Gratitude.

Every week for the past 6 months our family has participated in doing service with the homeless community. It’s become a regular part of our week and has blessed our lives immensly.

Our eyes have been opened and our children are {slowly} learning compassion for those less fortunate than us.

Tonight we had the opportunity of making and serving them dinner. My whole family {parents, siblings, nieces and nephews} helped prepare the food and then we were all able to sit down and visit with our friends from all different backgrounds.

I have such a special place in my heart for these people.

They have become my friends and our family prays nightly for them.

I look forward to hearing their stories each week and LOVE watching {most of} them change their lives.

{I mainly just love this pic because Joe is mid-slurp 😂}

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving – – I wanted to somehow incorporate GRATITUDE into our dinner tonight.

I put a plea out to my friends on Facebook asking for small gift card donations to places that they could grab a quick lunch or buy a few necessities from.

My friends far exceeded my expecations and we were able to give EACH homeless person tonight a $10 or more gift card.

I placed them all in envelopes and then hung them from my ‘GRATITUDE TREE’.

While they ate dinner, I called each one up and had them tell the group ONE thing that they were thankful for. Then, they were able to pick an envelope off of the tree to keep.

To hear what they were thankful for – – warmed my heart.

It really put things into perspective.

One man’s gratitude even brought my sweet Carson to tears.

As I put my feet up tonight in my warm and beautiful home – – I am reminded of what’s REALLY important in life.