New surgery date, home for Christmas, shifting gears.

This girl, you can’t keep her down long. I am sorry it has been so long since my last update but we have enjoyed being home together to the absolute fullest and that has kept me on my toes. Alex was given this Christmas tree headband from a new friend in Dallas, who left some gifts with us while we were there. She has loved it and performed many Christmas dances for us. This post is a bit different from others, more of a photo walk through of our time together since coming home from Texas on Dec 14th.

I am thankful to report that Alex finished her Covid quarantine without ever showing a symptom and she celebrated when she was finally free to go play with her neighbor friends again. She told everyone she was finally out of Covid Jail. This girl is so silly. The whole family has been tested for antibodies and tested positive. This week I am going to give blood and plasma since they want antibody positive plasma. This is one small positive that came from all of this and we will take any positives we can find.

We enjoyed one of the drive through light shows along with hot chocolate and of course lots and lots of Chrismtas music sing along!!

When we arrived home from Texas a precious someone had delivered this beautiful Christmas tree so that when we got home we would have one. We had set our tree up early because we knew it would need to come down when we left. This was such a huge gift to us. 2020, the year of decorating two Christmas trees, and so many other things! 😄

We may have baked 20,000 batches of cookies during the 10 days or so between getting home and Christmas. We called it baking therapy and I think the kids may have taken advantage of their mothers weakness. Every morning they asked if we could bake cookies and every morning I said sure. We also did a lot of reading and crafting. There has certainly been lots of hard this year but one thing I am very thankful for in 2020 was that we were forced to slow down. A typically December is full of rushing, rushing, rushing. Trying to be all the places, see and do all the things. This year we spent much more time at home together, made lots of at home memories, and enjoyed a lot of laughter.

Cookie baking, ornament making, football playing, neighborhood caroling, cousin love! So many sweet memories made and I couldn’t count how many times Alex stopped and said to me or Brent how thankful she is to be home for Christmas and that if surgery hadn’t been postponed she would be missing out on all of this. She always knows how to remind us to focus on the positives.

I am thankful for how 2020 has taught us to think outside the box and be creative in how we do things. Our Christmas Eve service was outside on the grass with fire pits. It was a sweet, sweet service. There is something about singing carols on a crisp winter night out under the stars that just seems right. I’m thankful for the people who worked so hard to made this happen.

Christmas Eve excitement!

Our middle TN white Christmas! For days the kids were saying they just knew they were going to have their first white Christmas. I know in many other areas they laugh at us for calling this a white Christmas but it’s what we got and the kids said if snowflakes fell after midnight, even if they weren’t on the ground, they were going to count it as a white Christmas! We knew it wasn’t likely to stick around so we began our morning with a walk. It was so bitterly cold but crisp and refreshing. Enjoying the wonders of creation was the perfect way to begin the day celebrating the birth of Christ.

Ice skating with these kids was such a great treat. This is at a local church that sets up an ice rink each year. This was the first time we had taken our kids and they loved it. The first night I took a group of older cousins and the second night Brent and I took all of our kids.

Last but certainly not least, 2020 came to a close! At our house it came with fireworks, lots of cookies and egg nog, friends around the fire, cha cha slide in the street with neighbors, sleepy but happy children, and lots of hugs! Alex immediately started calling 2021, “Surgery Year”! We are officially scheduled for February 1, 2021. We will head back to Texas the end of this month and will be there until mid March. Each time surgery is delayed it takes us a little while to reset and change gears but then we jump back in to life at home until it is time to head out again. There are never any absolutes but we are hopeful that this will be surgery day and nothing will get in the way of that. As we have learned all along this journey, God’s plan is so much better than ours. Clearly we don’t always understand it or like it at the time but it truly is what is best for us. We know that truth and most of the time we are able to rest in it but there are certainly times where we fall into doubt and discouragement. These times can be very hard and there is often anxiety in these moments. We continue to pray for peace and wisdom and patience. We pray that God would continue to make His presence known and that we can fully trust in His plan for our lives. Please pray for us as we continue to make the most of this time together before we head out again. Pray for the other children as they are struggling with knowing that we will be separated again and as much as they are excited to have this time with Grandparents they wish they could be With us while Alex is in surgery. Pray as we get started with our next semester of school and that we are able to focus on those things that are most important. Thank you for walking with us, praying with us, celebrating and grieving with us through this journey. We are thankful. See if you can find Alex in this video.

https://youtu.be/oy_pEzKNMtI