We're Back!!!

Yes, I know it has been months since I have written...it seems life has caught up with me these days! So, the breakdown of the past 3 months goes like this:

• October 4, 2009 - Hugues came home to the USA!!! Jovan and I did end up flying home about a week prior to that and we all met Hugues at the airport with big red, white, and blue balloons and lots of hugs :) He was able to start work within a week (Praise the Lord!) and we are just so happy to have him home!
• November 15, 2009 - We moved into our own place. It is small but it is ours (well, rented ours) and we are so happy. Jovan loves his new room and has adjusted so well to all the changes.
• Grain d'Espoir - There are 18 children in the program this year! Once again, Praise the Lord! They are all so diligent about completing their studies and so proud to come show off their report cards. We have been so blessed to have Patrick and Sagine as our Haiti staff, putting in the legwork while we are here in the USA. Thanks to them!
• The Grain d'Espoir website is officially up and running. Visit us at www.graindespoirhaiti.com. I have a blog there as well where I will be updating on all things Haiti as often as I can.

We are gearing up for Christmas...our first Christmas as a family. Jovan has been "helping" me wrap presents and likes to put them under the tree. Hugues ended up having to work Christmas morning, so we will be pretending that Christmas Eve morning is THE day...Jovan won't know the difference and I have had it in my head that Christmas was on Thursday anyway! One year when I was probably 11 or 12 our church Christmas play was "365 days of Christmas" - that is what we will be celebrating this year :)

Jovan's favorite Christmas song is "Away in the Manger". He likes to do all the actions, especially laying his head on his hands when you sing "the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head." That made me start thinking about the Nativity scene. Jesus is always in the manger, but when I think about, as a mother, how it feels to finally hold your baby in your arms and then multiply that by a hundred that Mary was holding the Savior in her arms...I just can't help but think that Jesus was more likely nestled right in the crook of Mary's arms as she rocked him, sang to him, and probably had tears running down her cheeks. Jesus is not a static picture of a baby in a manger. His birth was not glamorous, as no birth is, and it also held all of the beauty, wonder, and amazement of welcoming a new life into the world. This season, don't take the birth of Jesus for granted, and when you see a picture of the Nativity, look deeper into it than just the pretty lights, faces, and perfectly clean sheep. Think about it as if it was a real event because IT WAS!

I can't say I am closing out our blog indefinitely, but can't promise regular updates either. Check out the Grain d'Espoir blog for all of that information as this blog will now be only family related. We wish everyone, those we know and those we do not, a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year. May we all remember that we are celebrating the birth of a baby...THE baby, the One who would save us.

Merry Christmas!