Happy Thanksgiving!

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" 2 Corinthians 9:15
That Gift is Grace. God gave me a gift that I did not deserve, that I could never be "good enough" to receive. He gave becauses He loves me(and you)- now my life is forever secure in His Grace because I chose to accept it!

As you all- we won't celebrate until Sunday- gather together with your loved ones and name the things you are "thankful for"- I pray that there is some recognition of the life, the hope, the peace, the joy, the promises, the forgiveness that can only come from Jesus Christ.

I am also thankful for Erik, Chelsea, Bradley, of course- Peterson, for our grandparents- here and gone, for our parents, for my sweet aunts who have loved me so dearly and I love so much back, for my uncle who challenges me but loves me anyway, for all my cousins, for my neices and nephews, Cindy and David, Michelle, Bridget and Klint, all my friends who have supported me and loved me through this experience to make it easier, the internet and email to stay connected, Skype and chatting with mom often, Gretchen, Haley and Sheldon living in eternal love. I have so much to be thankful for and so do you, name your blessings one by one...

Have a great Thanksgiving- I love you all!!

The planting has begun...

Moses and I went to the "nursery" today and picked out our starter plants. We chose eggplant, onions, tomatoes, green peppers, cabbage and chinese cabbage. There was no okra so we will try seeds. When the kids came home, Chelsea said, "How are they growing already?" Wow, is it hard to bite my tongue:)

Bradley has a field trip to the Peace Centre on December 5th for a Christmas Party. His class will be presenting "The Nativity Story"- how cool is that!! Bradley's teacher is due to have a baby in February and she has had to prepare 3 performances in 4 weeks - a "land use" skit, the Nativity performance on December 5 and Grease on December 10th. She will be exhausted and ready for our Christmas break.

Bradley's class will also be in the "Sound of Music" school performance this weekend. His class will be performing the puppet show scene. We will be going to the Saturday night performance.

Tomorrow night we are going to Hillsong United performance here at the Lusaka Fairgrounds. Hillsong is a christian music group from Australia and has been touring South Africa and added Zambia to their tour. This is quite a big deal for this area. Tickets were around $5. We are praying for no rain as it is an outdoor concert.

Chelsea's class will have an improv night next Tuesday. We attended an improv night last week with the other Year 7 class and it was really funny. An amateur "Whose line is it?" My kids laughed and laughed.

Things are getting busy around here as the end of school approaches and we begin a peaceful, joyful Christmas season- that is my prayer anyway.

Moses, Moses, how does your garden grow??

Poor Moses has been waiting for me to buy him a hoe so he could start our garden. Well, finally last week, I got the hoe. He has been so busy preparing the soil, building up the beds, and he is now ready for the vegetables so...tomorrow we will buy our cabbage, okra, onions, broccoli, maize and whatever else we planned. He is so much smarter than me...as I plan the vegetables, he says "well, we don't need much cabbage as there are only 5 of us that eat and the rest would be waste"- not the way I think but oh so right!!

We are so excited to see the fruit of Moses' labor- I hope Peterson stays out of the garden!!

I went to the kid's school on Thursday to pick them up and saw a man get out of his car holding a jacket- it was turquoise and black- and had a Jaguar emblem on it.

First of all, it was 3:30pm and quite warm 78 degrees and he has this heavy jacket. Zambians are as bad as Floridians when the temperature drops below 80, we are chilly.

Secondly, to have a Jacksonville Jaguar jacket in the middle of Africa. Pretty funny!! I did not ask for a picture but tried to sneak one in.

Look behind Chelsea and her friend, TsiTsi, and he is holding the jacket.

I also wanted to show you a picture of the boy with the crazy wild hair. Definitely worthy of a note from Mrs. Herring- don't tell her!

!