Merry Christmas!!

We have had a very exciting Christmas day at our house! :-)

I had a very hard time sleeping last night and it was about 2:30 AM the last time I looked at the clock before I drifted off to sleep. I figured the kids would be up about 6AM, so I knew I would be tired today. But when Ana wandered into our bedroom excitedly telling me about the packages "wrapped in gorgeous gold, shiny paper" and I looked at the clock it was 4:30AM!! I told her it was WAY too early to get up and she needed to go back to bed. That worked for about 30 minutes and then ALL of the kids were up. When we finished unwrapping the presents Christian asked why it was still so dark outside and I laughed when I told him "It is still dark because it is not even 7AM yet!" What a start to the day...

I took a nap and then we "puttered" around the house playing with presents and relaxing. One of the things Zac got were some of the Cars characters that change colors when you put them in cold or warm water. I finally got motivated to get in the shower and when I walked into our bathroom there was a waterfall running over the edge of the vanity and onto the floor! I am not sure how long they had left the water running full blast trying to make those cars change colors, but lets just say our bathroom could have been declared a flood disaster area by the state! Even the drawers in the vanity were full of water!

We finally got the mess cleaned up and I got ready. When I went to heat the oven to start dinner, the oven would not work!! Eric finally got it lit, but for a while I was afraid that we might be eating peanut butter sandwiches for Christmas dinner.

It has been an eventful day to say the least. Several times today I have thought about my friend Lorraine telling me that every time they have gotten close to bringing one of their adopted children home things have started to fall apart around their home. They jokingly say that when things start breaking they know that their next little one will be home soon, and I am hoping that is the case with us to because we got a great Christmas present today.

We are not very good about walking to the other side of the neighborhood to check the mail so we never got around to checking it on Thursday. When we finally picked it up today the final copies of our home study as well as the letter from our pediatrician asking that our adoption be expedited so that A.J. can get home to get the medical treatment he needs were both in the mail box. I have our I-800A paperwork all ready to go and it will be in the mail first thing Tuesday morning!!

This is the last big hurdle in our adoption process and there is still a chance that our I-800 could be denied. Please pray that our file will end up in the hands of exactly the right case worker, and that our approval will arrive in our mailbox very quickly. I will definitely be checking the mail more often!

Praying that your family had a wonderful Christmas spent surrounded with family, enjoying the laughter of good friends, and celebrating the birth of the Saviour! I got some great gifts today, but the greatest gift I will ever receive came when Jesus was born and died on the cross to give me the gift of eternal life.

Merry Christmas!!