A family for Christmas

I bet you think I'm going to write about how Amani has a family for Christmas this year.  Well, you're wrong.  Actually, okay you're right, this is Amani's first Christmas with his forever family. That is true.

But it's not just Amani who gets a family for Christmas this year. It's me.

This year, my family looks like it always was supposed to look. Last year I was yearning for a child whose face I had never seen. I was holding out hope that maybe, just maybe, I'd get to see his sweet face before the new year began. Two Christmases ago, we had no idea it would take us almost two years to complete the process we'd just begun.

This year I hold him in my arms.

I got a family for Christmas. I have three beautiful children. Beautiful. In so many ways.  When I look at the three of them my heart swells with pride.  They are my gifts this Christmas, more valuable to me than anything you can wrap up and put under a tree.

And I am so honored that my family looks how it does. I am honored that God would use my family to show how he feels about racism, about orphans, about love.  My family is beautiful. Not because of anything I have done, but because God makes it so.

Merry Christmas to all of you. 

May you find your joy in the things that matter.