Happy Thanksgiving

Talk about caught between two emotions.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we wish we were home.  This is a special family day for us and we so much enjoy our kids, grandkids and grand dogs.  I guess we wouldn’t have Thanksgiving with Michele and Lance and family since they are in Colorado but we could be with their dog Biscuit, Molly, and Mike and Dani’s family.  We really miss them all.

My oldest brother’s wife had her car run over her leg breaking it in several places along with other injuries.  We’d love to be there with her and my brother.  Then there is my other brother who is going through stuff that just plain hurts.

We wish we could be home for our friends too.  I know there would be some great times this week or weekend.  There are those we would love to be with who are going through some really hard times.  We would love to be by their side at this time since they’ve been by ours so often.

Sally has a really bad tooth ache so we would love to be home to be in the good hands of Dr. Steele.  We go to a French dentist tomorrow and I think with a little well-founded fear.

While we would love to be home at this time of year we are not home, in fact, we are half way around the world in a place that gets awfully hot and dusty, speaks other languages than ours, and is so different from home that I am in sometimes in awe.    

Yet, God is good, so while we would love to be home now we are so glad to be here too.  We are having just wonderful experiences, adventures, and relationships.  God has provided well for us.

Last weekend we went to the only Stadium in Niger to watch a high school field day or track meet.  We knew so many of the kids.  Then Sally and I had a dinner date and I drove home in the dark not hitting anyone or anything.

The past few weeks I have been driving Florentine and her two kids home after work most nights.  She lives about two miles away and they usually walk.  How you could walk along the roads we take without getting just filthy I don’t know but she does it.  Always looks colorful and great.

Starting this week I started teaching Hallidou, the guy who is supposed to be the new center manager sometime in the future, how to use a computer.  He is thrilled to be learning it and it is such fun to teach him.  It is like taking a little kid to a candy store.  He smiles all the time.  He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak French so we keep Google Translate open, I type in English and then he types in French.  It works and I love it.

Tomorrow we go to the home of someone from the US Embassy who is having Americans over for a potluck.  We’ve never done that before.  Then we come back here and have Thanksgiving dinner with the SIL crew and friends.  Not home but still a time to give thanks.

So this Thanksgiving we give thanks to all of you, to our life here in Niamey, and to our God who has blessed us beyond our understanding.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!