This Thankful Thursday I am sooooo very, very, very thankful for:
3. our Miracle-working, Mountain-moving, Awe-inspiring, Gasp-giving God moving on the powerful Chin*se Government to reverse the decision to bring this little guy home:
8. young friends visiting us….Josh, Steven and Anna….they have brought such joy at such a difficult time – I told their mom the other day, “If you ever think of giving them up for adoption, we’ll take them”.. They empty dishwashers, help get babies dressed, put shoes on little ones, clean up, fold laundry – all without being asked (not even exaggerating) – they are totally rockin’ awesome young people, who are obviously being raised by awesome parents – and I know already we will be bawling when they leave this week-end (if we let them go at all)…..
9. crazy girlfriends who had the groovey idea to take a picture in my new tub….(yes, the master has a stinkin’ huge tub…bummer I’m not a bath gal….)
1. this precious little guy who is still with us because the angel of the Lord kept the wood wet and the grace of God protected him (and the rest of us)…and that he is also finally learning to smile for the camera….
2. Almighty God rescuing at the last possible minute this little beautiful baby girl from life in the big orphanage….and who loves to sing The B-I-B-L-E and Oh How I Love Jesus…
3. our Miracle-working, Mountain-moving, Awe-inspiring, Gasp-giving God moving on the powerful Chin*se Government to reverse the decision to bring this little guy home: 
4. this always smiling and tender-to-all little girl who also happens to have the most contagious giggle and by the way happens to be excellent at basketball too…. 
5. this orphan-loving daughter helped me dress the babies and get them outside while a fire was destroying our home….
6. this tender-hearted son, also filled with compassion for the orphan, who helped dressed the little ones during the fire, and then ran upstairs to try to save our photo albums….(how difficult it is for me to think of this, since I had absolutely no idea he had gone upstairs but the smoke was so bad he was driven back down – another miracle that he had the wisdom to come back down)…… .JPG)
7. a rental home with a gorgeous view….
5. this orphan-loving daughter helped me dress the babies and get them outside while a fire was destroying our home…. 6. this tender-hearted son, also filled with compassion for the orphan, who helped dressed the little ones during the fire, and then ran upstairs to try to save our photo albums….(how difficult it is for me to think of this, since I had absolutely no idea he had gone upstairs but the smoke was so bad he was driven back down – another miracle that he had the wisdom to come back down)…… 7. a rental home with a gorgeous view…. 8. young friends visiting us….Josh, Steven and Anna….they have brought such joy at such a difficult time – I told their mom the other day, “If you ever think of giving them up for adoption, we’ll take them”.. They empty dishwashers, help get babies dressed, put shoes on little ones, clean up, fold laundry – all without being asked (not even exaggerating) – they are totally rockin’ awesome young people, who are obviously being raised by awesome parents – and I know already we will be bawling when they leave this week-end (if we let them go at all)….. 9. crazy girlfriends who had the groovey idea to take a picture in my new tub….(yes, the master has a stinkin’ huge tub…bummer I’m not a bath gal….)
Irma, Liberty, me, Carie, and Elijah
10. homes with heat that keep us all toastyish. 11. oranges – thank you Florida and California for growing them!12. eye glasses that allow us to see. 13. laptops and hi-speed internet connections.14. sweet dates with Dw – my BFF.15. our troops and their families serving around the world.16. missionaries around the world, forsaking the comforts of home and families and friends to let the world know that Jesus loves them…17. the privilege of pastoring an awesome bunch of people.18. fresh water that is readily available by turning a knob.19. thrift stores!20. comfy slippers! What are YOU thankful for this Thankful Thursday?
Thankful for you, your grace, your courage, your love for everyone around you and that you are now in a new place that you can call home for awhile. A place where you can once again find simplicity for while!
Thankful!
Wow, that view is incredible! I love your Thankful Thursday.
What’s high speed internet? Maybe I’ll know someday =).
What an inspiring list! I think I will go the Thankful route this Thursday too!!
i am thankful for witnesses such as you & your family, i am thankful that our God is SOOO good to us & will never leave us or forsake us 🙂
You post moved me to tears (AGAIN!) I’m so glad you are in a home now. I love each of the pictures of the children!
~Lynn
I’m not a bath gal either-we also have a huge tub in our master that is usually filled with 4 babes!
Mostly thankful for family, the Lord and his OPENING my eyes to those suffering in Africa.
Can I come over and take a bath in your awesome tub? (hee hee) I am thankful for you today Linn… that God put you on this earth to minister to hundreds and thousands… to minister with your life. To glorify Jesus and speak truths that need to be heard. I am thankful for your husband (my pastor).. who mentors with his heart and his honesty and reveals to me what living for the Lord looks like. Thank you God. Thank you for my sweet friends. lv, jen
You have a beautiful family. I have been keeping you in my prayers. I am thankful for your blog and the inspiration you have been to many. I know that God has many blessings in store for you. Thanks for sharing.
You’re thankful for missionaries? That’s you! You’re domestic missionaries for now! You’re giving up the comforts of your cozy home and you’re clearly shouting praises to God and teaching others about Jesus!
So, Linny, Dw, and kids…we’re thankful for YOU, our domestic missionaries!
Thankful for you, for your love for the orphans, for your ministry to others even while in your own storm and for finding this wonderful blog a number of months ago.
Oh Linny—it is so wonderful to see that you are in your new home, and getting settled. We have been praying up a storm for your family as you have moved and settled. God is so good!
Thank you for sharing your Thankful Thursday. Me? I am so thankful for so many things this day. I am thankful that we finally get to take Haven to a dentist today! Her teeth are horrible–she is going to need a lot of help. I don’t think she was ever taken to a dentist during her 8 years in China. Could be quite an ordeal as she is TERRIFIED of anyone that even resembles a doctor. Help! Oh, the joys of motherhood 🙂
You truly have some beautiful children to be thankful for!! Thank you for sharing them!
who can top those!!? i am thankful you are settled for awhile as you rebuild. hope there are many smiles!!
Florida says you are so very welcome for the oranges; we have plenty to spare, especially with such an amazing family. ;D
I’m thankful for you,Linny!!
This is a great great post! You have so much to be thankful for and have such beautiful happy kids. I hope you love and enjoy your rental home. You are still in my prayers!
Oh, what a beautiful view. What an Awesome Provider!
I am thankful that our Ellie is now brace free and has taken her first ever steps of freedom at the age of 4. If you ever get a spare minute, please check out the video on our blog!
Blessings,
Robbie
I had not heard of Thankful Thursday until I came to your blog a short while ago.
I am so very Thankful that God puts people in our lives for a specific reason, even when we dont know it! I am so thankful for the Woman’s Ministry Director at my church White Oak Christian Church, Ohio! She has become a very dear friend and mentor over the past year for me. She has walked a very scary, lonely, sometimes unbearable walk with me this past year helping me to see so clearly that God is with me every step of the way. Showing me how to open my heart to him, my life to him, my love to him which has helped me in so many different levels! I am thankful for her nudging to keep me moving forward when all I want to do is run and hide in my cave of fears! I am Thankful I am where I am at today in my life, because as she has been telling me over and over, focus on TODAY, all the rest is out of my control, but God has it completely in control! So today, I am thankful for you and your blog allowing those of us in blog land have a place to say what we are thankful for!
I am so happy to hear you are in a home and can now settle in for a while! I hope it allows you time to take a breath for a minute before you set out on your next adventure!
I gave someone your website, we were talking one day about her recent mission trip to Uganda, and I thought of you, she was at the orphanage you brought Elizabeth adn Elijah home from, the same day you were there picking them up and she remembers the people there talking about “the Americans taking 2 babies home” that had to be you! it was the same time frame! Small world isnt it?
Lisa
How beautiful they are! And they all look like they are doing alright, which is so good to see.
Someone forwarded me an email today, and I immediately thought of you … (I believe it is related to Rev. 3:8)
When God leads you to the edge of the cliff,
trust Him fully and let go.
Only one of two things will happen:
either He’ll catch you when you fall,
or He’ll teach you how to fly!
God closes doors no man can open, and
God opens doors no man can close.
I hope you are settling into the house and starting to feel a little better …
All the best!
Nicole A. in OH
Thank you for your post today. I have been anythin but thankful today. Jesus thank you for this blog and for this family. thank you that they draw others unto you. Lord we have so much in our lives to be thankful for… thank you for the mercy and grace that are found at the cross. Bless this family Father, continue to encamp them with your holy spirit and pour our Peace as they walk thru this process. In Jesus name, AMEN
First time poster, have been reading for a few months. I’m thankful for you, because you remind me to be thankful. You have been a big inspiration as I head towards next big step in my life (my wedding)!
Lin,
After I read your blog today I went back and read from “Our Wild Adventure Part 1” and here is what I saw…
The story starts really back in November, the 13th to be exact, of 2005. That day God gave me a prophetic word through Benjie, one of our young staff pastors. He came to me and said that he had a really weird word for me. He said the Lord wanted me to know that
“the best days of my life were ahead of me.”
I gasped. This young pastor would have no idea that I had recently been whining to the Lord that I felt the best days of my life were behind me…and no one knew that I had said that, except God Himself.
So when I was told this special word I knew that I knew that I knew that it was the Lord speaking…
With that as a backdrop, I was rejoicing for you that this word of knowlege from our Lord personally to you puts a wonderful perspective on these last weeks. With even greater conviction that before, we can say…what satan meant for evil, our Awe inspiring God WILL turn for our blessing and our ultimate good.
It makes me even more anxious to see our Great God and Father demonstrate His mighty power on your behalf…
Remember He is the one who told His children they were going to take possession of homes they did not build, cisterns that they did not dig and fields that they had not planted.
“the best days of your life are ahead of you.”
Who would have thought it?
Blessings on this thankful Thursday.
BBD
I, like soooo many others, am thankful for the Saunders family and the example they set for Christ!
I dont know you guys and I dont quiet remeber how I stumbled accross your blog, but once I did… OH!
The funny thing is I DO NOT read blogs. Hello, I have eleven children and a Ugandan internet connection that is forever slow – how would I have time to read blogs when I can barely update my own?! But GOD wanted me to read this. No doubt. When I can’t even open blogger to write in my own blog or yahoo to check my email because the connection is down, I can access A Place Called Simplicity. I was writing a post about the Angel of the Lord keeping my family safe when I read your post about that SAME Angel keeping the wood wet. I read your words, and they sound SO like my own. Just Divine 🙂
AND not to mention that you have 2 babies from Uganda!, where all my babies are from, and where I live, mother, and work! In my dream last night I met you and Emma in Uganda… I am hoping for that day!
Sweet sister, you are so courageous. Thank you for being always thankful! Thank you for being transparent and in doing so allowing the LORD to move. I am praying for you and your darling family. I love you!
Katie in Uganda
Oh Linn, How beautiful it is to see your lists of thankfulness! You are an example to all of us even though I know at this time you are going through so much. A friend of mine said to me that she could not believe the grace and peace she saw in me at each of my grandparents and father in laws funerals. They all happened so close together, were hard to watch and our extended family did not make them easy. I told her that it must have just been the Lord walking us through it because I felt out of touch and confused but I new that the promises we had been given by the Lord were true and that He was faithful to His word. That was what I held onto and must have been what my friend was witnessing.
Seeing someone walk out their faith is so much more powerful than hearing them talk about it. God will be able to use this period of your life in a way like no other and I believe that He is already doing it!
Love, Lisa C.
I am thankful for blogs such as yours that make me cry out YIPPPPPEEEE JESUS!!!!!!!!
We all have so much to be thankful for! Thank you for helping to remind me today! The pics above are great, love all the smiling faces during this hard time. God Bless you all!!
Wendy
I just have to say…I cried reading your welcome to my blog…I haven’t made it to your sidebar yet. What an inspiration you are and your children as well. How humbling it is to know that God has heard the cry of your heart for children and has answered it; and continue to answer it. What a testimony to the Body of Christ…God bless you. I hope we can be friends, I am thankful I have family like you!
I am so glad that you are finding things to be thankful for, in the midst of such huge loss. May God continue to flood you with His unspeakable joy and may He surround you with His goodness. I know He will, but I am going to pray for it especially for you!
Thank you for sharing your life…really, thank you.
Kimmie
a girl with secondary infertility
mama to 7
one homemade and 6 adopted
I’m thankful for all those things too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m also thankful for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and I will use that tub when I come! I love TUBS!!)
What a beautiful view! And I think I’d become a bath-taking gal for that tub 😉 We’re so very thankful for your family and the many ways you remind us that God’s plans are good! May you have an amazing day of worship tomorrow!
I’m thankful that God, in His love, reached out to me with grace and mercy and adopeted me into His family.
I’m thankful that God answered prayers and the children at Redeemer House Orphanage in Uganda are recovering from a really serious malaria bout.
I’m thankful for my own five amazing kids, their wonderful spouses, and my 13 (soon to be 16, including a couple of Ugandan orphans) grandchildren. “I have no greater joy than to see my children walking true.” 3 John 4
I’m thankful I found Katie’s blog on comments from an earlier blog of yours, Linny. Y’all should check it out. (See Auntie Katie’s post, Katie in Uganda, above.) What a blessing! Check it out at http://amazima.org/blog.html.
I’m thankful for this post, Linny, which reminded me to think about some of the things I am most thankful for today!
I am thankful that your family is all safe and healthy after the fire! I am also thankful that we passed court in Ethiopia and will leave soon to go get our daughter!!! Actually I have a lot to be thankful for! God is GOOD!!!
Debbie