This past week was Thanksgiving, and what started as a week
of feeling sorry for myself, ended in giving thanks to an awesome God who
continues to pour out blessings upon me.
Starting last weekend, everyone’s Facebook statuses were about
traveling to see family and all the cooking that was being done- the pies, the
casseroles, and the massive turkeys. The
thought of being away from my family for the holidays has been an area of
struggle for me. I knew back in May when
I left the states that November and December were going to be the hardest
months for me here. I started to feel
sorry for myself. No family on
Thanksgiving. Poor, pitiful me.
No family on Thanksgiving- that could not be farther from
the truth. I am, in fact, surrounded by
family- brothers and sisters- that love me dearly. The A’s hosted a Thanksgiving feast for the
Americans on the Island. These two
cuties came into my room with an adorable invitation to our dinner
celebration.
We enjoyed chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole,
stuffing (my mouth is watering just typing the word “stuffing” because it was
that good), gravy, and rolls.
Dessert was a homemade apple pie with a scoop of ice cream
on top.
Sandy is an
INCREDIBLE cook- and made everything except the sweet potato casserole. The three single folks- Melisa, Son (another
Peacecorp worker here), and myself, made that.
It felt just like Thanksgiving back home. Family, fun, and yummy food! We even talked about downloading an old
football game to watch, but the speed of the
internet deterred us from following through. Even without football, a good time was had by all!
Sandy even sent us all away with goodie bags of banana muffins with pumpkin butter. DELICIOUS.
That would have been more than enough to make me feel like I
didn’t miss out, BUT I got to celebrate a second time! I had to go over to the other Island to do
some work this past weekend, and got to stay with my friends from language
school, Jamie and Chad. We didn’t get
much sleep because we were enjoying catching up- swapping stories, laughing,
crying- things you do with family. It
was such an awesome time of mutual encouragement and much needed friend time. Friday night we were talking about smoothies
and how I can’t get yogurt on my Island- something I practically lived off of
when I was in language school. Saturday
morning, Jamie came knocking on my door with a smoothie she had made me for
breakfast. Incredibly blessed, I tell
you. I am surrounded by very thoughtful
and loving friends. Family.
Jamie and Chad teach English for a different company, and they
work with a group of about 12 others.
They just so happened to be celebrating their Thanksgiving together on
Saturday night, and extended me an invitation.
They had a large spread of delicious goodness, and even had an imported
turkey from Kenya. I lucked out and even
got a piece of pecan pie for dessert! My
favorite. Here's a pic of me and Jamie after our feast. She's awesome.
Sandy and I flew back to our Island today, and she informed
me that we were having our leftovers for dinner tonight- SCORE. Needless to say, I ate very well this past
week. 3 Thanksgiving meals. All delicious. Rumor has it, that’s what we are having for
lunch tomorrow, as well.
Grateful for the reminder from the Lord that I have family
right here with me. My brothers and
sisters- what a blessing they have all been to me. So grateful that my family is WAY bigger than
my immediate family back in Jax. Can’t
wait for there to be more family members here on my Island one day J
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