Thanksgiving

Whew! It has been a whirlwind of a week! As if Thanksgiving isn't busy enough, we decided to add about 940 miles of car travel to the mix! Yes, we are absolutely crazy but it was still a great week. Even with the 24-hour stomach bug that Lauren had, the antibiotics that Aaron, Gracie and I were all on throughout the week, and the 7 1/2 hours it took us to drive home on Sunday with all the traffic, we still managed to have an enjoyable holiday with our families. Lauren was out of school for the entire week, so we began the week in Duluth, Georgia with my family. Last Monday, Aaron had an interview at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, GA, which is just 30 minutes north of Duluth/Lawrenceville, where my parents and sister live. We are in the midst of Aaron interviewing in multiple places for a neonatologist job, which would begin when his fellowship ends in June. Gainesville was his first interview and it went very well. Over the next two months, he has interviews at hospitals in Savannah, Montgomery and two in Atlanta. We are anxious to see where God leads us in this process. It has been a long road and it is amazing to us both that we are finally at the end. We are ready to settle down somewhere and root our family in a community where we will all be happy. It is a difficult decision and one that we are definitely not prepared to make alone. We are spending a great amount of time in prayer over this and know that God will continue to be faithful in His leading of our family. I will give updates on this as we have them. We welcome your prayers!

After spending a couple of days in Atlanta, we left for Birmingham and spent time with some of Aaron's family also. There was just an intimate gathering of 22 people! It was a great time though and aside from a delicious turkey dinner, I had my first golf lesson! That was quite humorous, to say the least! Let's just say I don't think Aaron is anxious to go golfing with me any time soon.

The third and final leg of our Thanksgiving week was spent back in Atlanta, celebrating Gracie's first birthday with my family. I can't believe our little baby is 1-yr old!! She is absolute pure joy for us all and I am so thankful for the past year with her. She's our angel. What a great day it was to have her celebrate with all of her cousins. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew we were all really excited about something! After we sang "Happy Birthday," she just clapped her little hands together and smiled. It was another great milestone for our family.

It was great to be surrounded by the love of our families. It made all of the hectic aspects of traveling with three young children completely worth it. Below are several pictures taken over this past week...

I thought I should probably tell you about this one...you know this must be a great cup of cocoa if I actually take a picture of it! My Dad made this for me before bed on my last night there. I had just gotten all three kids down for the night, and I was completely exhausted and came downstairs to see this waiting for me. My dad made fresh cocoa with freshly whipped cream. Yum!!