Merry Christmas!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas morning with our little princess!!

I think that we woke "big ge (prounounced guh)" up too early!!!   Sorry Justin! I guess I could have cropped you out of the picture!! hee hee

I love my Dora scooter!!  

Helping make waffles.  Let me see how yours taste ge ge Lance!!!!

Thank you Grandmama for my talking Elmo!!!  I love Elmo!!!!

I feel safe in ge ge Jerod's lap!!!!

Playing with my baby cousin, Hayden and Grandmama!!

Okay here comes the "sappy" part of my post!!!  Just a warning in case you want to stop here!!! LOL!!!  I originally started this blog to keep friends and family informed and updated on our adoption process.  It has turned into an inspiring journal to one day show Sophie just how much she is loved and wanted by our family and our wonderful friends!!!  

As I was rocking her to sleep this afternoon after a very busy morning, I couldn't help but to think of what a wonderful Christmas miracle she is for me this year.  The past 10 years of Christmases have been very difficult for me with the loss of my Mom and then my Dad.  Josh was born and there for my first Christmas without Mom and has been a great comfort for me all these years as well as Justin.  I love all my children dearly and feel very blessed to receive these wonderful gifts from God.  God has blessed me with biological children and all the wonderful experiences that go along with watching them grow and seeing the different traits they have inherited.  I have been blessed with step sons that I have grown to love over the years through lots of ups and downs!! And now I have this wonderful gift through adoption....

 I am so thankful that the Lord persistently continued to knock on the door of my heart.  I so wanted to make many excuses of why adopting a child would not work for us.  I will not get into those details but finances being the main obstacle!!!!  I have prayed and prayed for many years, Lord either drop a child off at my door step or close all the doors and take away this desire of my heart!!!!  Well it wasn't as easy as having a child dropped off at the door and thank goodness the Lord did not answer my plea to take this desire out of my heart!!!  Sophie was already being formed in my heart and there was no way that it could be undone!!!!

So as I am rocking her to sleep this afternoon and thinking about Christmases gone by, I start to realize that Sophie and I have something very unique in common.  We both have lost our biological mothers and we are both daughters of the Almighty God and he has brought us together and brought peace into our hearts.  He even took care of her in a Christian-based orphanage while she waited for me and Ricky to come and get her.  Her orphanage is named Prince of Peace!!!!  I finally feel peace in my heart for the first time at Christmas since losing my mom.   I still miss her and Daddy very much and always will.   Thank you Jesus for healing my heart, thank you for bringing peace to my heart through the life of a precious 3 year old Asian princess named Wei Ming Nuan.  

Thank you Lord for all my children.  Thank you for the sweet relationship Sophie has with all of her brothers.  It warms my heart to see them all change their tough-guy demeanor and love their precious little princess.   Thank you for a husband that is willing to help father so many children and work hard to provide for them.  Thank you Lord for sweet friends that financially helped Sophie come to America and for sweet friends that fervently prayed for her safe arrival to America.  Thank you for this awesome experience of adoption...at times it can be indescribable!!!!  Just as indescribable as your love for me!!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!!!!