Our First Jersey Thanksgiving

Hello all. Sorry for the two week hiatus from blogging. Life has been a little nuts and I have SO much to catch you all up on, but more on that later. :) Since Luke and I just moved a couple of weeks ago, we weren't able to fly home for Thanksgiving. So this year, we decided that since we couldn't be with our family, we were going to make some new friends...

Luke and I have been attending a church in New Jersey called Liquid Church. Liquid put together a HUGE service project for the holiday called Sandy Thanksgiving. A ton of churches from New Jersey, and from around the country, got together to serve the people that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. We met up with everyone on Staten Island and our particular group's project was to clean up the back yard of a really nice guy who had the entire bottom floor of his house flooded. We ripped up the frame of his deck and cleaned out of the broken title from inside his house. We also cleaned out and moved his shed, which had shifted off of its platform during the storm.

Staten Island is crazy y'all. Please continue to pray for the people of the east coast that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. In many cases, FEMA is gone. The initial shock of the storm is over and the TV cameras are gone. It is now time for these people to attempt to rebuild their lives and this is not an easy task. Luke and I are going back tomorrow to continue serving with Liquid Church. Your prayers are greatly appreciated!

After a few hours out on Staten Island, Luke and I drove home to clean up and then drove about 30 miles up the road to have dinner and hang out with some new friends. A co-worker of mine invited Luke and I to have Thanksgiving dinner with him and his awesome family. It was so nice to hang out in an actual home with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and kiddos! I just love the sound of family and the smell of home cookin' from the kitchen. The Murrays were so sweet to welcome us into their home for Thanksgiving this year. We loved hanging out with such an awesome family and felt so blessed to be able to share Thanksgiving with them!

Hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends! We have so much to be thankful for. <3 center="center">