Ready for Christmas

So we didn't get the prize for "2012 getting ready for Christmas award."

Let's see:
Send friends and family Christmas cards  - no check, sorry everyone, oh and P.S. Merry Christmas!
Take memorable family portrait  - no check, it's the thought that counts, worth more than a 1,000 words
Make delicious Christmas baking - no check, Costco took care of that for me
Hang stockings with care - no check, where did I leave them anyway?! Oh well.
...You get the point.

Life is like that. Probably was for Mary and Joseph as well, new parents of a baby.
New Arrival cards - no check, the Angels and shepherds took care of that
Take memorable family portrait - no check, after all, they were refugees escaping a death threat
Make delicious food for the big day - no check, no hotel with studio kitchen, stable food only
Decorate their home for their New Arrival - no check, census time, on a road trip in third trimester and delivery

If getting ready for Christmas means putting up our feet, taking time to centre ourselves on God, and spending time with family and friends, we are SO ready :) In fact, we are quite enjoying it.

Some family highlights of 2012:
- Family road trip this summer to visit family & friends (Vancouver, Edmonton, Lloydminster, Hague)

- New facility completed at Wendi's workplace, Grand Opening
- Harold plays in a MB golf tournament
- Kehlen and Mikhala spend some holidays at their cousin's houses
- Our family decides to expand, planning to adopt a brother and sister for Kehlen & Mikhala
- Wendi submits her resignation from much loved position for February 1. 2013 to focus on being co-CEO and Director of Park Investors Group: a not-for-profit investment partnership of our next generation (aka "Mom"). Needless to say, our "investments" are estatic and appreciating to "have family day everyday".
- Go Christmas carolling in our neighbourhood with community friends
- Volunteer at Christmas kettles as a family, Kehlen and Mikhala pushing candy canes on distracted passerby's and netting a good donation total. Who could resist a cute kid's Merry Christmas? Yes, we believe in child volunteer labour :)

So here's an update on our family:

co-CEO 1 (aka Harold): continues to pastor at Southlands Community Church, focusing on counselling, coordinating Community Groups, and leading a new ministry located at my workplace called "Celebrate Recovery." In his spare time you will find him golfing or working out at the gym. He has completed his academic portion of his doctorate in marriage & family therapy, and we (yes, and I say, WE) are anticipating to complete the research and final thesis work in 2013.

co-CEO 2 (aka Wendi): is completing her position as Director at The Salvation Army - Barbara Mitchell Family Resource Centre, a much loved employment. In her spare time... wait, workaholics and moms don't have spare time. Anyways, I enjoy working, momming, spending time with Harold, and living in community.

Investment 1 (aka Kehlen): is our 4 year old little professor. He loves to read Geronimo Stilton books, play chess, Angry Birds, Mario Kart Wii, and with his Lego. He has many friends from daycare and church that he likes to play with. His favorite foods are pancakes, veranika and schmont-fatt (atta boy!), as well as sushi and pasta.

Investment 2 (aka Mikhala): is our 2 year old little princess/director jr. She loves to go shopping, play house, do puzzles, dress up pretty, and colour. She has the making of being a future director, with an assertive voice, an even more determined mind, and enthusiasm to make everyone follow her command. Yikes, not sure where she gets it from, ahem. She loves all things food, first to sit at the table, and the last to leave.

Investments 3 & 4 - We don't know who they are yet, but we are coming for you in the next year or so. At this point, it looks like we are DRC (Congo) bound. Kehlen can't wait for a bunk bed, prays for them almost everyday, and Mikhala, well she just adopted a new black Cabbage Patch for Christmas today and has affectionately called her Isinino, after our other daughter who has become like part of our family and is with us for the holidays. She is 20 and from Ethiopia.

We are so grateful for all of God's blessings, too numerous to count, but life changing nonetheless. We continue to experience Emmanuel - God with us. Our prayer this Christmas is that Emmanuel would be experienced by all those we are in community with.


Merry Christmas!    ... and yes, we are ready for Christ to come!

Not on My Clock

Tick-tock.
Every minute, hour, day is precisely predictable in its timing.

But I am finding that my watch is not predictable of God's timing. What should go fast ends up slower than anticipated, what is to be a slow process speeds by me like the speed of light.
Tick-tock. The time on my watch is still accurate, but the timing of God is on a pace of its own.

Take our adoption process, for example. We applied in October and instead of waiting many months to take the compulsory adoption parenting course, we already have that checked off our to do list. One month after applying we quickly found ourselves sitting in a room with other prospective parents, many of whom had applied much earlier in Spring. Now we have thrust ourselves into completing a mountain of documents required to complete our dossier, months ahead of what we anticipated. It's like God was simply waiting for us to apply already, so that he could get the ball rolling.

Then we wait... Not on our watch, but on God's. We wait for our homestudy to be complete, we wait for the dossier to be prepared and sent to the country yet to be determined. And we wait some more... for a match to be made with our family so we can be united with our new children.

We anticipate a predictably slow adoption process, but who knows, we are already further ahead than we anticipated to be by Spring 2013. God-speed can mean both miraculously fast, tryingly slow, or simply unknown... and that's OK. Timing is everything, especially God's.