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The Joy of Creating Memories

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For many years now, my parents have rented a beach house or condo on the Texas coast the week of Thanksgiving. Then whoever in the family wants or can, for however long, shows up. For the past five years my parents have rented the same house. Some years the weather is cold and rainy, exactly what one would expect for the end of Thanksgiving.

-The House We've Stayed at for the Past 5 Years

But some years, like this one, we are blessed with mild to warm weather such that some brave the water to jump waves or ride a boogie board.

I don’t have any profound thoughts or insight to share here… Just a few memories along with some fun pictures. I hope you enjoy!

The first year our family stayed at this house was the first Thanksgiving that our son was with us. He was still a foster only child. We weren’t even sure that he would be with us when we made Thanksgiving plans. I knew that we either were going to be enjoying watching a one-year-old experience the beach for the first time. Or…we would be recovering from the bittersweetness of him going back to his biological family after living with us for several months.

The following year, our son officially a part of our forever family, was walking and talking now. For some reason he thought that the beach house was his cousin Isaac’s house. So much so that when he went to his cousin’s real house a few months later, he couldn’t understand why we didn’t ride the ferry and where the beach went.

Fast forward to year five at this beach homeā€”Our son counts down the time as Thanksgiving gets close, incessantly asking us how many more days, again he asks, how many more days til we go to the beach!

Returning to the same house for five years in a row has given me a benchmark that helps me tuck away memories with our son, an easy way for my mind to keep track of God’s blessings, our son’s adoption into our family, how he has changed each year. He has gone from crawling and playing just outside the back deck in the sand dunes to running up and down the beach and jumping waves.

I know this is a little self-serving, but I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the beauty of the beach from this year’s annual Thanksgiving beach trip…year 5 for our son.

 

 

 

About the Author

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I am a longtime Austinite. Married my beautiful wife over 35 years ago. Adopted our son September 2012.
As a small business and nonprofit coach/consultant, I have found my sweet spot. I lean on my varied background of corporate, small business ownership, writing, and pastoring as I work to help small business owners and nonprofit founders build the business they want to have.


  • This made me all misty eyed as it brought back memories of the house by the beach my family always stayed at for one week each summer. It was up north, so even though it was summer sometimes it was cold. Sometimes it was hot and we would brave the waters. Such sweet memories.

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