Merry Christmas

The Christmas Eve church service was beautiful, but I started feeling sick about half way through and Rick ended up having to take me home. I spent most of Christmas day sick in bed, but we made it a special time anyway. We opened our stockings together in bed. Jacob thought that was great fun.

Jacob loves his new train set. It is his first powered train set. It is driving me a little crazy, but it is a small price to pay, I suppose ;)

Joshua loved opening presents. He figured out the concept rather quickly. It is no surprise but he loved the crinkling of the wrapping paper.

The movers are coming in one week! We have so much to do! There are only two more working days this week and then the weekend. And then Rick only works Wednesday of next week. Monday and Tuesday are holidays and then he is working the first day the movers are here and that is it. And really he is only working that day to pack up his desk and say good bye.

It is all exciting. I am sad about leaving our friends, true friends are a rare and precious gift. I know I shall really miss Tony and Shauneen. They have been such a strong support throughout this whole ordeal. And Barbie has been such an encouragement to me. And she and Don are both great role models for us. And their children are so great with our children.

I am washing all of the scrap fabric that we found in the basement and sorting it into bins.

I am so glad that we are not packing ourselves. We have so much stuff , I think I would be even more overwhelmed than I already am. I can't even imagine how many boxes it will take.

I have been sorting through all the things in our shed. There is just so much stuff. We must be pack-rats or something, lol.

This has all turned out so nicely that it seems like it must be a dream. I am just so thankful to God for all that He has given to us. It is like Barbie said, it is like He just keeps giving us Christmas presents. What a good God He is! It is amazing to know that He doesn't have to be so good to me, and yet He is! God is so good!

I will be so thankful to be safely in Missouri. Our house here no longer feels safe after it was violated and intruded upon by people with ill-wishes towards us, knowing that they went through my personal things. I know it is possible that "Mom" and "Dad" could try to harass us there, but there is comfort in knowing that the law there protects families from what has happened here. And after having had a positive experience with social services, that can only help us if she tries to make another false report.

And I take comfort in knowing that the judge would not have allowed us to move if he had any question about us. So it is a comfort to know that this ordeal is almost over. Praise be to God!

I am looking at leggings to wear under skirts when we move. Funny to think about needing that but the other day they had a snow storm there. That seems so wild to me!

We were looking on a map last night and Missouri seems so far away! I can't believe we are moving to the Midwest. Rick pointed out that baby Joey won't even be a "Southerner". That is so strange to think about, lol. I thought we would always live in the South, but the Midwest seems like a nice place to raise a family.

We were going to get a hotel room for the first few nights there, but then we thought that it might be fun to "camp out" in our new house. We might even be able to paint the boys room before our stuff arrives. I think the boys will really like the new house. There is so much room to play, and we will all still be on one level, which is nice with little ones. And there will be so much more room for them to play in the kitchen while I cook. And the den is so much larger also. It will be nice to have the table in there for school and crafts.