I could not have been more happy to have my entire family all under one roof for Christmas! We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church and brought the whole family including my parents and my grandma. It was Aven's first time at church and it was very emotional for me! I had sat in those same seats for months praying to and praising the Lord during our wait. The Lord has used this journey to make me more like Him and for that I am SO thankful. It was a painful process that the Lord used to mold and shape me. Now we sat as a WHOLE family on the eve of Christmas. Aven was hearing people worship for the first time--- a chance she may have never had if we had not been obedient to the Lord's calling. Brian and I got to hold her in our arms in front of the congregation and light the advent candles and read about the hope we have in Christ. It was such a special time....even if she was trying to grab the microphone:). For the first time in months, my family felt complete. The waiting was hard. But the hardest times for me, was when we would be out at large gatherings or meeting new people. There were so many times I wanted to ask if anyone else realized that my whole family was not together....that we had a daughter in Africa...does anyone notice but me?! There were so many times I felt lost. I guess it was just a feeling like things were not as they should be. But that was not the case this Christmas. I stood and worshipped with my whole family....the way it was supposed to be! It was such a sweet time! God is so good!
We let the boys sleep in the same bed Christmas night...which I am sure will be a tradition from here on out! They both woke up super early and excited of course! We decided to let Aven sleep and enjoyed watching the boys open presents play with their new things. Aven was still in the "I only want to be held" stage, so by letting her sleep I was able to help the boys with all of their new toys:) Once she woke up, the boys enjoyed helping her open her presents and showing her all of her new things!
About 2 hours after the boys woke up, both of their eyes started looking suspiciously pink! Yep, pink eye...on Christmas morning. We let them enjoy their presents until lunchtime, when we took them to an open urgent care and found out they did have pink eye and ear infections. We were supposed to be going to Virginia to visit Brian's family that day, so we held off for 24 hours to give the antibiotics time to kick in.
We spent our first night away from home with Aven in Virginia and she did great! She did way better than I thought she would. She got to meet some of Brian's family that had not had the chance to yet. And she even got down on the floor and played with her cousins some! The boys absolutely adore their cousins and always look forward to being with them....I am sure Aven will feel the same way:)
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our WHOLE family to yours!
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