Thankful

To Our Daughter,

We are in the midst of celebrating Christmas the way that we traditionally do, the way that you will be introduced to when you join our family. 

We celebrated Christmas Eve at Daddy's church. (Well, Daddy did, but that's another story).  We put out our cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa, then put our reindeer food on the lawn so that the reindeer could find us and direct Santa's sleigh to our house.  We read "The Night Before Christmas" together, then rushed off to bed to sleep until a magical morning.

We want you to know that we miss having you with us even though we don't know you yet.  We talk about you.  Your brothers keep asking if you will be home with us for Christmas next year.  While we don't know for sure, we suspect that we will have one more Christmas without you. 

To keep from getting sad about that, we choose to focus on what we are thankful for when we think about you.

Even though you are not in our home, we are thankful that you are safe, and that you are in a good place.

Even though it's not us watching out for you, we are thankful that there are wonderful people who are dedicated to taking care of you and making sure that you are fed, and have a warm blanket at night.

Even though it's not us, we are thankful for the people that love you and care for you on a daily basis.

And every step of the way, whether you are in China or home with us, we are thankful that God is protecting you and holding you in his arms, and we keep waiting for the day that we can do the same thing.

Merry Christmas, little girl.  We can't wait to have you home with us.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy