Capture Gratitude

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“There is no event so common place but that God is present within it, always hidden, always leaving you room to recognize Him or not to recognize Him.”  Fredrick Buechner

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7. Christmas dinner @ Grammie's.

I am thankful for the perspective my Thanksgiving in Africa gave me - and thankful to have been RIGHT where God wanted me at that moment. But I am also VERY thankful to be home for Christmas, and eating turkey, dressing, and sweet potatoes (instead of meatloaf.)

8. Handmade Gifts

I love my sister-in-law for many reasons. One of them is that we share a love of the hand-made. This year for Christmas, she made Micah this awesome set of roads (out of old jeans):

And Tobin these AMAZING Angry birds. Both boys love both of these toys. And so does Mama!

(by the way? Both of these gift ideas came from Pinterest. Which Mama also loves.)

9. First Red Cup of the season (Peppermint Hot Chocolate)

 

10. Home

I'm still not over the joy of being home. Home with all five of us in one place. I love Uganda, and I loved being there. I would not have minded staying for longer, if all five of us had been there together. But it sure is nice to be in my home, not living out of a suitcase - even if here I have to do all of my own laundry and clean up after myself (and everyone else.)

11. Christmas Mail

This week, in addition to so many lovely Christmas cards (ours can be found HERE), we got MM's final immigration approval. He won't be officially a US citizen until we finalize his adoption (which in Nebraska, we can't do until he's lived with us for 6 months). But it sure was fun to get this:

12. Sleep
We've had some sleep difficulties this week, so every time I see this, I am thankful:

 I especially love this picture, because it's the first time I've seen Micah Marvin really cuddle with a stuffed animal. He plays with them sometimes, but pushes them away when it's time to sleep. To add to the sweetness, this is officially Tobin's monkey - it was a birthday present from build-a-bear last year. When T first got it out, M went NUTS for it, and T wouldn't share. But M loves it so much, and Tobin is sharing. Thankful their friendship is blossoming.