Christmas Love and Cheer

Wow! Those holidays went by so fast! This year was the year of just sitting and soaking in every moment I could with the little 4 year-old. These early years go so fast.

  The other day I dropped E off at her kinder program, and we had a delayed start due to the recent freeze overnight. This meant that I could slow down and check-in with her teacher. As it happens with deeper conversations, adoption came up. E had made a comment and the teacher had some questions for me. So, I told her the beautiful story. This story always grabs the heart, no matter how many times retold.  I can see God woven into every corner of it and it gives me hope for the future. Of course the teacher cried and, of course, we had a soft moment of discussing parenting and loving children. 

  I stopped during this conversation with her teacher shortly after starting it and called E over to us. It's really important to me that she hears me talking to others about her adoption. This isn't a secret. There is nothing to hide. I have nothing to hold back from her. So, with a lot of love and gentleness in my voice, I hoped to model for her how to speak to others about her own adoption. E answered some basic questions about her adoption and then went off to play! 

However, I digress, here is an update... 

We have had a few possible adoption situations arise, but they both didn't pan out. That is completely natural and part of the process. Several situations came up before baby E. It just proves that we have to keep the faith and keep at it. We cannot have our heart tied up in every possibility. Luckily, the situations were short-lived and easy to move on from. The goal is to continue getting our story out there. 

Christmas came and went in a blink of an eye. The West coast proved fun and relaxing once again for our little family. Sand in the toes and the hot burning sun was a massive change to our normal 0 degree temperatures with mounds of snow around us. We all agree that we enjoy the seasons. I am more of a snow baby than E or Ryan. Skiing and sledding are amazing and I would miss the cold if I lived in a climate with no changing of seasons! 

E's adoption day was Christmas Eve! As stated previously, a judge in Bow graciously opened up the court house on Christmas Eve day to make her adoption finalized. It was really special and we felt loved by the whole town!! This year she was able to pick out her own cake, raspberry/chocolate pink cake. We sliced it up and shared it with Ryan's side of the family. 

In this family we prefer using the term "Adoption Day" instead of "Gotcha Day." There is no getting anyone here. I understand the fun/spunky sense behind the gotcha day phrase. We just enjoy the sense of explaining adoption again, and providing the understanding behind how love binds us together as a family.... not we grabbed her from somewhere and made her ours. 

With all that said, it's time to leave you with these pictures and wish you well. I promise next post will come much sooner than this one did! 

Our break consisted of: waterfall hikes,

Eating out and getting kisses,

Everything from fun in the sun and sand in the toes....

To a few feet of snow!

That made us wish we were back in the 80 degrees and playing in the creek!