All is Merry, Jolly, and Bright

Posted by: Eric and Heidi | January 8, 2012

All is Merry, Jolly, and Bright

I’m sitting here in my recliner, fingers tapping on my keys, trying to find a clever way to express just how fantastic our Christmas season really was. I think the true wonder of it all will be lost in a blow by blow explanation, so I’m going to try instead for little snapshots into the real stuff, the good stuff, the “living” of it all.

Snapshot #1: Christmas Morning

Eric and I put a lot of stock in traditions. When we got married, we talked extensively about our family holiday traditions and made a plan about how to take the best of both families to make something that was uniquely ours. We talked about the order of things (stockings first, then breakfast, then presents? or presents before breakfast?) and the menu for Christmas morning (pancakes? breakfast casserole? bacon and eggs?). We made a great plan, (stockings, then breakfast casserole, then presents) but we neglected one detail. We have a two year old. We have a two year old that so loved her Christmas kitchen that she refused to leave. Therefore, we abandoned our plan on Christmas morning and instead spent the time sitting on the floor in the playroom, plates on our lap, Christmas tree glowing in the corner, watching our daughter play. Each present was opened in her kitchen and each one was thoroughly played with before she was interested in the next one. It took hours. There were dozens of pictures. I know I speak for the both of us when I say that it was our merriest Christmas morning to date.

Snapshot #2: Christmas Day

If you fast forward about five hours, you’ll find our house absolutely filled to the brim. We had all the people from Eric’s office to our house for Christmas Day, and it was literally standing room only. Our counter was overflowing with food, gluhwein simmered on the stove, kids climbed and played and bickered and laughed in the playroom, and football games created a steady background hum to the five conversations that were going on at once. I ventured from the kitchen only once or twice all day, but it made me smile to cook alongside new friends and enlist young airmen as taste testers and to hear the general chaos of 20-some people crammed into our tiny German living room. And yes, the rumors are true. I gave the kids flutes and bubbles in their grab bags. I stand by my decision.

Snapshot #3: A Flurry of Excitement

Meanwhile, our Paper Pregnancy is flying by! We received a tremendous gift from our fabulous social worker the day after Christmas in the form of our completed home study. A day later, we heard from our agency that they are beginning work on our family profile that will be shown to birth parents. A couple days after that, we received information about beginning the process of our video profile (also to be shown to birth parents.) For a few days it seemed like every time I opened my computer, there was another email waiting for me, propelling us closer and closer to meeting our Little One. Right now we are waiting for our home study to be approved by our agency and to receive the draft of our profile. My guess is that both of those things will be done within two weeks, and then we will be ACTIVE! (ie. the “Second Trimester”) Eric and I feel like we’re on a high speed roller coaster, our hands white-knuckled on the bar and our eyes bulging wide from the acceleration. The crazy part is that at the end of this “ride,” the REAL adventure begins! It is so very, very exciting.

Snapshot #4: Gammy, Gammy, Gammy

Eric’s mom (hereafter referred to as “Gammy”) arrived on the 26th. It’s tough to focus on just one moment to share here. I’ll give them rapidfire. There was the moment where Abbi saw her in the airport, immediately waved, reached for her hand, and chirped, “Hi Gammy!” There was the afternoon in Heidelberg, where we strolled along the Walkplatz, sharing a schneeballe, watching Abbi on Eric’s shoulders ahead of us. There was the ride to Belgium and back, where we listened to Abbi belt out “whole world…in His hands” and “stand alone…Word of God…B-I-B-L-E, Bible!” and “joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart…and I’m so happy.” There may be nothing sweeter than hearing my daughter sing about Jesus. There was the meal we ate in Oostende, where we all ordered a different 3-course menu and shared amongst the three (or four) of us. There was the day in Brugges, where we wandered around all day with our mouths hung open, shocked at the beautiful view that awaited us around each and every corner. There was the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve, Raylene and I leaning out the windows watching our German neighbors shooting off big-time fireworks in our street, while Eric was the responsible parent listening to see if Abbi was waking up due to the insane commotion. (Miraculously, the answer was no!) The visit was only a week, but we crammed in a whole lot of fun in a short period of time.

Snapshot #5: LIFE

And now the holidays are over. The tree is down, the steady stream of presents from the post office has ceased, I have finally found the back of the refrigerator, and the pictures from December’s festivities have been edited, scrapbooked, and ordered. We look back at 2011 with a tremendous gratitude for a truly spectacular year. We probably will not be graced with another year in which we vacation once a month, visiting almost a dozen countries. 2011 was truly a once-in-a-lifetime kind of a year. And you know what? We loved every single second of it! We took thousands of pictures and ate incredible food and met interesting people and made a few mistakes and missed a few connections and had an absolute blast. And 2012? Well, we’re expecting great things! We’re expecting to watch Abbi grow and change and develop, becoming more enchanting with each day. We’re expecting Eric to put on Tech next month. We’re expecting to learn where we’ll be going when we leave Germany next year. And, of course, we’re expecting to meet the fourth member of our family. We don’t know all the details yet, but we’re expecting great things! After all, our God is the God of yesterday, today, and forever…and He takes our expectations and blows them out of the water! This is going to be great!