Listening and waiting...not really my forte

The Ivanovo Princesses (Alys and Sarah) came to visit for Thanksgiving. Sarah Beth (can you see her head in Sarah's lap?) was pretty thrilled, as were the rest of us.
Ed, Marc and Jill are solving the problems of Russia in the Tarleton's kitchen. Not a bad way to spend Thanksgiving.
Aren't our girls all beautiful? This was a couch full of pretty on Thanksgiving Day.
Hannah and her friend, Amielle, contemplate the many delicious desserts laid out on Thanksgiving Day.
We had some great praise and worship time. I can't tell you how much we love the people in this picture.

Trust and obey
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey.

I don't have tons of time this morning, since Hannah has to be at Kaluzhskaya Mall to meet a friend in an hour, but I thought I'd take a second or two to post some Thanksgiving pics and tell you that we had a great day. We spent the day at Ed Tarleton's with Ed, Rachel and Rebecca and about 30 other people. We had a great time, and we walked away feeling thankful for the relationships we've made here in Moscow. Then last night we had about 30 people over for an after-Thanksgiving chili and football (and Christmas movies and Phase 10) party. We had a wonderful time, and I'll post some pics tomorrow of that. Suffice to say that it's been a great holiday for us, and we are enjoying some time as a family without a lot of outside pressures. I'm especially thankful for that.

I've been thinking a lot about how God's grace isn't always comprehensible, and neither are the things that He sifts through His hands for us. We are facing decisions about our career that we never thought we'd have to make this early into our career. Beloved friends, faithful servants here in Russia, had an adoption fall through and found out the same day that they will likely have to leave Russia for good. Of course, Thanksgiving Day was a reminder that our darling Teri was missing, bringing thoughts of that loss to the forefront of our minds again. More and more, life gets harder in this country for foreigners. What is He up to? Shouldn't it be easier to be His? Unfortunately, if you study His word, there's no promise of easy. There's only a promise to be faithful, to always be with us. I'd love to see the verse with a promise of an easy life, so if you can find it, let me know. But so far, that's not how it's worked for most people I know. So what do you do with the stuff that makes no sense? You listen and wait. You smile and move forward. You trust and obey...even when it doesn't make sense. So we're enjoying our weekend, listening and waiting, trusting and obeying. There really is no other way to be happy in Jesus.

Well, we've got to get Hannah to the mall to meet her friend, so I'd better run. Wherever you are in the world, I pray that even when life doesn't make sense, you will trust and obey the One who loves you more than you can imagine, and that your Russian friend brought you beautiful red carnations at the party at your house last night. Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye