Thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving held many first for our family. It was the first year that Matt and I had been separated since we've been married. He and I had been separated from the kids in 2006 when we came on our vision trip to Costa Rica, but we've never been separated from each other. Matt and Ethan spent the day traveling back from Nicaragua, where they had been for a few days to renew their visas.

The girls and I were actually invited to two separate dinners this year, which was a very nice welcome to the area. We accepted the first invitation to spend the day with the family that we spent time with on our vision trip here back in September, the Akin family. So, we got a ride to their house midday and the girls ran off to play while I found my place in the kitchen and began helping with the last minute things to be done.

The Akin's children attend a private school here in Costa Rica where children from literally all over world attend. Their children have a wide variety of culture in their day-to-day lives. The family extended the invitation to several families of friends from their school who had never before experienced Thanksgiving. Also invited were several young women who are here in the area studying Spanish for various lengths of time.

So there were people in attendance from the states, London, Holland, Italy, Venezuela, as well as Costa Rica. It was very interesting to talk with many of the people and hear there stories and learn about their countries and lives.

The story of the first Thanksgiving Day was shared, along with a few tears, when it was discussed how now, for their family as well as for Christians this is a day to give thanks, glory and honor to God for all we have in our lives and most importantly for the sacrifice of His life for ours.

It was a joy to me to be able to help out in the kitchen, discover this family's favorite Thanksgiving foods and learn how to make them, see how they all pitched in to make the day happen, down to the youngest in the family, and to make new memories in the new place God has lead us.

I learned a lot about Venezuela, Holland and Italy. Some of the stories I heard were quite amazing to me. Many that were there do not know the Lord and so this day was a chance to share Christ and His love with them.

So, the day for us was a first also to meet people from Holland, and share the special day with people from there as well as from Italy. there were two girls I never got the chance to talk with and I'm sad I didn't get to hear their stories or where they were from...Maybe we'll meet again...

Thankfully, we brought home a plate of leftovers for Matt and Ethan, so they got to enjoy a few yummy Thanksgiving favorites as well! :)

Here is a picture of all those present, except Audrey and the youngest Akin, Rebecca. They must have ran off somewhere right before the picture was snapped.