Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We have been very busy over the last few days, and have not had a chance to post on the blog. We left White House, TN on Tuesday morning headed for Brewton, Alabama to spend Thanksgiving with Charlotte's parents. Tuesday night we spoke at Charlotte's home church - Catawba Springs Baptist Church. We shared the process of how God has called us to Costa Rica and some of the work we will be doing there. It was a great time to see people Charlotte has known all of her life, and some that remember her sharing as a 10 year old girl that God had called her to be a missionary.

After arriving back at Charlotte's parents home after speaking at the church, we were about to get in bed and I stepped on a needle. It broke off into my big toe, and the thread which was still in the eye of the needle was hanging out of my toe. It was 11:15 pm, and the needle was not coming out on its own. Charlotte and I notified her mother of what was going on so she could keep watch over the sleeping children, and we headed to the Emergency Room of D.W. McMillan Hospital in Brewton.

It was a slow night in the E.R. so I received attention quickly. The doctor turned out to be a very nice young doctor whose family is from Pakistan. I had an opportunity to share about what I'll be doing in Costa Rica. He was very interested, and even gave me a bag of medical supplies to take with me to use when medical teams come in.

They x-rayed my toe to see exactly where the needle was, and then the doctor numbed it and cut into my skin to get the needle out. He put a couple of stitches in, bandaged me up, and we arrived back at my in-laws at 1:00 am. Tuesday was a very crazy day!

Yesterday (Wednesday), we had our own family version of "Extreme Makeover." We got all the kids involved and redid the guest suite at Charlotte's parents home. We went to the brand new Walmart Supercenter in Brewton and purchased new comforters, curtains, pictures, and other supplies to give the guest suite an update! We couldn't believe the change, and thankfully Charlotte's parents liked it, too!

Today, we are gearing up for a great Thanksgiving. We will be having the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. But more than that, we are reflecting on all that we have to be thankful for. God has truly blessed us. We have sold many of our personal belongings, but He is teaching us that that is not where the true blessings lie. Our true blessings lie in knowing Christ as our Saviour and knowing that our eternity is settled. This time next year will be very different for us. We will be in Costa Rica in language school. They do not celebrate Thanksgiving in Costa Rica so for them Thanksgiving is just another day. Yet, we will still take time to reflect on our blessings.