Whew, that flew by. I feel like Christmas was more ingested then enjoyed. We have been so so busy that there has barely been time to reflect on the meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate. Fun things have been happening, but actually stopping long enough to recognize them has been a challenge. I forgot to write on here that our homestudy was finished and sent off for immigration approval on Dec 10. That in itself was a major miracle and answer to prayer. We had been praying specifically that our HS would be done by Dec 7. On Monday Dec 4, we got an email saying she was sending us a draft for approval. Friday Dec 7 we got our HS in the mail. Pretty cool!!!
All of the money that we needed to pay our agency fee plus our social workers travel $6336.00 was raised plus enough for us to be reimbursed for what we had already paid (around $2500). That was an MAJOR! answer to prayer. Matt's mom was making these really pretty necklaces to sale for us to help us raise money for our adoption. We were all amazed at how God blessed that. Through the sale of the necklaces alone she made $2000+ and still has some orders coming in. Thank you all who bought necklaces!!! So many people have given above and beyond what we expected or even imagined!! Words can not express how grateful we feel!!! Amazed, awed, humbled, supported, encouraged, blessed, unworthy are a few to start scratching the surface!! This little one is so loved already! THANK YOU FOR LOVING US AND OUR BLESSING!!!
We have been able to get two grants off and two more are almost finished. We are working on our dossier and plan to have all that finished and in the mail by the first week of January. That alone has kept us really busy.
Our christmas festivities started with a brunch at our friends house, followed by an awesome Puppet show at our local church. There we so many people who came. People that wouldn't usually come to church but did that afternoon. I know my girls LOVED it and what a great way to celebrate our Savior in a way that our kids can understand.
The next weekend we went to our first English Pantomime. This show was a Cinderella production. We all LOVED it. Adelynn and her friends interacted with the play the whole time. The highlight of the whole show was when Adelynn and her buddies, Emmy and Giselle, got to go on stage and help the cast sing If your happy and you know it. They were so brave and excited. I think I would have been more nervous than she seemed.
Adelynn got to be an angel in her nursery play. She really enjoyed that. The nursery also let me have a bake stall during the play and i was able to raise over $150.
We had a few more parties here and there over the holiday season. A big dinner party at our house, two other Christmas parties at our friends house. We also had a big youth event for the youth in Pinner at our church. This was the first time we tried this and are excited about the opportunity to reach out to the youth in our area next year.
The biggest thing we did over Christmas was help host a massive Christmas dinner on Christmas day. It took us about 2 months to plan. Thank goodness we weren't the only ones doing it. There were multiple people on the planning committee and around 30 volunteers who helped on the day. We served dinner for around 60 elderly who were either shut in or didn't have family around to spend Christmas with. Pinner Association of Churches has been doing this for several years and we were excited to be apart of it this year. It was a lot of fun. Everyone involved really seemed to enjoy it and be blessed by serving or being served. The girls were excellent. Never once did they complain about not getting their presents or being bored and wanting to go home. I was worried about Abygail because it was right during her nap time, but she was a star!! Definitely something we'll do again!
We have been able to get two grants off and two more are almost finished. We are working on our dossier and plan to have all that finished and in the mail by the first week of January. That alone has kept us really busy.
Our christmas festivities started with a brunch at our friends house, followed by an awesome Puppet show at our local church. There we so many people who came. People that wouldn't usually come to church but did that afternoon. I know my girls LOVED it and what a great way to celebrate our Savior in a way that our kids can understand.
me and my besties here
funny faces on the sofa
abygail and our friend abdi. she spent most of the puppet show in his lap
clapping hands with Finn
doing the christingle (a very English christmas tradition, I knew nothing about till this year)
The next weekend we went to our first English Pantomime. This show was a Cinderella production. We all LOVED it. Adelynn and her friends interacted with the play the whole time. The highlight of the whole show was when Adelynn and her buddies, Emmy and Giselle, got to go on stage and help the cast sing If your happy and you know it. They were so brave and excited. I think I would have been more nervous than she seemed.
Adelynn got to be an angel in her nursery play. She really enjoyed that. The nursery also let me have a bake stall during the play and i was able to raise over $150.
We had a few more parties here and there over the holiday season. A big dinner party at our house, two other Christmas parties at our friends house. We also had a big youth event for the youth in Pinner at our church. This was the first time we tried this and are excited about the opportunity to reach out to the youth in our area next year.
The biggest thing we did over Christmas was help host a massive Christmas dinner on Christmas day. It took us about 2 months to plan. Thank goodness we weren't the only ones doing it. There were multiple people on the planning committee and around 30 volunteers who helped on the day. We served dinner for around 60 elderly who were either shut in or didn't have family around to spend Christmas with. Pinner Association of Churches has been doing this for several years and we were excited to be apart of it this year. It was a lot of fun. Everyone involved really seemed to enjoy it and be blessed by serving or being served. The girls were excellent. Never once did they complain about not getting their presents or being bored and wanting to go home. I was worried about Abygail because it was right during her nap time, but she was a star!! Definitely something we'll do again!
helping us set up
dancing to the music
singing carols
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