Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

Since we've lived in Russia, Thanksgiving has been the hardest holiday for me to be away from our family in the States. We have wonderful teammates who are like a second family, and yet Thanksgiving always reminds me that Thanksgiving is an American holiday (in November anyways) and that a lot of our teammates aren't American. This Thanksgiving we'd wanted to invite a lot of people over to celebrate (and now we have lots of space in our apartment!) and then I was on bed rest and everything changed. I never actually made invitations early on and nobody invited us (probably because they knew we couldn't come), but I must confess I felt pretty left out and sad about it all. So I prayed. I prayed that God would somehow allow us to celebrate Thanksgiving. And a couple of days later, Nettie asked if she and Renata could bring Thanksgiving to us! I was really touched by their offer, and really amazed at how quickly and kindly God answered my prayer. (and was reminded that if he cares about something like a holiday, how much MORE He cares about our family and this little baby inside of me!)

The day before, Leif made these Native American headresses (above) with the girls. Anneka didn't like wearing hers because she said it made her look like a fox. They love dressing up in costumes. And Ella always wants Anneka to dress her, not Mama or Papa.



Leif made an apple pie, mashed potatoes, and a green bean casserole, and Nettie and Renata brought everything else!! While the girls napped (both slept at the same time!) and the turkey baked(Renata found one after both girls searched and searched the city!), we played a rousing game of Beyond Balderdash.



Anneka and I found a template for placecards online, and she wrote everyone's names on them.



We had a wonderful feast!

Nettie leads a Bible study every week, and a girl that she's been pouring into came and joined us. It was really fun to share our tradition with her, and I felt like she was soaking everything in. In every spare moment, she read from different Christian literature on our shelves and she seemed really eager to learn more about God.



After dinner, the girls put together puzzles together and played games. Anneka and Ella loved the attention!



Ella really liked the whipped cream!



We shared things that we're thankful for and sang praise songs together. It was such a nice relaxing day, filled with God's goodness!



...and laughter...



and love.