Only two days after returning from the cruise, Kaylee and I flew to Phoenix. We stayed with my brother, Bob, and sister-in-law, Renee, and my sister Donna came to Phoenix from Kingman. My sister, Alice, also lives in Phoenix.
We were all able to have dinner together last Thursday night. On Friday, Donna, Renee, Kaylee and I went to the Women of Faith Conference and heard Beth Moore all day. It was a great day together and we got to hear Beth too! What could be better???
Something really neat happened, totally unexpected. I love it when God does that! Almost a year ago, I had heard about one of our service men that was killed in Iraq, leaving behind a wife and five young children. We have a mutual friend, and over this year I have received updates on the family and carried a huge burden for them. Ginger and the children live in Phoenix, and Ginger has stood firm through the tragedy. She has taken a public stand for our military, for America, and for God. She has been a huge blessing to me, even though I had never met her. On Friday, among THOUSANDS that were at this conference, I walked right by her, I KNEW it was her, and I turned right around and went back to her and introduced myself! I needed her to know that I had been praying for her and that she had been a testimony of God's faithfulness to me. We held tightly to each other for several minutes, knowing that God had just ordained our moment together. Pray for Ginger and her children-the 27th will mark the one year anniversary of Troy's death. During the night on Friday, it would seem that I came down with a stomach bug, and I was not able to go back to the conference on Saturday! I was SO disappointed, but everyone else went back and had a great day. On Sunday we were in church together and then went shopping and to our favorite place-Marie Calendars! On Monday we returned home, and now, life is back to normal! No more trips for a while! It feels good!
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Jen's parents were in town, and Jen's brother, Dave and his wife, Laura surprised them and came to visit too! We had a great day together, just low key and relaxing! We checked out the adds for shopping tomorrow, and just had time to visit and enjoy getting to know each other. I got my camera out to take pictures of our meal...but then I forgot to do it till it was WAY too late! 
Everything was very good and I didn't stress, just enjoyed having my family here together and welcoming Jen's family into ours. Jen reminded us today that last Thanksgiving was her first with our family and Joshua also made it her first fishing trip! I guess it is true that time flies. I never dreamed my table would be too small to fit all of my family around, but we are growing and had to use the bar today too! We have so much to be thankful for and because of this we look forward to our tomorrows, knowing He has a great plan in mind!
