From: Suki
Date: Sun Nov 23 00:33:07 EST 2008
Subject: Thankfulness

Hi, Adrienne! Glad for your contribution to the conversation and for your delight in your baby. I'm looking forward to holding him!! The Soup Supper was beautiful, and I stuffed myself silly with great soups, breads, & desserts. Yum! I am thankful that God saved Kelsea's life this year. Also, I remember the first Soup Supper in the back room of New Covenant when there were only 11 of us. I think we had just started the Village and merged our church plant with Rod's church plant. So we hardly knew each other. And it was kind of awkward, emphasized by the fact that the room itself was cold and gray. But it was good and people were thankful for good things. And now here we are seven years later with a lot more connections and people and history and warmth, and I'm thankful for that. Maybe part of what I'm thankful for in this is that I personally feel less awkward and self-conscious and more warm and comfortable than I did back then.

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From: rodhugen
Date: Sun Nov 23 09:00:01 EST 2008
Subject: Pain

Hi, I, too, look forward to seeing Bentley. And you all! This year I realized that I am grateful for the 'gift' of pain. It doesn't seem like much of a gift, but I have discovered new things about God and experienced his love in much deeper and more intimate ways. In some ways I can better identify with Jesus as I live with a little suffering. I also get to learn to be more dependent on God and the community. I'm not the big, strong man who can do anything (I never really was) and I have learned to experience the scorn of people watching my little wife lift heavy weights while I stand and watch. I have had the privilege of choosing to be served instead of serving. I have begun to learn the reality that hidden handicaps are hard to bear, because people doubt you and misunderstand you, and because you grow weary of explaining it over and over again and so you stop explaining and just receive the label of 'lazy' or 'too good to help' or 'jerk', all of which I have been called in the past year when I was not able to physically do something. It makes me think of the way Jesus was, and is, labeled with derogatory accusations: "He saves others, but himself he can not save.' It also helps me more deeply to identify with those who suffer from chronic illness or pain. So, in a strange way, I am grateful for the lessons of pain. Rod

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From: andrea
Date: Mon Nov 24 14:53:11 EST 2008
Subject: infertility

I said that I was thankful for the infertility. Thankful that God placed that in our lives so that we could care for M for a short amount of time, and Ellie forever. That the infertility (and loss of M) felt like at times I would just lay down and die from the pain, but that God had a purpose and He let us see a piece of that this year. And I was thankful for the community who loved M also and who will pray for her for the rest of their lives. God is good...always. Missed you A!

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From: Karen
Date: Wed Nov 26 00:00:00 EST 2008
Subject: Trip to Holland

So, the week Bentley was born, a paper mysteriously showed up in my work mailbox...you know, that little box in the teacher lounge. It was a copy of something, without author's name, that described a very interesting analogy: having a child with a disability was like finding out you'd be going to Holland, after months of planning for Italy. I don't know who put it in my box, or why, but it was somehow "about" you...weird in the timing there. I cried as I read it. It was a message from God about you, somehow in my Cross mail box. I thought about mailing it to you, but then I thought I'd do some research and find out where the passage had come from... It was so beautifully written and insightful. That paper is still on my desk...I was going to find out more and give it to you over Christmas ;-) Looks like you got the book already. That's cool. It struck me at the time that this is pretty much what life is like for everyone, if you're honest. You (you in the sense of everyone) might have control in the sense that you can plan for a trip...but don't end up in the same spot you thought you would. You can choose to enjoy the Van Gogh museum instead of the Italian masterpieces. So who's the author? ;-)

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From: adriennelynne
Date: Wed Nov 26 12:18:05 EST 2008
Subject: enjoyment

From: corwithani
Date: Wed Nov 26 01:04:19 EST 2008
Subject: hmm...

hmm. the what I am thankful for question is difficult for me this year. this year I'll spend my first thanksgiving ever without any family members... I know that's kind of normal for people my age, but for me, it's sad and I wish I could be with them. oh growing up... speaking of, I guess that's a lot of what I am thankful for. I'm thankful that even though I'm in this crazy transitional out-of-college-and-still-feel-kind-of-clueless phase of life, I am grateful that I have stability in Jesus. I'm thankful that He's the one thing in my life that's never changed. No matter how unstable and how much all this change freaks me out, I have Someone to trust and rely on and be broken and scared to. I have a refuge and a fortress (and have to keep reminding myself of that :) ). and of course I am thankful for all of you. moving to a place where I am not as known has proved difficult and scary. I long to find people with similar values here in this crazy cold state. :) so love to all of you and have a great thanksgiving.

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