Oh. So. Thankful.

 Is there a bigger word for thankful?  The thesaurus gave me: beholden, appreciative, grateful, indebted, satisfied and content.  All good, but none of those alone can fully express how I feel.  What a year it has been!

We made a Thankful Tree this year.  Whenever we sat down to dinner together, we would talk about something we were grateful for this year.  Elli enjoyed the whole process and seemed to understand what we were doing.  We tried to emphasize that we are saying "Thank you" to God for his great kindness.

Her answers were both sweet and humorous (bears made the list!), but what struck me was how she would repeat answers.  There were multiple "Daddy" and "Ginger" leaves.  At first I was trying to get new answers from her, but was convicted that the Lord never gets tired of hearing the same prayer from us. 

When we looked back to last year, it's incredible to see what the Lord has done.  There are the obvious, external blessings - Caroline, great jobs, our new home.  And then there are those blessings that are more difficult to articulate - growth in our marriage, the gift of friendships, and a deeper walk with the Lord

God is good.  All the time.  Amen!