Thank. You. Lord.

After exactly three weeks of w.a.i.t.i.n.g..................

Thomas got picked up by the New England Patriots on Monday! We are pretty stinkin' excited and encouraged. Even if this doesn't last longer than a few days or weeks, {hopefully it will last longer than his 24-hour contract with the Vikings} we needed this little encouragement for the time being. The past three weeks were long in some aspects but also fun and flew by in other ways.

Here are some of the things we are thankful for that happened in the last three weeks:

-We got to live in York with my parents and my brother and his family. All 9 of us lived together for quite some time and there was VERY little tension. And it was a BLAST!
-I got to go to the Indie Craft Fair with my sister-in-law Elizabeth while Thomas got contacts that are actually the correct prescription. It's the simple things, folks.
-We got to go to Franklin, NC with Thomas' sister Bekah and visit Uncle Robert and Aunt Kim's new town.
-Thomas flew to Boston and Seattle to workout. Both visits were less than 24 hours. But one of them ended up providing a JOB!
-We got to live with our agent and his family in the apartment over their garage for 5 days. What a sweet opportunity that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
-We got to go see Church Girl, which you can read about in my post below. :)
-And we got to be together every single day for a whole month!

Sweet Thomas kept saying "we wouldn't be able to do these things if I were still in Minnesota!" What a great attitude my dear husband has.

And I'll end this post with a hilarious story about how we found out Thomas had a job....

On rainy Monday morning, I was sitting in our little apartment at our agent's house feeling pretty sorry for myself. I emailed two of my dearest friends a stream of consciousness email that included things like "what am I doing with my life? How long is this waiting period going to last? Please pray for me to know what to do with my time. I am going crazy." It was raining so I was stuck in the apartment, couldn't go for a run, and couldn't drive anywhere because Thomas had the car. My phone rang and it was our agent. He was asking me if we'd gotten to swim in their pool the day before, and I said yes, the temperature was great and it wasn't too cold. He said "speaking of cold temperatures....." and I thought "oh my gosh we're moving back to Minnesota." Then he told me Thomas got signed to the Patriot's practice squad and I started yelling and sprinted down the stairs to tell Susan, his sweet wife. We were screaming and jumping and the dog was all over us. And then Susan looked at me and said "Margaret, Thomas doesn't even know! We have to let him know!"

So, I did the unthinkable and actually called Thomas at work. I have NEVER called Thomas at work. But this was time for the unthinkable and I called the front desk at the workout facility. I told the receptionist the situation and she ran to go get Thomas. And of course, when Thomas answered the phone, he said: "Why are you calling me here? Are you pregnant or something?"

And now, 48 hours later, Thomas is already in Foxboro practicing with the team and I am in Clemson going through every bit of our belongings that have been in storage for 3 months. After living in our car for this long, I don't want any of our stuff and I want SIMPLICITY. I am giving things away right and left and having a blast. We are going to look for a furnished apartment in the Foxboro area. After what happened in Minnesota, we aren't putting all our eggs in one basket! So, I'll pack what I can in the green mullet truck and go on my merry way.

Thanks for all the love and support everyone has shown over the past 3 weeks and 3 months. We are excited that the Patriots want Thomas, whether it is for 2 days, 2 months or 2 years. The Lord knows how to give us enough encouragement just for today.