Christmas Preparations

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father; Prince of Peace!” (Isaiah 9:6)

I am really trying hard this year to keep my focus on what the whole meaning of Christmas is!  Christmas is a time to reflect on the wonderful gift of Jesus Christ to mankind!  He was born for the sole purpose of dying so that we can live eternally!  Thank you, dear Jesus!  “Look!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29).

Sometimes it is hard to keep my eyes on Christ when my heart is so heavy.  I am sad our “gift of God,” sweet Matthew, is not able to be home for Christmas this year.   He is really missing out on a lot of fun and we are missing out on his life every day that goes by. He is so far from home right now and I just want my fella in our nest with our other little ones.  We look forward to traveling back for our court date on January 14^th.  We wish he could have been home in 2013, but we are so grateful we get to adopt Matthew Edik at all!  Praise be to God this Christmas we have the opportunity to give to Matthew the gift of family.  I am so honored to be his mama and Tim is honored to be his pop!

The kids did most the work of decorating the tree

My heart is also heavy because I miss Brandon especially around the Christmas season. Christmas was one of the only holidays we got to enjoy with him.  It is such a disappointment that his first Christmas was also his last Christmas with us.  Every year Christmas rolls around it feels like a fresh, new wound though the pain is always there.  It’s hard to pull out his ornaments that he loved and he is not here to hang them.  His motorcycle ornament.  His baby picture ornaments. His red race car and soccer ornament.  The nutcracker ornament that he repaired.  His stocking that will remain empty.  I can’t decide if it hurts more to pull out his things and display them or if it would hurt more to leave them in the boxes in the attic.  So we put them out and push through the tears that flow.  We must realize it is because of God’s only Son we know we will see our boy again and Brandon is having a blast in Heaven with other loved ones and God Himself.  

Brandon hanging his motorcycle ornament--his favorite ornament

I miss this happy blond boy!

It’s interesting because this year when I was unpacking Christmas decorations I found an ornament I did not remember.  I have no idea who gave it to us or when.  Perhaps it is because all of 2012 is a fog in my mind. It seemed to just turn up this year and it was still in the box it was purchased in.  It is one of those things that cheered me up because someone remembered our boy last year and that Christmastime would likely be difficult for us. Thank you whoever gave us this ornament. If it was you who gave us this ornament, will you please email and let me know?  

I’m so thankful we are not traveling during our Christmas holiday this year.  We had originally thought we were going to miss out on Christmas with our current children and would be waiting around for paperwork in Ukraine.   I am glad we are not missing this year.  The girls would have taken it pretty hard if we were gone as well.  

This week I enlisted the help of my elves to do some wrapping.  They each wrapped a gift and I told them I would judge who did the best job.   My oldest elf, Katie, has been helping me wrap many gifts and she is an expert gift wrapper at this point!  

Love these two little elves



They’ve all been counting down the days until Christmas since December 1st.  We are all excited to have Christmas and New Years and see what the Lord brings in 2014.  

For anyone grieving for any reason this holiday season, may these words encourage your saddened hearts: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” I’m so glad God has given us so much hope and joy in the midst of sorrow!

Merry Christmas to Everyone!