Blessings

If you got stuck in traffic on Madison Road between 4 and 7 this evening (or if you get stuck tomorrow morning), know that it is for a good reason. Close to 200,000 people in both Cincinnati and South Africa will be blessed this Thanksgiving through Thanksgiving boxes provided by Crossroads. They make it easy by providing you a box, a list, and then unloading your car for you. As I drove away, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the many blessings in my life. Last week, Brian Tome, the lead pastor at church, encouraged us to write down the things we are thankful for and to put them somewhere so that we could read them on Thanksgiving Day. We took out a small square vase and in our dining room we started our collection of things we are thankful for. I'm humbled that our words on a few pieces of paper aren't even close to being adequate enough to expressing all that we are blessed with. As the holiday season begins, Eric and I have continued to practice some of the traditions started in our families, but we're forging some new ones of our own. I think the thankful vase needs to be one--although truly I feel like it should be a year long thing because I so often "forget" just how blessed I am.
If you'd like to "add" to our thankful vase, feel free to leave a comment below (on Facebook or the regular blog since these notes import to Facebook too). I'm going to share the thankful notes from our vase in a new post next week and will post yours too if you'd like.

~Melody :-)

PS...I sometimes randomly come across strangers' blogs and take an interest in them (see the list at right under people we don't know). I've come across another one that you can see by clicking here. She's having a fun FRYday contest (I realize Friday is over), but I think you can still enter if you have a blog. Her blog is fun and one of these days I'll get around to posting on "not-me Monday." And if you have time to read the story about her youngest son, you should. It's pretty amazing what God can do.