OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED

In the beginning, JD adamantly only wanted two children. I thought that four would be perfect. Once we caught God's vision of putting orphans into families, our plan was multiplied by God. We are currently blessed with 12 children; five biological, six adopted and one more waiting in Ethiopia. Our first adoption was from the U.S., the next three were from Liberia, West Africa, and our last two were from Ethiopia. We are supporting our 12th child in Ethiopia after her adoption could not pass court.

Friday, December 26, 2014

Christmas Presents

The kids draw names and buy one present for one sibling; we exchange just those presents on Christmas Eve after the service. It allows it to be a special time without distraction of any other gifts.

Alyssa wrapped a candle for Tori as a joke, who was sweet and thankful in spite of having no desire for her own candle. 
 
  
She then got her actual gift - a sweater and lots of candy.

  
Elijah had James and only accidentally mentioned what his present was a few times...

  
We received these gorgeous Christmas cookies from a friend at church; they made me so happy because I only made sugar cookies since I had been sick. (I even bought Costco apple and pumpkin pies this year - I've never, ever bought pies before!)


 After the kids were in bed, we bring up the wrapped gifts. I do not keep them under the tree as we wrap them because I don't like them to be able to focus on them. 


  
Christmas morning starts at 7:00 at our house - no earlier.


 




 This is the part when the room gets so messy that they start migrating through the house with toys in tow. 



 And Mom and Dad get to clean up a bit. 


We are a blessed, blessed family!



1 comment:

  1. We don't usually put presents under the tree either, for the same reason. I started doing that a few years ago, after hearing a really spoiled kid at church talking about how many presents he had, and that he counted every day!
    The last few years have been different every year for us. Hoping to get back to making traditions next year.

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