Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

2015 has flown by--it has been a good year full of great joy. We are very thankful to God.

Colin is working as an investigator, and I am staying home with Caris, who is now 2 1/4. Caris (born premature) was discharged from occupational therapy in the spring and is not only developmentally on track, but ahead in some areas! Her vocabulary and speech skills are astounding, probably helped by the thousands of books we have read. She has a memory greater than mine. We feel so blessed to have her as our gift. So blessed. 

Our adoption agency shut down our Ethiopian program after 3 years of us waiting. Our hearts were sad. We made the decision to switch to a domestic adoption, and are hoping to adopt a waiting child from the foster care system. We have inquired about many children, but have not yet been matched. We are praying that 2016 is THE year to bring our adoption journey to a close. We long to give Caris a brother or sister, and we long to show love to a little one. We are approved for one child, age 0-6. We are open to special needs and are drawn to children born premature, since we have our experience with Caris being born at 26 weeks. I would love to have another pregnancy in our future as well, but have not yet been able to have that. 

Here is a little recap of our Christmas season. We start preparing the day after Thanksgiving.

*At a tree farm. We took a wagon ride to cut down our own Christmas tree! A small dusting of snow made it just perfect.*

*Colin and Caris*

*Caris showing off our finished tree!*

*Musician-in-training*

*Sneaking some cuddles in on Christmas*

*Dada is smitten with her*

*Caris and her miniature grand piano! Grammie loves to spoil her.*

Here is to a new year ahead full of big joy in a great God!