Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever!
                        Psalm 107:1

The Kids: Elizabeth

Elizabeth  is sixteen and has her driver's permit.  She had a bit of a scare while driving Grandpa's car this past summer, which slowed the driver's ed process down a bit.  She'll get there.  

The Lord has put it on Elizabeth's heart to travel to Uganda next summer on a three week mission trip. This is something I never would have planned for Elizabeth, but God had different plans for her. Our church is associated with a church and school in Uganda.  A pastor friend of ours and his wife will be heading up the trip, which they have done numerous times before.  Elizabeth will help at the school and be a part of food deliveries to the needy in outlying communities.  We are still working through the many details associated with such an undertaking.  God has already opened many doors and provided a good part of the funding for Elizabeth to go to Uganda, so we have confirmation that this is His will for her.

Liz's braces were removed a few weeks ago.  Two years were worth the beautiful smile the braces produced.  Liz continues to take sewing lessons and has now moved into dress design.   She recently remade a formal thrifted dress by adding sleeves which she fashioned out of our old dining room curtains. She wore that dress for our family's annual Reformation party.

Elizabeth has become a very dependable sous chef and even makes dinner for the family entirely on her own a few times a week. For the second year in a row, she is helping Grandpa Bob do pre-Thanksgiving food prep.  Liz rocks the low carb pizza and makes a mean no sugar peanut butter cup, too.  She's got an excellent ability to tweak recipes to make them tastier, which is a talent I don't have.

Always a willing shopping partner, Liz accompanies me on many a couponing adventure.  She helps me think through menus, points out good buys in the store and keeps track of my Ibotta rebate app on my phone.  Elizabeth is also the chief laundress at our house and continues to make good progress in her studies.

Elizabeth is a natural with animals.  She's the only one who can get Rachel back inside when she escapes out the front door.  Well, Matt can do it, but Rachel almost never escapes when he's home. Elizabeth is currently taking care of the neighbor's horses after their recent return to this neighborhood.  She understands the horses' personalities and works around their idiosyncrasies.

Matt and I are in awe of all the Lord has done in Elizabeth's life.  She had some big shoes to fill when Grace started school and was no longer home during the day, but she has done a great job of filling those shoes.

The Kids: Grace

Within one 24 hour period last week, I had two different people ask me for an update on each of the kids.  I had another person ask me this week.  Life gets crazy and I haven't posted here as much as I would have liked.  So here goes--an update on the kids--kid by kid--from the eldest, down to the youngest.  I'll give each kid his or her own post.

Grace turned twenty at the beginning of September.  She graduated from cosmetology school in the middle of September and passed the state tests, both the written and the practical.  We had to travel to the big town in order for Grace to take her practical exam.  After the three hour exam, Matt and I picked Grace up from the testing site.  She turned on her phone and found a text from the co-owner of the beauty salon where I get my hair cut.  This woman wanted to talk to Grace.  Previously, she had told Grace that although she would love to hire her upon her graduation, she didn't have room for her. Turns out, one of the cosmetologists at the shop decided to move back to her home town.  There was now room for Grace.

Grace would first have to pass a test given to her by the owners. (I talked about that here.)  At the end of that day, Grace was offered a job. We can now see how God was working through the terrible situation of Grace's cosmetology school closing.  Near the end of her time at that school, Grace had A LOT of clients since no new students were enrolling there.  She got a ton of experience that she would not have gotten otherwise.  This ended up serving her well and I believe it's one of the major reasons why she was offered the job at the salon were she now works.

One of the gals who works at the salon told Grace that she is very blessed to be working there.  She told Grace that people frequently come to the salon asking for a job, but are turned down. So the fact that Grace was asked to work there is a great honor. Again, all the credit goes to God here.  The salon is not far from our house, which is another bonus.  All the woman who work there are very nice and Grace is enjoying the experience as she works to build her clientele.  She works at that salon four days per week.

Now, for another God thing.  Before Grace even started cosmetology school, she told me that it was her dream to work exclusively with curly-haired women.  I'll be honest, when she told me this, I had to keep myself from laughing.  Outside of those cosmetologists who specialize in working with African American hair, I was sure that no such thing existed.  How could one make a living doing just curly hair?  Mid-way through Grace's year of cosmetology school, my friend Cathy texted me about the great hair cut she had just gotten from a woman who specializes in curly hair. As in, she has international clients and charges bookoo bucks for her curly hair haircuts.  Who knew there was such a thing?  She wanted to meet Grace.  Grace did meet her, and this woman offered Grace the chance to help her by shampooing clients.  Before Grace even graduated, this woman wanted Grace to work for her.  So Grace is working at least one day a week for the woman who specializes in curly hair. Grace has learned a ton from this woman and she loves getting to work with curly hair!

The entire year that Grace was in cosmetology school, people kept telling her that she would have to work at a place like Great Clips her first year out of school.  No one would even consider hiring her until after that, they said.  Don't get me wrong, Matt and the kids have frequented Great Clips for years and we like them.  However, we didn't want Grace to have to work there if it could be avoided. I kept telling Grace, "Listen, we just do things differently in our family.  We break the mold and we're not about to stop doing that now.  God will work something out."  And boy did He.    

Besides working, Grace is also trying to keep her little photography business going, she is attending Bible Study Fellowship and a book club, gardening, baking,  playing piano occasionally at church and helping around the house when her schedule allows.  She's one busy girl.  Matt and I are blessed to have her as our daughter.