Emmanuel!

Lexie has been telling us for weeks that Emma wants a horse and that she wants "red sparkly" ice skates for Christmas.  She is just in the adorable age when every gift seems magical, it's super cute..

Here we are putting the Reindeer food out on Christmas eve after church and after 'elfing' a few of our neighbors. :-)

Anyway, red sparkly ice skates are not sold at Target, Walmart, or my go to, Amazon.  So I was forced to go down the do it yourself path.  I am pretty much do it yourself outed at this point in the year so Matt was roped into figuring this one out.  Anyway, the skates involved a double bladed pair of skates ordered online,  a product called 'mod podge', a lot of glitter, and a spray sealant.  Ta da!!

Emma's 'horse' & Lexie's red sparkly ice skates

Suffice it to say , I believe we may have red sparkles over our house for years to come. I am also not sure how often the skates will be used but..I think it will all be worth it when we see her face tomorrow morning. :-)

Ok - so on to Emma's gift from Santa.  Do you notice anything weird about the rocking horse? First of all - it is not a horse, it is a moose. Matt pointed that out after I purchased it from Ikea.  Whatever I told him, Lexie will buy this is a horse from Santa for Emma.  Second problem - the moose came with two left legs.  Third, and potentially the largest issue,  we didn't start putting said moose together until 10 pm tonight. I am married to an amazing man though who figured it out and I think we are now good to go....but I should probably get Ikea to fix said horse moose before Emma sits on it though!

Speaking of Emma -- we meet her in 16 days, 'gotcha day'!!  Her orphanage often takes the child from their foster family about two weeks before gotcha day. The idea behind this is that they want the child to grieve the loss of their foster family before the adoptive parents come to pick the child up.  I believe Emma's orphanage is one of the only orphanages that does this but we don't really know for sure.  Anyway, at church this evening it broke my heart to think of Emma being taken from her foster parents on Christmas day.  I want to be there for her.

We will be spending Christmas day with Lexie, the red sparkly ice skates, and a two left legged moose.  We wish we were spending it with Emma but we know God is with her.  God is with her, her foster family, and her birth mother or father this Christmas eve.

Emma: female name coming from Emmanuel, meaning, 'God is with us'.

Merry Christmas!!