Christmas Still

Friday, January 9th.  January 9th already?  Most have taken down their Christmas trees and have returned to life as normal.  Life as normal? What is normal life?  May I just tell you that I am loving my new normal life?!

My Christmas tree is most certainly NOT taken down, nor are any of my other Christmas decorations.  It is still very much Christmas around here, most especially in my heart.  I don't ever want this season to end, the awe and wonder I feel just sitting here looking at my tree with the toy nativity set under it.  My children are home.  My eyes are full of tears.  I have waited a long time for this Christmas, for these moments of being a mom, and I am going to keep soaking it all in, even if my tree is still up come February!


The view from where I sit.

There has been something magical about coming home with our children this time of year, during the season we celebrate Jesus' birth.  Our children's very first day in our house was Christmas.  The very first story we read to them here, was the Christmas story.  Marc read and I acted it out with our toy nativity set and explained in Thai.  All of the books in the downstairs of our home are Christmas books, many of them with the story of Jesus' birth in them, so the kids keep bringing them to me to look at and read with them.  Yes, yes, I will stop what I am doing and tell you again about Jesus' birth and how much He loves you.  Oh how I have waited and longed for these moments.

A few of the children's Christmas books that I love!

They had never opened presents before so that was a fun first.  They figured it out pretty quickly! We made a turkey on Christmas day and the kids loved it, of course they ate it with rice!  A dear friend dropped off a cake and candles so we could sing happy birthday to Jesus and after some discussion over who should blow out the candles, we all blew together.

Together, together at last. For those of you who are still waiting, hang in there and hold on to hope.  The dream of having children really can and does come true. 

Yesterday, while I was cleaning up the kitchen, I heard a soft song coming from the other room, my dear son was singing God is So Good, with his own sweet pronunciations of the words.  God is so good.  The first time I sung this to them, I couldn't get through the song.  God is so good-a truth that I hope my children will always cling to, no matter what their struggles are in life, this is a truth that I hope sinks deep down inside of them and that they will always believe.

For those of you who are wondering, things are going amazingly well.  Marc and I are simply amazed at how well our children have transitioned and are adjusting to life with us.  Sure, we have some difficult moments here and there, but overall we could not ask for things to be going any better.  The kids are playing hard, sleeping plenty, eating well, cuddling lots, learning new things and smiling and laughing constantly.  They are loving all their new toys-baby dolls and cars, Duplos and dishes, crayons and stickers, and their rooms.  I will have to post finished pictures of their rooms at some point, it has been fun watching them explore!