Thanks for extended family and support

This week of Thanksgiving I'm going to start early. I'm overwhelmed with gratitude for all the support and community I have in  my life. First, I'm so thankful for my newest community of support, my fellow bloggers. Thank you, Nancy, Cinda and Accidental Expert for your excellent posts while I was gone on my retreat this weekend. Whether you are a regular who didn't have a chance to read their blogs, or first time visitors, you should check out their wonderfully thoughtful and informative posts beginning on Friday, November 20th.

Next, I'm overwhelmed with the extended family I have through The Navigators, with whom my husband and I spent the weekend. Here's our "family picture" of this weekend.

Although my husband has known most of these people for thirty years, I've only known them about ten. Each person in this picture (and some who are not) I could tell a story of how they've impacted my life during one of these twice a year weekend retreats.

Actually, the first couple I'm writing about I met on my wedding day. For our wedding, they drove from the state Washington to the tip of Maryland which sits out in the Chesapeake Bay. They stood in line for almost two hours in the reception line to hug us. (The line was very slow moving because this was the first time for many family and friends to meet Scott or myself ). This couple said to me, "We've been praying for you for twenty years, we are glad to finally meet you."

The current leader of this group drove down from Pennsylvania one weekend and sat on our couch and listened to, encouraged and prayed for us at the lowest point in our church's history, a time when my husband was facing a year without a pastor, a membership which had shrunk from 120 to 50 and barely enough funds to pay the  mortgage and utilities. The previous leader was the most brilliant man I've every known. He was killed in a hit and run accident. Approximately, one thousand people from France to the Philippines came to his funeral. And when asked how many had sat across the table and shared a meal or a cup of coffee with him, nearly 900 people stood. I could go on and on and on about each person in this picture and others who are not. It is amazing to me that we only see each other twice a year during this retreat and yet we pick up with each other's lives as if we've never been apart.

When Scott and I returned home, I was further overwhelmed by the extended family we left behind. You see, the band who plays music during our Sunday worship services had decided to rearrange where they stand on stage. And these precious people thought about Jonathan and how this might throw a little guy who doesn't like change...especially on a weekend when mom and dad wouldn't be coming to church with him. So they called us during the week to give us the opportunity to prepare Jonathan. Then one person sat behind Jonathan to keep and eye on him to make sure he was okay.

When we went into church last night for a quarterly time of gathering to sing our favorite songs and pray for one another, we were greeted as if we'd been gone longer than one day. Furthermore, the pastor publicly thank Scott for his friendship over the nearly three years since he arrived, which means a lot to mean knowing how difficult some of the times were before he arrived and how my husband held the church together. Even his own wife was begging him to abandon ship like all the others. I'm so thankful Scott was the "good Naval officer and was willing to go down with the ship" (as I often accused him during those dark times) because he had enough faith in the Lord to keep us going in the dark times.

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This is my father-in-law. I love this picture of him and Jonathan, because it says it all to me. Jonathan and Dad Howe are like two peas in a pod. They have the same quirky personality. Dad eats peanut butter toast every morning for breakfast. Jonathan eats peanut butter and jelly for lunch without fail. They both have wonderful relationships with their sisters. They both play subtle practical jokes. They both enjoy a good laugh.

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Who are your extended families and communities? I'd love for you to leave one of your memories in my comments today so that I can read about them.

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