Marjorie looked around the table, her heart overflowing with gratefulness.
“Let’s pray,” Gilbert said, and they all bowed their heads. She listened to her son’s voice rumble a short but heartfelt prayer to the Lord. And her whole soul echoed her gratefulness. She never dreamed when she got married that it would end up like this, with her husband passing away so early and her ending up raising her children alone. She worried every day whether she would be able to raise them to love and serve the Lord. That had been her whole effort and desire. Sure, she wanted them to be able to work and to make a living, but even that was secondary to knowing the Lord and loving Him. There wasn’t anything that was more important.
“Amen,” Gilbert said, and the whole table echoed, “Amen.”
They started passing dishes, and Marjorie watched as her children helped their children with some of the dishes. Isadora, down on the end, had a child in the high chair beside her, another one on the other side in a booster seat, and her oldest, all of four years old, sitting at the table directly beside that child.
Isadora had had a fairly difficult year, but shehad confided to Marjorie recently that she was almost glad that God allowed it to happen. She had grown closer to the Lord and learned to depend on Him in ways that she never would have if her husband hadn’t cheated and left her for someone else.
Of course, not long ago, he’d come back, asking her to take him back, and she had considered it for a while, because she wanted her children to know their father, but in the end, she said no. He left, and she wasn’t going to take that chance again.
Marjorie was secretly very pleased, mostly because her ex had not come to the Lord, he just wanted Isadora back because she had been an excellent wife and had put up with almost everything he dished out. He hadn’t found a woman who was as godly and forgiving as Isadora, and basically he just wanted someone who was going to stroke his ego.
It was true that Isadora had been an excellent wife, even though at times Isadora felt like she was a failure. But Marjorie was almost certain that there was another man out there somewhere who God had for her daughter. Someone who would appreciate her for what she was and who she was.
Her ex had no intention of staying true, and Marjorie could see that from a mile away. Thankfully, Isadora had either figured that out, or God had protected her. One of the two.
Regardless, Marjorie hoped that the coming year would see Isadora making even more strides toward becoming the woman that God wanted her to be.
“Look at these beets, Mom. Looks like Summer might be giving you a run for your money,” Roland said as he handed the Harvard beets around to her.
“I don’t care who makes them. This is my favorite vegetable ever,” she said as she gave herself a generous portion. Beets were good for a person, although there was a good bit of sugar in Harvard beets, and she supposed that that negated most of the healthy benefits. Although, they would probably be better for her than the stuffing balls whichshe also loved.
She made sure to take some of them as they went around, because Amy had told her that Summer had helped to make them, and Marjorie didn’t want to hurt Summer’s feelings.
She looked at Summer, who was saying something low to Gilbert who sat beside her.
Larissa sat on one side of Summer, and Robert sat on the other side of Gilbert, but there was no child between them.
Marjorie wondered if there might be something going on there.
She looked across the table at Lucas who was stuck like glue to Judd’s side. Judd had married her oldest daughter, Terry, and Marjorie felt like that was a match made in heaven.
Although Terry had confided to Marjorie that they wanted to have children and hadn’t been able to.
Marjorie had patted her arm and told her not to worry about it. It had been less than a year, and sometimes people waited far longer than that to get pregnant, but internally she worried. Terry was older, and maybe they wouldn’t ever be able to have children, which was a shame. All the people who had kids and didn’t care about them, and there was Terry and Judd who would make excellent parents.
Not to mention, her heart bled at Terry’s sorrow over the fact that getting pregnant had not been easy.
Still, lots of people went through harder things, and in every other way, Terry and Judd were doing fantastic. They were so obviously in love, and they cared for each other so well. They also spent a lot of time with her nieces and nephews, which was one of the main reasons why Terry had moved back.
Her eyes went again to Summer and Gilbert. Maybe there would be another wedding in their future.
“Mom, are you gonna pass the beets or not?” Roland said from beside her. Roland, her youngest, wasn’t quite ready to get married yet. Although, she suspected that he was more mature than he let on. The youngest sometimes had trouble growing up, since they were so used to everyone treating them like a baby.
Conversation flowed easily around the table, the food was delicious, and it was one of the best Thanksgivings that Marjorie could remember. Of course, she thought that every year. Because her heart always overflowed with gratitude. The good was always better than the bad. Even the lean years, where she wasn’t sure where the money for Christmas was going to come from, or whether she was going to be able to continue to pay the mortgage or not. God had always been good, and He provided so abundantly that if she thought about it too much she’d tear up and embarrass everyone at the table.
“All right, guys, we have some really good desserts, including pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, and chocolate cake.” Gilbert paused while there were cheers from the kids. Probably over the chocolate cake, and Marjorie hid a smile. She had decided that she’d be a little different and make a more traditional dessert for their Thanksgiving meal, to go along with everything pumpkin. It appeared that it was a pretty good idea.
“But before that, I have a bit of an announcement to make.” Gilbert looked down at Summer, and Marjorie held her breath. These things could go either way. He might be going to announce that they were expecting a baby, and while she would be happy for them, it wasn’t her ideal.
Immediately she shook the thought aside. She needed to have faith in her children and faith that God had filled in the gaps if she hadn’t raised them right. Surely they would want to please Him, and that would be their main concern.
She hoped so.
“Summer and I are…courting, I guess. We’re not dating, and we’re looking to get married before Christmas.”
Marjorie’s eyes went to the children sitting on either side of them, and their eyes shone. It seemed like they might have already talked to the kids about it, so there weren’t any surprises at the table. Marjorie was impressed that the kids could keep that kind of a secret.
