Thanksgiving.... my new normal

So I know that it takes about six months for a "new" normal. Having adopted three times I know all about not expecting things to feel normal right away. I know it takes awhile. I know this and it makes sense to me.  Something that you do every single day takes a good six months for it to feel like it's normal. Ok, so what about a holiday? Thanksgiving for instance. You only do that once a year. How long does that take to feel normal?  I'm guessing a really long time : (

In so many ways Thanksgiving "felt" right. I mean better than right...it felt overwhelmingly like what we were supposed to be doing on Thanksgiving.

We got up early and went to serve at the Dream Center....what a great blessing for us.  The Dream Center served over 3000 meals that day and we were able to help with a very small portion of that. Our kids went door to door, handed a meals to families and told them "God bless you"...that was way cool. It really impacted the girls.  They've both served in the soup kitchen at home, but never did they go door to door on Thanksgiving day. I loved seeing them serve the Lord....that did this Momma's heart good! Josiah had no idea what we were doing, but he had a good ole time saying "Happy Thanksgiving" to everyone. He invited himself in to a few homes and pitched a little fit when we made him leave, but other than he had a blast.

By 11:30 the smell of Thanksgiving dinner had gotten to all of us so instead of a picnic on the beach as planned we ended up at Cracker Barrel for dinner. Great idea !  It was delicious. The kids loved it. They even had Thanksgiving dinner..yum.

Then we were off to the house to get ready for the beach.....by this time I've started thinking about home. Thinking about my family. Thinking about the foods that I would normally cook. The people that I would be spending the day with had I been home...my family. Oh, I missed them and I'm really bummed by this point. Funny how you can go from awesome to blah in no time. I've never lived away from home. In forty-two years. I knew holidays would be hard. I've loved living in Charleston so far, but it's Thanksgiving and I felt like I should be at my Momma's table right now, not at Cracker Barrel. I know I'll be there at Christmas, but I wanted to be there now! Then God does what He always does...He gives me a little perspective which nudges my attitude and sooner or later my mood changes.  He reminded me that no amount of miles separate me from my family. So I called them which made me feel so much better. He also reminded me that this wasn't a bad Thanksgiving at all. It had been a great Thanksgiving so far. It was just different. I needed to trust Him in this and know that we were exactly where we were supposed to be on this day...this Thanksgiving Day. Well, by the time I had the ocean in my sight He reminded me yet again of all that I am thankful for....the beach being one of them.

And we relaxed and enjoyed His creation once again. The kids played and ate the desserts we made the day before. We collected shells and walked on the beach. It was a perfect fall beach day. I laughed out loud when it dawned on me that here I was with my toes in the sand at the end of November. Are you kidding me? It's almost winter and I'm at the beach : ) All I could say is thank You.  What a beautiful place to relax, watch my children play with my hand in my husband's hand and think about all that I'm thankful for.... God is good. He knows I miss my family, but I trust His perfect plan for my life. 

 

Psalm 18:30 As for God, His way is perfect.