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!

The Last 6 Months

What have Caris and I been up to the last 6 months???

Caris says, "I don't know." GRIN.

A whole lot of fun staying home together. I have been loving this 1:1 time with my baby girl. She is more of a toddler now than a baby! She is 21 months old already. 

She LOOOOVES cats. She has 3 favorite stuffed animals we have named Douglas, Aurora, and Albert. She loooooves books. She loves balls. And she loves being outdoors going on walks in her wagon, playing with her water table, or just wandering through our yard.

She loves her mama, too. Mama's girl, for sure!

Mama loves dressing her up. 

She learned to walk in March and has been on-the-go ever since! Especially when Dada is chasing her! Ha.

Time is a-flying.

A little spring sunshine.

My cheerful babe.

Her swing she could swing in all day.

How are y'all???

I just can't have an update without pictures of Caris. Seriously. She is my earthly light. I am in love with her spunk, her cuddles, and her laughter.

We don't have a very great outlook on our Ethiopian adoption. AGCI is making one 'last' trip to Ethiopia in July to assess the program and any possible orphanage partnerships, but it has been stressed to us time and time again that the corruption in adoptions doesn't leave our program with much hope to continue on ethically. We have been told a final decision will be made and shared the first week of August. We have been told over and over that it would be wise to switch country programs, but our hearts just won't let us walk away until the door is fully closed. If that happens in August, we will then begin pursuing adoption within the United States. Please pray for us and all families who have continued in the program, and also all the orphans left behind due to corruption.