Thank You

Riddle: What do purple sweet potato casserole and chest x-rays have in common?  How about dental appointments and perfectly baked rolls? 

Answer: THANKSGIVING AT REFUGE RANCH!

You may never have considered this before, but Thanksgiving is a strictly American (as in U.S.A., Mexico is in America too! :-) holiday!  Thanksgiving takes us back to the very roots, the actual reason for the creation of the United States of America - the religious freedom to publicly worship and serve the One and Only Almighty God.  Now, I like turkeys and all, but does it occur to the majority of the public that, despite being a delicious animal, having a very unique sound and a somewhat interesting appearance, they really do not deserve an entire holiday dedicated to them?  That maybe there is another reason for Thanksgiving...aka giving thanks?

Thanksgiving was always been one of my favorite celebrations growing up so, despite the fact that it is not a Mexican holiday, I'm the Mom...so we celebrate Thanksgiving in the Zaragoza household and at Refuge Ranch!

 Thanksgiving at Refuge Ranch

I remember one particular tradition growing up at my home church in Toledo, OH, where my father continues to pastor today.  Near Thanksgiving the church would make available simple thank you cards to the congregation and encourage us to take several, write thank you notes to other church members and then give them to that individual at the Thanksgiving service on Thanksgiving morning.  Remembering how meaningful that was to me, I took that idea and adapted it to our family.  I printed up thank you cards the size of a business card (to save paper:-).  On one side the card read:  "Gracias a Dios y gracias a....", "Thanks to God and thanks to....here went a different name covering our entire family and staff" and the other side was blank in order for the giver to write his or her own message.  So, since last week, at every meal, our entire family would write on several of those cards in order to have them ready by yesterday!  (Do the math...there are 20 of us in the Zaragoza family and currently 12 individuals between the staff and their families!)

Carolina "writing" some of her thank you notes!

 Dividing up the cards according to recipient!

Yesterday, after our Thanksgiving meal, we handed out the packets of thank you cards to each recipient.  Wow!  The power of a "thank you"!  The dining room/warehouse became pretty quiet (hard to do with over 30 people present) as each individual read their notes, complete with beautiful personal notes for each of us from Lucy and even Joanna!  Seven year old Caleb came up to me, wrapped his arms around my neck and mumbled through his tears into my neck:  "The card that most impacted me was Diana's."  Very little can touch a mother's heart more than watching one child positively impact one of their siblings!  Victor, tough, in-control, former-gang-member turned Dad-in-bulk-quantities, even had to do his best to fight back the tears reading all the ways in which his children are thankful for him.  Five-year-old Ana literally closed her little fist around her envelope and Lucy's note and did not let go of them for hours!  I do believe we have just started another Zaragoza Family Tradition!

We decided to rival the attendance of the first Thanksgiving feast:

Attendance list:

The Zaragoza Family: Victor * Julie* Angie * Diana * Martita * Lolis * Martha * Alejandro * Fatima * Fidel *  Josiah * Leo * Jocelin * Miguel * Caleb * Carolina * Ruth * Ana * Daniel * David (Those are all 18 Zaragoza kids in age order from oldest to youngest, in case you were wondering.  That's how I make sure everybody is present at every meal and every time we go anyplace in a vehicle.  I can rattle that list of pretty quick!) The Marshall family: Mark * Lucy * Aaron * Joanna *  Refuge Ranch Staff Members: Rosa * Adrian * Vero * James  Visitors:  Mireya (a volunteer teacher at the Ranch three days a week) * Mireya's son Jorge * Mireya's son Joel * Mireya's father * Mireya's mother * Dr. Ariel (a volunteer dentist for the Evangelistic Medical Mission Crusades) - hence the dental appointments on Thanksgiving

Total attendance:33

This called for two 14 pound turkeys, 48 perfectly baked homemade rolls, 8 pounds of green beans, sweet potato casserole (It was purple!  Did you know there are purple sweet potatoes?  Well, there are!  And they were the only ones available at market this week!), 2 gallons of Great Grandma Blom's Cherry Applesauce jello, corn casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, an international bean and rice dish made my James (our new 6 month staff member from Oklahoma - you'll meet him later!),deviled eggs (here they are "heavenly" eggs!) and eight pecan pies with freshly beaten whipping cream. 

The Feast

Proof of the Purple Sweet Potato Casserole (Barney would have loved it!)

 

The Crushing Crew for the Pecan Pie

Victor - our official Pie Crust Pincher

Jocelin making Great Grandma Blom's Famous Jello

Great Grandma Blom - your jello was a hit, as always, especially with Ana who took the initiative to literally clean out the bowl with her fingers and tongue!

 Fatima and David making up their own pie crust treats with the leftover dough.

Lucy did an incredible job making over half of these delicacies!  Thank you, Lucy!

So, you may be asking, where do the chest x-rays and dental appointments enter the picture?  Well, these are both related to our four year old son Daniel who has several major congenital heart defects.  (Check out the blog previous to this one if you missed it!)  We received a phone call this past week from an organization in central Ohio that has begun exploring the possibility of finding a doctor to perform a heart cath on Danny in the U.S. and see if he is a candidate for any type of surgery or to confirm our suspicions that Danny's case is truly beyond human medical capabilities.  The leaders of this organization will be meeting this coming Tuesday to discuss Danny's case. (see note at end of blog)  However, as part of the application process we need to prove that Danny does not have HIV, Hepatitis B or tuberculosis.  The only way that our local laboratory has to check for tuberculosis is a chest x-ray!  Hence the trip to the radiologist on Thanksgiving!  

Danny also needs to be free of tooth decay if he is to be seen for his heart/lung conditions.  Hence, the visit from the dentist to clean his teeth and do several fillings!

So, yesterday, while we were picking up the house, finishing up the corn casserole, and organizing literally hundreds of thank you notes, we were also sending Adrian with Danny to the radiologist.  Before we could set the table for our Thanksgiving feast, Dr. Ariel had to take down his dentist chair from having attended to Danny in the dining room/warehouse/and now dental suite.  In the midst of great joy, commotion, and thanksgiving we were attending to our son's fatal condition...and it all seemed normal!  Now that is the power of God!

 

David beat everybody to a nap by falling asleep during the Thanksgiving meal!

 

Fatima, James and an after meal game of Guess Who?

 

Jorge and Diana playing around at the piano.

 A star dish crew!

 Martha, "the UNO queen", challenges her opponents...and wins!

Last night, as I put the kids to bed, Angie, our eldest said: "I love Thanksgiving!"  My heart swelled within me!  They're infected with the Thanksgiving bug!  Yeah!  Success!  Angie was present at our first Thanksgiving eight years ago or so where my mother and I mounted a herculean effort to start the Zaragoza family Thanksgiving tradition and introduce Thanksgiving to our adopted children who were clueless about the point of eating turkey and wearing bonnets and feather headdresses while doing so! 

 Memories of our first family Thanksgiving six years ago - Angie, Ruth and Josiah!  

 A big bonnet with a little bit of Martha beneath and Diana!

Maybe she loves Thanksgiving now because we have dropped the bonnet and headdress tradition! 

Extra note: Please be praying for the right decision to be made about Daniel's medical treatment (again!).  I spoke with the director of the organization on Wednesday.  She told me, once again, what we have heard time after time: that Danny's defects are extremely complicated and serious, that only a handful of surgeons in the entire country have the expertise and experience to operate on him, and that surgery would cost over $1 million (which our prayer is that the hospital and physician would donate).  I was encouraged that she shared that the focus right now is on presenting Danny's case and simply praying, fervently, that God's will for Daniel would be revealed.  My heart literally rested at hearing her emphasis on prayer, God's will and putting Danny in the Lord's hands.  We had pretty much decided that surgery was out of the question for Daniel and had resigned ourselves to enjoy each day, each miracle day with him, until Jesus takes him home.  Now, the door towards surgery has opened a very slight crack again.  So, please join us in prayer that God would move in accordance with His perfect will as Danny's case is reviewed this week.  If God wants Danny to be operated on, no matter the outcome, because that would bring Him the greatest glory: then may He open the doors and show us clearly to walk through them.  If surgery is not His will, may these doors be clearly shut, again.  Makes me wonder:  "Then, Lord, why even open up this crack of an opportunity, only to shut it again?"  When I ask that, the only answer is, and has been, and always will be:  "Trust me, precious daughter, just trust me."

TO GOD BE THE GLORY AND ALL THANKSGIVING!