Merry Christmas!

Its 2 days past Christmas and I finally have moment to visit this blog and share some thoughts & photos. Thank you to all our sweet friends who have sent cards, emails, phone calls, etc celebrating with us as we share Elizabeth's first Christmas!!!

We celebrate Advent in our home and it is wonderful in helping us prepare our hearts for the season. Really...I need to celebrate Advent everyday, all year! I am so "prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love". We use the Jesse Tree and open a door in our permanent Advent calendar each day from Nov 30th leading up to Christmas Day. It is great to review the Old Testament stories that lead up to the birth of Jesus. As I learned in a bible class many years ago....God has one plan...plan A....he didn't go to plan B or plan C as we "messed things up". Nope God has always been sovereign and Jesus was the plan from creation. So the Jesse Tree helps us remember that Jesus has always been there, always the Hero in the story....from Genesis and forever. The children also get to move around the Nativity characters....so Mary & Joseph "travel" during Advent, Shepherds move towards the stable on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas morning each of children place a "baby Jesus" in the manger (I have several little Nativity sets, so everyone gets their own Jesus!) We will wait until Epiphany when the wise men show up at the stable. My doctrinely correct daughter informs us that "really it was more like many months that they traveled..not days". But we'll give the wise men 12 days get to the stable in our house : )

We also light the Advent candles and as Christmas Day gets closer and closer...the light gets brighter and brighter. Finally on Christmas Day all the Candles are lit and the "Light of the world" fills our home. Isn't it beautiful!

Prior to Christmas we visited John's family out of state. This was the first time the aunts, uncle & cousins got to meet Elizabeth. It was also the first time since coming home with her that she spent the night somewhere else. It was alot to take in for her I'm sure. But overall she did really great. Our first night she was unsure and obviously insecure. She didn't sleep well at all and I slept with her. We both tossed & turned, very much like our first nights in China. But for the rest of the trip...she went to bed easily for naps and bedtime. She was initially guarded with meeting the new relatives but giving everyone kisses by the time we left a few days later. It is really remarkable how adaptable she is. She showed us that she has a strong attachment to both her grandfathers. She asked several times for Papou and sat with him throughout the church service. Here at home whenever her other grandfather Pop walks in the room she runs right to him to be held in his arms. She also loves all her cousins. I think whenever there are children around she feels much more secure.

Just from our experience I would tell future adoptive parents to be careful & mindful about traveling too soon after coming home. We've had Elizabeth almost 6 months and I think she was just now ok to deal with such changes. Since being back home she has shown us a strong need to things to "be in order". There have been more tears at night but we are working through it and showing her that we are still there in the morning. Even "good" changes must feel so threatening to a child who has experienced the trauma these little ones go through.

Here are some photos from Arkansas:

She did NOT like seeing Santa....we did not make her sit next to him or anything....this was just the sight of him!

Now a few more photos from Christmas Eve & day. Elizabeth had a great time! We had an even better time watching her!