Fall Review: Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving celebration was three-fold this year.  First, we took the day off school so the kids could have a holiday (even though no one else in Chogoria had a holiday on the fourth Thursday of November!).  Then we gathered as a compound community for a Thanksgiving potluck after the work day at the hospital was done.  Finally, on Saturday we gathered as an American expat community to have a traditional Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings.  To say that we ate a lot during those few days would be an understatement!

Our family tradition is to create a "Thanksgiving Tree" each year, decorated with leaves containing our handwritten gratitude on them.  This year's tree was extra special because Grandma and Grandpa Horn made leaves and sent them across the ocean to add to our tree!  We all expressed how thankful we were that Grandma and Grandpa were so thoughtful and intentional, remembering that they were with us and helped with our Thanksgiving Tree last year!

During the day, the kids did crafts and baked cookies and watched Free Birds.  Not a bad way to spend Thanksgiving!

The community potluck is a beautiful blend of American and African dishes.  We have a wonderful variety of cultures in our compound, which means the food is also a wonderful variety.  Kenyan, Burundian, Congolese, Ethiopian...  There was no turkey that night, but no one needed it.  Our bellies were full and our hearts were fuller!  We are deeply thankful for this community and how well everyone looks out for each other and loves each other well.

Over the weekend, when none of the docs had to be down at the hospital (thanks to Eli arranging the call schedule in such a way that none of the Americans would be on call over Thanksgiving), we feasted and fellowshipped and maybe had to wear our stretchy pants all day!  Honestly, this kind of meal makes us feel like we're not so far from America and all our family and friends there.  This is probably the closest thing to a touch of home that we feel all year.

And this year we welcomed a couple of our WGM friends from Nairobi who wanted to join us in Chogoria.  Jennifer and Becca brought the turkey and everything else but the kitchen sink!  They cooked more food than I thought possible for just two chefs in the kitchen, and it was mouth-watering good!  They are just delightful ladies, too, and everyone was glad they joined our crew.  It was a lovely blending of our Chogoria family and our WGM Kenya family (since we're the only WGM missionaries in Chogoria).

In short, we are so thankful for these people we get to call family on this side of the ocean.  This life we live binds us together in beautiful and powerful ways, and we couldn't be more blessed.