Fun with friends and family

Even though our trip home went extremely fast, Deacon was able to spend time with family and friends beyond Mom, Dad and Grandma. Here are some fun pics of Deacon with cousins Megan, Liz and Julie.















Deacon was able to meet Uncle William's God-daughter Jaya. Here they are competing for possession of Steve the cat's toy.





































Deacon hung out with old family friends Marie and Carlos. Carlos took Deacon for a spin around the living room.

Great Uncle Rich and Great Aunt Pat came over on Christmas Eve to visit and Celebrate Deacon's first Christmas.

Merry 1st Christmas

Here are some Christmas morning pictures.

Santa brought Deacon a cool firetruck. Santa also made Grandma a Deacon calendar, a real crowd pleaser!

Grafted Together

Here's Deacon and Grandma's tree. We're all having good time visiting with family, eating, playing games, driving around looking at lights, eating, and enjoying Christmas concerts.

Here is our special gift under the tree. Deacon's in his special Christmas PJ's, mostly oblivious to what's going on except for the new things to explore (ornaments, decorations, bows on gifts, etc...).

Of course the symbolism of rejoicing over the gift of Deacon into our lives is especially poignant during Christmas. As we've been blessed with Deacon, the Gift that's made it all possible is being celebrated.





We have this ornamental tree in our yard that is made from grafting two trees together into one. The tree often puts out different branches with slightly different leaves. When I spent more time on the yard work (read pre-Deacon), I'd often get out the trimmers and trim back the branches that were out of sorts. It was there when we moved in and now it seems just about right for us, with its different branches doing their things. Not only is our family grafted together, another baby long ago made it possible for us to be rejoined with the God of all creation. In fact, he loves us so much that he "moved into the neighborhood" as the Message version of scripture says.






So we celebrate the time when our neighbor moved into our midst. We celebrate by giving gifts to those we love and receiving gifts into our hands and hearts.

Adoption Process update

Just wanted to post a quick update. Heard from our adoption agency- Bethany (linked to the left over there)- We're a step closer to finalization. Today was the formal termination of parental rights court hearing. Everything went perfectly.

Of course this brings up mixed emotions for us. On one hand, we're glad to be past this stage with no hitches. In moments of low trust in God for example, we have had the "what ifs" happening and the unimaginable feelings of having to give up our son. That's no longer a possibility as we understand it- so needless to say, that's a relief.

On the other hand, we look at Deacon and it reminds us of the sacrifice that his birth-mom made. We certainly feel she did this out of a deep love for him but we know that these will be complex feelings for Deacon at some point(s). We pray for wisdom and grace when the time comes.

The next step for us is to sign the official petition for adoption on Dec 28th. This will initiate a process that ends with a final court date in mid-to-late February and the adoption will be final.

In the mean time, we're excited for Deacon's 1st Christmas and we're at Grandma's! Let the spoiling begin! Seriously, this Christmas is filled with firsts and new insights for all of us.

Here's a cute proof from his 4 month photos. This is what I'm hearing through the baby monitor at the moment. Evening bed time is not a joyful time at this point.

Honest, we are really back. We're just busy. Here's Deacon's official set of Christmas pictures. They all came out so well it was hard to decide which to buy. This was a much better picture taking experience than our first and the "ham" definitely came out. Enjoy!

We're Back Baby!

We've finally done some updates after a couple months hiatus. We've changed the name as our nest is plenty full so update your bookmarks if you want (old ones will work fine). We have lots of great stuff to show all of you- pictures, movies, lots of firsts for Deacon. So stay tuned.

Here's a sample: