It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like....

CHRISTMAS!!!












(This is just a sneek peek of our Christmas photo shoot!)

We went to the mall tonight to look for a hat and mittens for you. We passed by Santa and he waved at you. We saw all the Christmas decorations. You and I sat on a bench outside the shoe store while daddy shopped. We played and you laughed and bounced on my lap. People young and old passed by, smiling at you and saying "how cute!" I have to agree.

It got me thinking...This time last year was such a different attitude. I always love to celebrate Christmas, but last year I was so aware of the absence of the child I had been praying for. In between shopping and wrapping gifts, I was sorting through pictures and making scrapbook pages for our adoption album.

I remember purchasing an ornament as part of the Godparent Home's Christmas fundraiser. It was a simple glass ball that said "For unto us a child is born." I claimed that as a promise - not just the Promise of life that came that blessed Christmas morn, but also as a promise of the child that would be ours.

I decorated the tree, thoughtfully placing each ornament. Proudly hanging the ones that daddy had bought mommy over the years, or the ones I had collected since I was a little girl. And then I hung that glass ball at the very top of the tree - just below the angel that sat above them all. I wanted to see it everytime I passed by.

After hours turned into days and days into weeks, cropping pictures and journaling by each one, making sure each page was an accurate representation of the family we are and what we could offer a child...I needed that ornament to serve as a visible reminder of why I was stressing over making each page perfect.

It was all for you. It was for this year - this time that we would celebrate a baby at Christmas. Yes, every year we celebrate the birth of Christ - but this year, I'm more aware of my Savior's enrance into the world because of how you've rocked mine! This year, I share Mary's heart. Holding, rocking, kissing my baby boy. This year, I don't just dream about what will be - I am experiencing what is.

You won't really know what all the pretty presents and twinkling lights are all about. You won't understand the reasons we celebrate. But this year, all of the festivities and decor will serve as a reminder of God's most precious gift - a baby boy that forever changed our lives.