It really makes you appreciate …

Those of you who attended my “alumni/advanced” retreat last week in Texas will remember me telling the story of Rick, Annette & Christina Friesen. Christina was the fifteen year old girl who had spent her entire life in foster care/group homes but one day in the summer of 2005 found herself on an airplane next to one of the directors at Peacemaker Ministries, Rick Friesen.

To make a long story short, Rick was so struck by this sweet teenager (who was, again, on her way to a new group home) that he and his wife spent weeks finding her (with only her first name and the information that she was headed to “somewhere in Mississippi”), getting qualified/evaluated/certified, and then ADOPTING HER into their family. Their other children welcomed her with open arms and hearts and last Thanksgiving, so did our church family. We were introduced to her and immediately fell in love with her too.

Well … this morning, we were blessed AGAIN by this family’s testimony when one of her cousins stood up during our church’s Thanksgiving Service and gave thanks for Christina. I’m paraphrasing here, but my interpretation of what this other teenage girl shared is this:

“I remember meeting Christina on Thanksgiving last year and I wanted to be a blessing to her and I thought that I could be. But what I didn’t know was just how much I would be blessed by HER.

You know … getting to be friends with Christina has opened my eyes up to so many blessings in my own life that I have just taken for granted. Things I never even thought of before, now I see how great they really are. I guess it really makes you appreciate all the blessings that we have. I am thankful for how God has ministered to me through her.”

Amen!

Well said, Desirae.

And thank You, God, for adopting us into Your family!
And lavishing on us all of the rights of heirs.

Happy Thanksgiving!
— Tara B.