Friends

It is a beautiful and thankfully cool morning in Charleston and I am so thankful.   I don't like this time of year with warm, muggy, close to 80 degree weather, not during the holidays.   Since I last wrote we had Christmas, and despite it being different than any Christmas in my life, it was blessed and I did enjoy being with my friends and family.   This is the first year without my grandfather who recently passed away, the first year without my parents (visiting in AL), and the first year to have a house full for Christmas dinner.   Despite our small house, we had thirteen adults/teenagers and we had a wonderful meal and a great time of fellowship.   It was never in my plan to have dinner for so many, thinking with my parents gone it would just be our little family, but God had other plans, and it was a blessing.   Those friends are most like family and it made the absence of my grandfather and parents much easier.  It was joyful and fun and I am thankful for God's provision of friends, especially those friends who are like your family.