Merry Christmas to All!

Mabuhay (welcome/hello)!

What a crazy past month it has been! We were blessed to spend time with both of our families near the Thanksgiving holiday. Ben and I were even blessed to have our nephew (Keith's son Saxon) and my sister Destinee spend a few days with us after Thanksgiving. Being an aunt and uncle is such fun! We love spoiling all of our nieces and nephews!

As we continue through the holiday season, we eagerly await Christmas in our family. We'll soon be travelling to the Chicago area to spend Christmas with Ben's immediate and extended family. We're anticipating that all of Ben's siblings will be together with his parents – something we haven't had the chance to do in 6 years – wow!

Unfortunately, not much has changed on the adoption front. We continue to patiently wait to be approved by the Philippines to be on their waiting family list. In the meantime, we've been praying over what is called the "special home finding list". These are the children who haven't been matched for various reasons.  Often, we see sibling sets make it to this list, as a sibling group can be harder to match. If we were to find our kiddos through the special home finding list, the process could be quite a bit faster. In essence, we wouldn't have to wait to be matched. We are praying that God would guide us as we prayerfully review the list each month.

From Ben and me to all of you – Merry Christmas! We pray that the Lord would be near to each of you in the season of Jesus's birth. May we all take time this Christmas to reflect on the love and mercy of our Heavenly Father and Our Savior, who came to this earth to be with us and to save us. Emmanuel – God with us.

For those of you gracious enough to include us in your prayers, my prayer this month: I pray our children come to know, love, and follow their Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, please put people in their lives that can speak the truth of the Gospel to them even in the midst of their circumstances. May they have hope this Christmas season that their parents anxiously await the "birth" of their family and the day that we all get to meet. But, above all, Emmanuel – God be with them.

Until next time – all of our love!