Christmas

I have wonderful memories of Christmas as I was growing up. Then you hit your twenties and the holiday looses a little of the luster and excitement. But then once we had children the holiday became magical again as we share in their excitement while also trying to teach them that the day is about more than Santa and gifts. This Christmas was extra special now that Aliyah is home. After years of paperwork and court delays, it's hard to believe that she is home with us forever. We met several families on our second trip who were in Ethiopia on their first trip. Many of them had not passed court because of incomplete paperwork and then they later had their visa appointments pushed back for unknown reasons. These delays have caused them to spend another holiday without their children. I pray for these families that they will be going back to Ethiopia soon to bring their children home. It also makes me appreciate how lucky we were that our visa appointment got moved up to an earlier date so that we got to have our daughter with us for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This year we had the boys pick our gifts for each other. You can't tell from the picture but they did have fun exchanging gifts.

It was so fun watching Aliyah slowly unwrap her gifts and the joy on her face as she saw what was inside.

Noah showing his shark teeth.

After Christmas morning at home we went to church and then over to my moms house to have dinner with my mom, stepdad, grandma and my sister's family. Overall a great Christmas for this party of five :)