Tag: Thankful

13 – The Summer of Fun

Our first summer was insane.

It was an incredible welcoming to an area of the world that we were new to.

BBQ’s, Church get togethers, board game evenings, meals together… People knew how to make us feel welcome and loved. We needed it.

Daniel took me up to Yellow Aster Butte, it was crazy.

There were hundreds of flies… that was the negative.

We camped out on a night where the skies were so clear.

The was a meteor shower that night… I was sat on what it seemed to be the top of the world with a friend I had known for about a decade.

It was again a great intro to the area and what was available.

Snowboarding, skiing in the winter, summers by lakes and up mountains.

What else could we want?

The biggest issue in my mind throughout all of this was that I still didn’t have my green-card.. And I hated not providing or my family.

We were house sharing with an incredibly generous and loving couple.

The sharing wasn’t hard. The dependance on others who had earned the right to have their house was the issue to me. I felt like I was robbing them of their earned privacy and home life.

One of the hardest things I have learnt is to allow people to bless us as a family. To give them the opportunity to bless and give to us.

And for me to be thankful for it.

That is still something that I am learning to this day.

10 – Acceptance.

I am a proud person.

Pride is something that I would say I struggle with.

Moving to a new country, let alone a new home… I struggle to take the hand outs from people.

The hands to help with the move. I will remember those people and help them when they need it.

The meals brought round after you move or when you need someones truck… whatever it is. I do remember who was there. I do remember.

What I have learnt however with this move. With this whole not having a home thing.

I have had to accept a lot.

People have generously shared their homes, their food, their vehicles, their time, their love and their lives with us.

I like to know I have earn’t the money that pays for our bills, the rent, the food.. etc.

We as a family have had to accept a lot. We are thankful. We remember.

As a man, I struggle with it. Usually in silence as I do not want to resist the opportunity for someone to bless us. That may sound funny but I mean it in the way that I love to be able to help people, bless people or even surprise people with something that they may not even need.

But the thing that I have had to learn is that if I reject someone, I may very well be rejecting what they have been called to do by God, or maybe they just love us and want to see us living well.

I have had to put aside my pride.

But we have been blessed.

And we are so thankful.