Christmas Part 2

As you can see we try to pack as much fun and tradition into the Christmas season as we can. (not the usual shopping, shopping, shopping!) We sooo enjoy this time of the year! I love the lights, weather, community and church events that go with it!

A lot of the traditions we have revolve around discussions of Christ, his birth, his life, his death, his purpose, and the call we have to continue to share each of these things with the world. We want our children to remember Christmas past as a time when great memories were made with family, friends, and neighbors and that some of the best of them were made giving to others.

The weekend before Christmas we attended an open house at Bryant's Miniatures. We have been out to these stables before but never for their Christmas open house. The girls loved it. My children are not only crazy about babies but animals as well!

They even got to pet and feed the camel. The Bryant's have such a neat variety of animals. Delaney was able to name the camel and donkey because of our talk about the nativity.

*Just a quick note...this year the girls were given the little people nativity at the beginning of December. Genna and Delaney played with it often. While they were playing I would tell them the story again and explain who each animal or person was. After a few times D would approach it and say Mary, baby Jesus, wise men, and etc.. It turned out to be a great hands on learning tool for her. I loved it!

After leaving the stables we headed out to get our Christmas tree. I know the weekend before Christmas....we were a little behind, but it was perfect there was snow on the ground and everything!!

We picked a great tree...GREAT BIG that is! The room it was going in only has 8ft ceilings and the tree was a little over 8ft. Josh cut off a little at the bottom and brought it in. He put on the lights and we decorated it. Then Grace got the honor of putting on the star.

That is when we realized a little more needed to be cut off. The girls insisted however that we leave it. So this is how our star remained the rest of the season!

One more post coming up!

Christmas Season 2010 Part 1

It has seemed like forever since I blogged!

Things have been busy around here. However, they have also been great! I hate to say "it has been busy" like it was a bad thing. Most everything that occupied our time in December were things we chose to do or felt God had led us to do..... so no complaining here!

A quick update before all the Christmas stuff.

This month we sold Josh's car in order to get a vehicle with a few more miles on it and to eliminate a vehicle payment. We also were able to sell his 1975 CJ5, for all you JEEP lovers out there you know this was a BIG deal. This was his baby, his project. He decided to sell it though, knowing that his time with "his baby" would be even more limited with another child around and that we could use the extra money....

Last month we had to replace the washer and dryer unexpectedly. So selling both of those were a huge blessing.

Also Josh's new-to-him ride is in the JEEP family, just an FYI for all of you who were feeling bad for the guy!! ; ) I did feel a little bit sorry for him.

Last Thursday we went to our fingerprint appointment at the United States Citizen and Immigration Services. Everything went well and we are hoping to hear back that we are clear. At that point, we will be referral ready, except for the rest of the fundraising!

Now on to some of the CHRISTMAS FUN!

We started off the season with Genna's school Christmas program. She was so excited! I didn't want to send her to school all day in a dress, so I stayed up the night before and made her a Christmas shirt! She loved it!

The girls were in the Christmas program at our church. Genna was Mary and Grace was a modern day girl. Can you tell they both love to sing!! Both their mouths are open the widest!

Grace's program at school had to be rescheduled due to the four snow days we had before break.

They did a wonderful job, even though most of their rehearsal was done a few hours before the program.

The girls love to be in the kitchen and always want to help cook. So we spent a few days making gooodies! On this particular day, we made homemade thin mints, snicker doodles, chocolate chip cookies, and triple chocolate. A total of 16 dozen in all! The next afternoon they delivered the goodies to the neighbors in the snow. Oh what fun!!

And yes in this next picture I am on the floor with crazy braids in my hair letting D stir the cookie dough. She kept climbing from the stool onto the counter where the hot cookies were all laid out. So I sat down on the floor and let her stir with me there. I promise those of you who ate the cookies, none of them touched the floor!

More Christmas fun to come!

Our December Number & Upcoming Appointment

We received our new number today via e-mail from our agency. It alternates each month, one month we receive a phone call and the next an e-mail giving us our official number. We also received our appointment date and time via snail mail for fingerprinting through the USCIS (United States Citizen & Immigration Services). We will be traveling to St Louis around Christmas for the appointment. This is a great feeling because once that all goes through we will be referral ready. Then the only thing left for right now is continuing to fund raise and WAIT.
As odd as it may sound I am very content at this point with the wait. While I would love to have all four of my children here this Christmas, I am thankful for the time the Lord has given us for reflection and continued learning. We are preparing for this child and the work the Lord has in store for us in the future. We know that after our adoption we will continue to be involved in the care of orphans. We are not sure in what capacity that might be, but a burden has definitely been placed on our hearts for them.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchman wait for the morning.

Psalm 130:5-6