Give thanks to the Lord our God and King

His love endures forever

For He is good, He is above all things

His love endures forever

Sing praise, sing praise

With a mighty hand and outstretched arm

His love endures forever

For the life that's been reborn

His love endures forever

Sing praise, sing praise

Forever God is faithful

Forever God is with us

Forever

From the rising to the setting sun

His love endures forever

By the grace of God we will carry on

His love endures forever

Sing praise, sing praise

We had our first grown-up Thanksgiving at our house. Brian and I did all the cooking! We slaved over our dishes from Wednesday night until 3PM on Thursday. It was so much fun even though we were absolutely exhausted after cleaning up the kitchen on Thursday night! Brian's grilled turkey was all the rage and my chocolate cheesecake was devoured in a few minutes. We had a bunch of traditional food, also. (view pics of our weekend at the top of the blog)

I feel like our ministry is to the single soldiers. Brian and I love to have them over for dinner. They are so appreciative. It is tiring, but seeing their happiness makes it all worth it. There isn't a lot of Christian leadership in Brian's unit, so we see it as an opportunity to show them how we are different.

On Saturday we headed to Salzburg for the Christmas Market. It was a wonderful experience! Everything in historical Salzburg was about Christmas. You could feel the joy, cheer, and excitement everywhere. Kennedy kept wanting to see Christmas. It was cold, but not rainy or snowy. I loved our time there. We got a few ornaments, but wished we could have bought enough to do a whole tree...you know that money thing held us back. = ) I think we will try to go to the Christmas market in Munich next year; supposedly its HUGE. I am such in the Christmas spirit now.

Brian news:

He will be leaving us again this Thursday. He will be gone for about a week. He just re-enlisted in the Army for another 6 years, and we will now be here in Italy until Nov. 2009. Brian's pending deployment for 2008 is on hold for now; he probably won't go anywhere for awhile. We are still sharing one car, but we hope to be getting a Volvo for Brian by the first of the year.

New video of Kennedy is on www.dropshots.com/texasdrlng

(click the slide show to see the pics enlarged)

Feelings of loss and disbelief are all over Aviano Air Base. You can sense peoples loss for words and lack of understanding everywhere. Our military community here is so small that even people who have no connection to any of the deceased are mournful. Brian's and my hearts hurt for the families; especially Liz.

Liz and Meka were in church Sunday, and just looking at them broke my heart. I have no way to comprehend their loss, but the tears just welled in my eyes. Oh, I was in awe of the strength that these two wonderful women have. I know God is just wrapping His arms around them. We cannot understand why this happened except that God has a plan. I tell myself everyday that God has a plan and He knows when each one of us will leave this earth. In this military world that we live in, lives are all too often cut short.

I have learned so much in these past few days. I have been constantly examining our lives as a family, as individuals, as a parent. What will our legacy be? Do we absorb all of God's glory? No, I can testify to that. No, I don't appreciate everything God has placed on this Earth. I keep thinking about this little, innocent question that Brian asked when we were looking at places to move to. Actually, I was looking at them and telling him about them via e-mail. One day he said, "I bet that Maniago house has a wonderful view of the mountains from the balconey." I honestly couldn't tell him yes or no. I was so wrapped up in the size, amenities, etc that I hadn't even noticed. So, when Brian got home from Iraq and I took him out to see the house the first thing that he noticed was the beautiful mountains. How blind could I be...the mountains. Those great, marvelous works of the Lord that stare me in the face everyday. Gosh, I really don't ever just stop and absorb God's miracles. How often do I sit back and just watch Kenners play? Not often enough. All too quickly our lives pass us by.

We spent Sunday afternoon as a family. Doing a bunch of nothing, but enjoying ourselves. We drove up the oh so obvious mountains to the lake. Missy, Rusty, and Kennedy had a wonderful time. Brian and I were freezing because we are so not used to dressing for the mountains. I brought a light jacket for K, a fleece vest for myself, and Brian had a sweater...who knew that it would be a good 15 to 20 degrees cooler just 10 min. up the mountain. After about 45min. out in the cold we were ready to get in the warm car. Needless to say, Missy was totally submerged in the water and panting. I guess God made sure that hunting dogs had the right kind of fur...the fur I find on my floor everyday. = )

So, yesterday brought an early start to Kennedy's & my day; we had to bring Brian to work at 6AM. I woke up with a stuffy nose, so we returned home until our normal day began at 9AM. I dropped off K at the sitter, went to the gym, back to get K, and then to the BX complex as normal. For some reason, we saw almost all of our PWOC, Bible study, friends there. It was such an uplifting, positive morning. The day took an abrupt change for the worse around 2PM. I was in the BX talking to a friend when her husband called...she had to go. Not 10 min. later Brian called and said, "did you hear about the black hawk crash?" Well, no I hadn't. I immediately knew that it was the other Army unit on base and wondered if Christian, a friend's husband, was ok. I was trying to not freak out, but when we got home and I had no information in my e-mail I started calling. Brian's work had no info., CNN.com was talking about 5 dead, my heart was pounding, and I was shaking. I finally called another friend; she says Christian was flying and PWOC is praying in our building. The emotions overcome me, I get visibly upset, Kenners is worried about me. It is so weird to have someone you know personally involved in such a tragedy. The whole way to base I was praying that he would be alive. When Jess and I arrived he was alive, but his life was soon taken. Christian was taken to be with the Lord after the doctors had tried to save his life. Gosh, what is Liz going to do? Lord, please be with her! It was the most overwhelming, helpless feeling...we all wanted to do something, but we could do nothing except pray. In a room full of crying women we all prayed for God to grant Liz peace and comfort. We soon learned that another one of our PWOC sisters had lost her husband in the crash...two wonderful Godly families torn apart in one short afternoon. We all know that the men who lost their lives are with God in a much better place, but we still mourn for them. All in all 6 men lost their lives.

It is so weird, but I feel that I'm being selfish now. Not only did we lose Christian, but I'm not sure what Liz will do. How long will she be here? What will PWOC be like without her? These are selfish questions, but all I can see is Liz's smiling face. Just Wednesday she was smiling talking about how Christian still made her heart pitter patter and how him surprising her on her birthday was just the best. It makes me realize how quickly our world can change. Oh, my thoughts have been on Liz and the other families all day. Eating and feelings of happiness have eluded me today. I think I've told Brian and Kennedy "I love you" a few too many times.

Lord, I just pray for you to bring your peace on the families.

After about a month of being in Aviano, you have to go somewhere. The community is so small that you just need a change of scenery and a chance to relax. The adventuresome people that we've become called our friend and booked a hotel on a Friday night. The next morning we loaded up the car for a 3 hour drive to Turracher Hohe, Austria. We knew that the hotel was in a ski town and it was off season, but what we didn't realize was that the town would pretty much be deserted. We were the only guests at our hotel; we got exclusive use of the saunas and the heated pool. Finding a place to eat dinner was an interesting experience. The first night we were thare we got to eat in town, but the second night we had to drive down the mountain to this resturant that was tiny. We had wonderful food both nights. It is wild game season in Austria, so we had a mixed platter the first night. We couldn't really tell you what we ate, but we know we had deer meat for sure. The weather was much cooler than we expected, so we didn't go enjoy the lake as planned. Going to the smaller, less touristy towns really helps you appreciate other countries....we had a great time! We plan on going back another time when things are more happening. Here are a few pics.