Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and our neighborhood was alight with the annual luminary display. Usually we walk to look at the lights, but this time we took our heat-seeking princesses on a tour in the warm van.

Devotions time followed.  For about two decades now, we have used the book Family Celebrations, Meeting Christ in Your Holidays and Special Occasions by Ann Hibbard for our Advent devotional.  The Christmas section includes a short scripture reading, memory verse, and Christmas carol for each day in December.  Our kids seemed to enjoy the familiar verses each year, and have learned the stanzas to a lot of carols over the years.  I'm pretty tickled that this tradition has been passed on, and some of our adult children now use this same book (albeit Kindle version) with THEIR children! 

The Little Princesses don't quite "get" what all the celebrating is about. They've played with nativity sets all month, and they can run and get the baby Jesus if you ask them to.  They know Mary is Mama, but I come up wanting when we get to Joseph and they are CERTAIN he is the Baba (father).    How do you explain Christmas to children who aren't raised in the Christian faith, and who don't entirely understand the language? We just keep on trying!  After our devotional, the girls opened one present and new pajamas.

Jen fishing with her magnetic puzzle.

Miss A was quick to point out that there were still gifts that should be opened!  This was pointed out to me repeatedly, and I was thankful that I hadn't put the gifts under the tree until Christmas Eve this year!

I well remember last year, wondering about the type of care our little ones were receiving half way around the world, and wanting them home so badly that I could hardly stand it.  It has been such a joy this Christmas watching their delight and amazement at the lights, the tree, the songs, the treats, and the many other things that we take for granted each year.  I pray that Isaac somehow knows we are longing for his homecoming also, and that his foster family is loving on him in a big way.

This was part two of three in our first Christmas with the Two Little Princesses.  Read Part Three

(Extended) Family Christmas

See these brave folks?  They invited us all in for the Lanz (extended) Family Christmas celebration.  This year there were thirty-two of us.

We gathered for brunch, and it was all over the house in various rooms...

on numerous tables ...

and some just didn't even bother with a table.

After eating we sang some Christmas carols,

and exchanged gifts.

Due to the number of people we are now blessed with as family, we tried something new - family gifts.  We found that often one family gifted the same type of thing to each family, so there were a lot of "Ok, now open the one from so and so next" going on.

Our final activity was making family gingerbread houses.

Grand daughter, Eve, looking exhausted after finishing their family's complex!

Our Little Princesses still aren't quite sure what all this partying is about, but I think they like it!

This is part one of three in our first Christmas with the Little Princesses.  Read  Part Two

Truly Treasures

My online friend Linny from A Place Called Simplicity put forth the challenge to STOP in this busy holiday season and reflect on the goodness of God, and then to take the time to share something God has done this year.  Wow!  Where does one even begin?  It has been a year of amazing changes in our family, and also in me personally.

Did you know I've been a nervous person most of my life?  Blame it on my genetics or lack of faith or whatever, but I'm certain it has driven my family crazy at times.  This year in spite of the fear
of flying,
of potential bedbugs,
of unknown bacterias, (I've been afraid of many things)
and generally hating to be away from home,
I marched onto a plane (for way too many hours) and went halfway around the world to China!

This was totally a God thing, and not a me thing.  It was seeing the dream of a decade and a half come true.  It was seeing these two former orphans

become a part of a big family who loved and wanted them very much!

There were times that I wondered HOW it could happen.  There were so many obstacles (besides my own phobias!) but God is faithful, always.

It is funny, but when we began the adoption process I was thinking what a good thing it was going to be for our girls to be in a family - and indeed, it is very good.  But somewhere along maybe the half way mark of the process I began to see that I needed them just as much as they needed me.  I get a little uncomfortable when people say "how lucky" they are to have been adopted.  I tell you in all honesty that I am the "lucky" one.  Our princesses are absolute treasures.  How much I would have missed had I listened to my fears.  Indeed, God did very great things this year!

TRANSLATED!

I heard from our China case manager today that our dossier is now listed as TRANSLATED!  What does this mean?  Our dossier arrived in China written in English.  The people there had to translate it into Chinese so it can be reviewed.  This was referred to as OOT or Out Of Translation last year under the old computer system.  Now it is simply called  "translated."

I was led to believe the "norm" for translation was two to four weeks.  You can imagine my surprise when I found out that for once our papers actually moved faster than expected!  It was only eight days! Now we wait for our review and LOA (Letter of Acceptance).  Those are all over the board from just a few days and up. I saw someone online today who had waited almost (GULP) two hundred days!  The typical wait is four to six weeks after translation.

The "translated" status isn't all the good news we received today.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that our agency had said to expect a "hiccup" in our processing since we have already adopted two children on our dossier.  It was confirmed to them by the CCCWA that there should not be any issue with adopting the two girls and reusing the same dossier to adopt one more child.  Whew!  It is nice to cross that concern off the list.

And even MORE family traditions

For the past thirty or so years we've gone to cut a Christmas tree on the day following Thanksgiving. This year the Little Princesses added to the fun!

We had just the teensiest little bit of snow on the ground, but they had a blast playing in it!

 Jen's wheelchair ended up being too hard to push through the field, but piggyback on her Baba worked great. 

 
We found our tree!

"Baba" getting the cut started.  At first the Princesses were really freaked out that we were going to actually CUT this tree down.

But when given the chance to lend a hand at the cutting, they decided it was great fun!

Free cookies and hot chocolate!

Then it was off to feed some corn to the goats and sheep.  The last time we were near a petting zoo, Jen wouldn't have anything to do with the animals.  Let me state that more clearly... Jen SCREAMED in terror when we even talked about the animals.  This time she actually let the goat eat out of her hand!

It is fun to have one of our married daughters nearby.  I snatched these adorable grandkids from their cookies and cocoa for a photo op.

It was a successful trip!

The Princesses think having a tree in the house is pretty sweet, after all.

It was pretty amazing to see our traditions through the eyes of a child, or in this case children, who had never experienced them before.  I think it is going to be a FUN Christmas!