Life Lately: Bringing Thanksgiving

This year our Thanksgiving plans have changed. While we had intended to drive to Virginia Beach to spend Thanksgiving with Joe's family, we are instead heading to Little Rock. Nicholas is still not feeling well (an endoscopy this past Friday revealed an inflamed stomach and esophagus), and since he wasn't up to traveling home with such a short turn around time, we decided to bring Thanksgiving to him.

So, this past weekend I made lists and shopped at THREE stores (Costco, Lidl, Publix) because there is no way I'm going to a grocery store in Little Rock the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving.

I have two cardboard boxes filled with everything I need for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm also bringing food for several meals--pork tenderloin and polenta, chicken and dumplings, roast beef and oven potatoes--because I plan to cook nourishing, homemade meals that will hopefully aid Nicholas in his recovery. Some of it we will eat together, some of it I will leave in his freezer.

Our trusty minivan (220,000 miles!) will be packed with the four of us, along with winter coats, suitcases, and boxes of food. There will also be a bookcase strapped to the luggage rack. Over the (Mississippi) River and through the (Ozark) woods to Nicholas' apartment we go!

And we're excited! Having recently spent five days with Nicholas (And God Sent Three Strangers), I know how cozy and comfortable his apartment is. We don't have any big plans other than to enjoy our time together. We will eat, watch football (the guys), read (me), and play board games. I will cook, and the aroma of roasting turkey will permeate the apartment. After eating we'll go for a walk, or drive around to see Christmas lights. When we come back we'll have a slice of cherry or pumpkin pie.

And like we always do, when we gather around the table we will continue the tradition of our family's Thanksgiving prayer.

Because we have much to be thankful for.

Obrigado Senhor

Thank you, Lord, for my healthy limbs, when so many are crippled,

For my perfect eyes, when so many are without light,

For this voice that sings, when so many are mute,

For these hands that work, when so many have to beg.

It is wonderful, Lord, to have a home to return to,

When there are so many who don't know where to go.

It is wonderful, Lord, to laugh, love, dream,

When so many cry, hate, and die before being born.

It is wonderful, Lord, to have so little to ask,

And so much to be thankful for.

{This prayer was written by a Lino Villacha, a poet in Brazil who suffered from leprosy. He corresponded with our family through Sandro Nottegar, a physician and missionary who was the husband of my mother's best friend. Sandro passed away suddenly in 1986, and as of this time he has achieved the title of venerable in the process of beatification and canonization in the Catholic Church.}