As Lydia was coming down the stairs with me, we were talking about things to be thankful for. With her voice full of emotion she emphatically said she was most thankful to be home. Then she leaned over and kissed the wall of the house. It highlighted for us just how much Lydia longs to be home. We are grateful to have Lydia home with us for a long weekend, and to celebrate Thanksgiving together.  A friend just reminded us that the French translation of Thanksgiving is Action de Grace - action of grace.  How much grace has been bestowed upon us!  For every grace, we give thanks.
We have received tweets and emails about Lydia's ribbon waving homecoming.  We are glad that this dream of ours has been received with enthusiasm.  We don't know when we will do it yet; possibly the first Friday in November.  Lydia will be home before then, but logistically, we need our Farm Market to be closed for the season, so that we can use the parking lot.  We will drive Lydia through the parking lot and down the lane on the golf cart, and if we need more space, we have an additional 1 km of lane that goes through the farm.  We can make it a grand route if needed.  One of our favourite children's books is entitled All The Places To Love, and all those places are where you grow up and make memories, so we want to have Lydia's ribbon waving celebration at home.  Thank you for your prayers.  Lydia has been described as being "the community's daughter".  The amazing support we receive is proof of this title's accuracy.
This evening we took Lydia to the New Hamburg Recreation Complex to watch part of her brother's hockey game.  She was in the sound booth, with her "hockey sisters", playing the music.  She even pressed a few of the buttons!  She was delighted to go, and we are grateful that she has recovered enough to be able to go, walk into the arena,  greet folks, climb the stairs to the sound booth, and be with her friends.  Even though she had three naps today, the outing exhausted her.  She quickly fell asleep tonight.