Many praises and thanks this Thanksgiving…
I hope that you guys felt a little extra love coming from The Ross Family this Thanksgiving because all day y'all have been on the hearts and minds of David and I. We can't help but continuously praise God that so many of you continue to stand in the gap for us in such profound ways, meeting needs that we didn't know we had or wouldn't dare ask for help. I have shared this with some of you, but the truth is, David and I have a very difficult time asking for help or even accepting help. Now, I have talked to God a lot about it to try to understand the source of this difficulty. I've asked "Lord, is there an ounce of pride in my heart that makes it difficult to receive a gift/blessing without felling bad, etc" and the answer so far is no. It really comes down to, we just don't want to inconvenience anyone because we are well aware that we are all bearing burdens of different kinds (all of which are important and significant to the person going through it, you can't compare burdens) so who are we to be on the receiving end of so many people's thoughtfulness and generosity. We have always believed that if "God brings you to it, He will bring you through it," therefore, we trust that He has and will provide along this journey and much of His provision has come from y'all blessing us without even asking for permission, so we didn't have to struggle with saying "yes." You continue to stand in the gap for us, by faithfully lifting us up in prayer, sending encouraging messages, delivering a hot meal at a time when only God knows how bad we could use it, setting up a fundraising mechanism to help fund our Christmas reunion in Boston, contributing financially to our cause, sending care packages, making sure that Abigail and Andrew aren't forgotten about during this holiday season, random hospital visits from new (previously unknown) friends, and so much more… These acts of kindness have been delivered by many of you who I haven't talked to since high school, dance studio days, college, previous co-workers, neighbors, church family, teachers and families at Abby and Andrew's schools, family members and friends of friends, total strangers, etc. You and your pure sweetness have brought me to my knees in thanks this Thanksgiving! By God's grace, I have kept my heart in a place of awe and thankfulness today, trying to focus on the blessings right under my nose (not the big overwhelming picture) and that made for a great Thanksgiving (despite missing David and Grace terribly). David and Grace also had a good Thanksgiving because Grace had a pretty uneventful day (by Grace's standards) and David was beyond blessed by total strangers (a dear friend of ours who works for NY Life reached out to their Boston branch to see if anyone there would be willing to deliver David food for Thanksgiving and a sweet family jumped at the chance) who brought him an amazing Thanksgiving dinner (including a whole pie :-) that is enough to feed him for the next couple of days. Can you believe that?!?!? Oh, how I wish I could hug their necks right now because you know how it goes… if you bless my man and baby girl, you inevitably bless me too :-).
God also showed up today in other big and small ways… Abigail, Andrew and I had a great Thanksgiving with family, despite missing David and Grace terribly.
Another smaller, but still super sweet blessing today came from David (being the World's best Daddy that he is), who all on his own, bought detangler from the CVS inside the hospital and took care of Grace's rats nest in the back of her hair.
I didn't mean for this post to get so long, but I couldn't help but try to convey just how much we love and appreciate you on this special day of Thanks! Here is Gracie's hug of thanks for you…
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