OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED: Christmas Surprise times Two

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.

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Christmas Surprise times Two

The kids were not allowed to give Christmas requests this year as they were told all along that they were all getting the same two presents and they would work together for a large gift. Amazingly, in spite of a few slips, the secret was maintained all the way until Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve is the gift exchange where the kids give a gift to the person they drew. Moriah had Elijah and bestowed Steeler items on him.

I got the six youngest new stockings with their names on them - very exciting for me as I have planned on doing that for many years.

On Christmas morning, the kids got a suitcase and a Mickey or Minnie t-shirt, along with some group board games, because we are leaving in two weeks for DISNEY WORLD - 15 of us! Gabriel, Alayna and Nathan are flying from CO to meet us for the week as well.

This box had a paper chain with how many days until we leave and they didn't understand it, but Elijah looked at me and said, "thank you, Mom". He's such a sweet and thankful boy.

You know, in spite of the kids not getting toys and having so few presents to open, the atmosphere was just as fun and the girls spent the whole day playing with their suitcases and the small stuffed Minnies in their stockings. I found the lack of shopping to be rather restful and enjoyable; we are definitely reducing the quantity of presents per person from now on.

Of course, the food was as delicious as ever and Julia received a whole second huge surprise when her sister, Erica in Canada, face-timed to tell her that she and her mom were coming for an entire week in March. They girls have never met and I am so excited for them both!