Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  This year has been a year of many firsts for our family.  Last Christmas brought our first Christmas as parents.  It’s amazing how adding one more little person to the day can wear you out but brings such joy at the same time. 

  We started 2012 off by celebrating Aerin’s first birthday.  Amory has found her new role as official party planner to be great fun.  It was a huge blessing to be able to celebrate our daughter’s first birthday with our family and closest friends.  Even with just family it ended up being a large party! 

  

  Each new month has brought new developmental milestones as we have watched Aerin grow from a baby to a little girl.  She has gone from having 18 words at the beginning of the year, to speaking in complete sentences.  We never cease to be amazed at how smart this little girl is that God has blessed us with.  Those smarts and her strong will combined have made for some interesting times for us, but we thank God for all of it.  We have discovered that Aerin is just like her Mommy and sings as long as she is awake.  The only moments she stops singing is when she is talking.  Basically, her mouth is going non-stop at all times.  The only thing that can keep her quiet for any length of time is watching Finding Nemo or Winnie the Pooh (or pooh pooh pooh as she called him for some time).   Aerin’s favorite play time activity is still reading.  She would spend hours reading books if you let her.  There’s a little bit of both her Mommy and Daddy in that.  In May Aerin went to her first Texas Rangers game. She loves watching baseball and was able to stay for nearly the whole game. It was a proud moment for her Daddy.  (please excuse the overheated sweaty appearance)

  In June we took our first family vacation together.  We drove down to the Texas coast and enjoyed a few days in a condo on the beach.  Aerin loved the beach and ocean, though was not too fond of the heat.   Aerin’s favorite beach activity was walking behind her Daddy, as he made sandcastles and immediately demolishing his creations.   It was special to see Aerin’s excitement at seeing the ocean for the first time, as well as dolphins up close. 

   The rest of our year has been filled with just trying to soak up as much of our daughter’s toddlerhood as possible without letting the house get too out of shape.  Both Bryan and Amory being working parents is still very difficult and especially hard on a mama watching her baby grow up, but worth it for the moment as it has allowed us to start our second adoption.   In October we were added to the waitlist again and we are excited to see what child or children God is going to bless our family with next.  This adoption will be a much longer road than Aerin’s, but we’re ready to wait.  We expect to be on the waitlist for two years before we see our next children’s faces.

 God has blessed us richly this year with being able to see life through the eyes of a child.  Everything is new and exciting.  We see God’s faithfulness to us and blessings much more clearly now.  As Paul said in Philippians, we are also learning the secret of being content with were we are, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.   Our prayer for all of our friends and family as we wrap up this year and head into another one is that you may all be able to see God’s faithfulness and blessings in your lives clearly.  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13.