Even though it’s hot and sunny here in Brisbane, and there are no turkeys or pumpkin pie, I have not forgotten Thanksgiving. I had so much fun doing our family Thanksgiving letter last year that I am definitely making a tradition of it, no matter where we are!

First, here’s last year’s. I’ve enjoyed remembering and wanted to include the original.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1youN64tsuunearEg5X2dV39eDHQpdvF_Kdyht9RW4Ic/

Chris

               

I am thankful for the way Chris loves me. I often want him to love me because I am beautiful, or a good mother, or a good cook, or…fill in the blank. But he refuses to love me for what I do, thankfully, and often shows forgiveness through unspoken kindness. I am humbled by how much I am shaped by the love of others through the ups and downs, grown and freed by it too. I couldn’t ask for a better partner in life.

Chris is enjoying a break from hundreds of college students looking up to him this semester, but he has been working just as hard, building games for a company in Madison since April. These projects have him working more closely with colleagues than ever, even though they’re on the other side of the world. He has also been working with Andy, here in Brisbane, and teaching our friend Clayton to program every Sunday afternoon. On top of it all he still works passionately on his own inventions and growth. We are thankful for the music he makes everyday with the keyboard he brought across the ocean. He tells the boys that there’s not much difference between adults and kids, because his work really is his play. The difference, he says, is that adults have deadlines and get paid. All the boys are learning about passion from Chris for sure.

Lewis

    

When I think of Lewis, I am thankful for his hugs and snuggles. I have also enjoyed running with Lewis and Stewart early Sunday mornings. I am thankful for conversations with Lewis, at bedtime and on bus rides. I feel like I am getting to know him a little bit more, like I’ve longed to through years of caring for babies. The other night I learned that his favorite smell is firewood. I am also thankful to be able to play games with him more, both ones he makes, and ones I played when I was a kid.

Here in Australia, Lewis is finding new passions, like chess, handball, and dance. But what I love about Lewis is how well he generously shares what he loves. He’s gotten the whole family dancing to Just Dance, and also turned the living room into a 6 square handball court. He is already teaching us and growing our family. I have dreams of taking some kind of exercize dance class with him someday soon. I am so thankful for how the schools here are fostering this passion for dance!

Lewis is thankful for: going to the Koala sanctuary, making houses for kittens back home, The Bad Guys books, going to the beach at the ocean, playing at South Bank, making new friends, trying new food at the Boundary Street Markets, Insane Acai Bar, Sojourn Bible Church, my birthday party, the Carleton track and ice cream shop in Northfield, Grandma playing ukulele, the new fruits here in Brisbane, West End State School, cardboard castles, so much paper for drawing, the IsoSketch tool (for 3D drawing), game night upstairs and so many board games downstairs, “friendy skurrel” at Carleton College

Stewart

              

I am thankful for Stewart’s questions! He has kept them coming since he could talk. I love that he comes home from school wanting to look up lyrics to songs he’s heard at school, or see where the Garden of Eden was in the world. Every day there’s something new that he wants to know, and we’re all learning from his bold curiosity.

I am also thankful for Stewart’s thankful heart. He has missed home more than anyone, but now he seems genuinely thankful for the chance to be here. I love hearing Stewart’s voice singing table prayers, and hearing the songs he’s made up with friends at school while we wait at the stoplight. I love how he counts down the days until church, and wants to take his friends from church home with us—literally, home to Wisconsin, in his suitcase.

We are also loving his connection based jokes, that are spreading through the whole family, like:

What animal loves running? A Puffin

What’s the most mischievious club in the world? The “Illumi-naughty”

What dog is best at hiding? A “where-wolf”

What chicken do you find in the air? Just plane chicken

Stewart is thankful for: The Bad Guys books, Soujourn Bible Church, science at West End State School, the isosketch tool (for 3D drawing), Insane Acai Bar, the track at Carleton College, Breath of the Wild (latest Zelda game), my family, Rainbox (game Chris made him for his birthday), making jokes, water cause it’s hot

Wesley

        

I am thankful for Wesley’s eagerness to learn! He has so many questions too, that sadly seem to come when I’m cooking. So they get deflected to his big brothers, and he immediately turns around and wants to teach Twill everything he learns. I tell him his brain is just exploding right now (he knows what I mean). He loves reading and writing, math, drawing pictures, taking pictures, making movies, and building 3D worlds out of boxes and paper. What I love is how unhindered he is by failure at this stage. Even with big brothers correcting him, he has this reckless abandon for learning. And for life, really, as you can see in this first picture. I guess he was the first to jump in and hold this live snake at the first birthday party he was invited to. I wasn’t there, but my friend Lan took a picture for us.

I am thankful for walks around the block after dinner with Wesley. I have missed getting outside with Wesley, an awful lot. He opens up to me on hikes in ways he won’t otherwise. I love it that he still wants to sit in my lap when he reads to me, or I read to him, or we’re watching a marble maze video online. He’s got all the boys pretty excited about those. But whenever Wesley sees one, he wants to go and make it out of paper as best he can. That’s what I love about Wesley.

Also pictured is the 16 square handball court he created on the handball pad at church, so everyone could play. And the lake he loved that Grandma Terry took us to in western Iowa.

Wesley is thankful for: Popscicles, fruit bowls at Insane Acai Bar,birthdays and inside time at school, South Bank park and beach, Riverside Family Camp, Carleton College dining center and Rice County Fair, Grandma playing ukelele and the hammock at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, the lake we went to with Grandma Terry, Muffy the kitten, picking strawberries, riding an airplane, all the parks in Brisbane, morning tea at church, the beach at the ocean, making farms out of legos with Twill, the cool oven at the restaurant and the bike ride for Twill’s birthday,

Twill

     

I am thankful for time to get to know Twill this year too. He has a new passion, somehow flourishing here in the city, for farm animals. He makes them everyday out of Duplos, builds barns for them, talks to them, feeds them hay. We take pretend train rides to the farm on a regular basis here. He shows me all the animals that are in everyone’s bedrooms. I love Twill’s budding imagination, and his independence. Already there are times that he doesn’t want me to interrupt his solo drama.

I am thankful for Twill’s questions and interest in God too. Yesterday he said, “Tell me about God and the animals.” He loves to hear me talk about how God made the animals, including us, and loves them, and doesn’t want us to hurt them, or each other. Just like Twill doesn’t want people destroying the animals that he makes every day. Twill loves to talk about how God and Jesus are the Big Makers and we’re little makers. Last year Twill would say, “talk to me, Mama” and it would break my heart, because I couldn’t figure out how to slow down enough. But he doesn’t say it anymore, he just asks questions, and I am so thankful for them.

In the pictures you can see the cardboard castle Lewis mentioned, the Insane Acai Bar fruit bowls we love, Muffy the kitten, play-doh animals, and the Rice County Fair near Northfield.

Twill is thankful for: ice cream and popsicles, Mama Teddy and Kitty, calves, donkeys, cows, horses, pigs and piglets, kittens, books, books, books

   

Cedar

    

I know I’ve said it before, but it is such a dream come true to share this adventure as a family. I am savoring every warm day, full of beautiful flowers and their heavenly smells. I love the exotic, unfamiliar birds, that are becoming familiar, who wake me every morning. We do not take for granted all the fresh tropical fruit that we get for a steal at the market every Saturday. The other day I made a fruit salad with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mango, peaches, bananas, and passion fruit. Twill loves helping me make fruit salads every weekend.

I love it that the kids are making friends in the neighborhood through school. I love that we have a church that feels like family. I love that we have just enough dishes for one meal. I am learning just how many things I really don’t miss, like measuring cups and spoons. I love ceiling fans. I love it that I haven’t been in a car since we landed here. I love walking to the store, and taking trains and buses! I love it that we can walk to a free beach 20 minutes away, and do pretty regularly. I am thankful for all these little everyday things every day.

I also fight back guilt most days for all these good things that I really don’t deserve. The other day Stewart asked, “If you have a lot of toys, but you’re really thankful for them, and play with them all the time, are you still spoiled?” It stopped me in my tracks. I said, “no, I guess by definition you’re spoiled if you’re not thankful for what you have, not just because you have things.” I think it was God’s way of telling me to give myself a break, because I am incredibly thankful, but see myself as nothing but spoiled.

At the beginning of July we went to family camp at Riverside again. The speakers were friends we’d worked with at camp back in 2001. One of the passages we looked at was Numbers 12, where Miriam and Aaron grumble against Moses. God stands up for Moses, and reprimands them severely. Miriam ends up quarantined outside the camp for a week. Our friend shared how this passage, in her experience, was about sabbatical, not just punishment. Miriam was worn down to the point of dangerous bitterness and needed time away with God more than anything.

This is what I am thankful for in this time away. I am so thankful for the space to get to know God in new ways, find direction in unlikely places, and learn more about myself and family. I know I need healing for the dangerous bitterness and discontentment that has been growing in me. I am so thankful that God corrects me with such unbelievable love.

I am also thankful to be running and blogging. I am thankful for the Deffenbaughs taking care of and enjoying our home, and for the Coffey’s letting us live here! I am thankful for the time at Riverside, and the time we had with family before we left, for the creeks and tree climbing in Northfield. I am thankful that I got to plant the garden this spring, and that even this morning Twill was still remembering it. I am thankful for my writing group ladies, the Letter Belles, and the consistency of that through all the change. I will probably keep adding things for the rest of the year, because I can!