, our home is warm and was cooking on Thursday. Gaby and I got together early and left Daddy in charge of child care, parade and football watching. We made the full dinner, not without a few laughs (this was my first time really ever touching a raw turkey and I couldn’t help but feel that I was being inappropriate with the poor bird as I reached in and pulled its neck from the body cavity) and calls home to our respective mothers, who are firmly positioned as the smartest women alive and best cooks ever!

We gorged ourselves and didn’t get sick at all. Mia ate at the table, prayed with us and held hands, and particularly enjoyed the green marshmallow salad. Her teeth were green as well, which I suppose means that I should be a bit more vigorous with enforcing the tooth brushing policy at our house.

After collapsing into bloated heaps for awhile Gaby and I pulled out the Monopoly board. I haven’t played Monopoly in years! I was on a roll and feeling quite good about life – I owned all but three sets of properties on the board and things were looking fairly grim for Gaby. In the midst of all of this Mia got pretty bored and so we called a halt to Monopoly and started our first Thanksgiving tradition – pulling out the nativity set.

We got the Fisher Price nativity set so that Mia could play with everything. Interestingly enough, we noticed that Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus are white but the shepherds and wise men are brown, and the donkey pulls a cart filled with modern-day groceries. I got in trouble with my husband for telling Mia that she could call the donkey an ass. As accurate as that is, he didn’t think that Mia should learn that word yet… deep down inside I agree. It is an amazing donkey, however. The mane is of yarn for a “touch and feel” effect and it sticks straight up off its head like it stuck its tail in a light socket. Mia now knows how to say, “Hee Haw!” and has been rounding the corners of the hallway, saying it to scare us!

After we read the Christmas story it was time to get ready for bed and Gaby decided to go home. Phone calls to family that we miss… and then I talked Izzy into finishing the game of Monopoly we hadn’t put away yet. BIG mistake. I DO NOT KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED… despite owning almost the entire board of properties I ended up declaring bankruptcy! He owned the green properties and put hotels up… I swear to you, I hit those hotels EVERY SINGLE TRIP AROUND THE BOARD!

Now, I’m not proud to say it, but I went to bed a little disgruntled and not particularly thankful for board games or the lessons learned in losing. Izzy was as supportive as possible, saying I was just grumpy because I am competitive… but it’s really hard to take sympathy from someone who is also competitive and QUITE happy that they have won!

Today started Maggie’s fourth day of no output in the bodily sense. The poor thing was seriously stopped up. After listening to her cry and cry we fed her 4 oz. of apple juice and – man! – does that do the trick. I feel like I’ve changed as many diapers today as I did in the previous 11 weeks combined! I wonder what personality she’ll have once she gets these stomach gasses under control?

Overall, I would have to state that I am truly thankful for the blessings of my life. I am privileged in so many ways, in my citizenship, freedoms and especially through my family. I learned yesterday that it was the first Thanksgiving since my sister was born that my parents haven’t had us around on this holiday… I grieve for that even as I accept the responsibility that we chose to move to Oklahoma. Then I focus on my two precious little girls and, to excerpt from an email I received earlier this week: “One of the things that I have learned is a new outlook on parenting. Not just appreciating my healthy [child] even more, but intentionally asking that [they] would be "a blessing.” I realize that as parents we pray that our children will be saved, healthy, happy, etc. But it takes our aspirations for them to a far deeper level when we ask that they will be "a blessing." … As I've begun, feebly, to put my new perspective into practice, to invest myself more deeply into [my children’s] life, to truly delight in [them], to show [them] how much I love [them], to make an effort to share God's truth with [them] already... I see my own heart changing. I want [them] to be a blessing. As I adopt this perspective, it changes me from the core. It chips away at the selfishness I fall into so easily, and softens me to be a mother with a purpose.”

I realize that there are a lot of hurts in the world right now – just in my friends I have someone who has been intimately involved with a toddler dying of an incurable disease, another friend whose mom will have open heart surgery tomorrow, another who is actively working to combat serious health problems… there are some really big things going on. I don’t have easy, pat answers… but I do know that in the midst of each struggle there is truly something to be thankful about and a purpose in the way we face each challenge.

And that is all I have to say about that.