Where has the time gone?!

I'll start with our news... we've been selected by a birth mother in TX to adopt her baby girl in early March! So assuming all works out, Madison will finally be a big sister! To say we're excited or that Maddie is "over the moon" is a serious understatement. So now we're trying to do -- in 8 weeks -- what most people have months to do: prepare for a baby. Whew.

Work has been wonderful, believe it or not. I love my job. Love the kids, co-workers, parents, hours, pay, the fact that I literally see my girl all day long...... but the time away from home, friends and previous activities as a SAHM has been pretty tough.

I'm not a "clean freak" so much, but my home is always picked up. Until September 2007, that is. Since starting work my home goes through a transition between Sunday and Saturday. Sunday night is small group here, so we clean like mad and it looks great on Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... things start piling up and getting overlooked... by Friday it's a disaster (or as Madison puts it "pigsty" -- where does she get these ideas!?).

Since Friday is our Mommy & Maddie day, it remains that way until I can't stand it any longer and go wild on Sat or Sun cleaning it all up... just to start all over again on Monday. It's enough to make me crazy. And don't even get me started on laundry. Hate isn't a strong enough word. My next home will not have the laundry room all the way downstairs. Ugh.

Blessedly, however, the trials of my being at work are paying off. We will most likely have ALL of our consumer debt paid off by August or September! Which means I will get to stay home with our new baby, as I did with Madison. That alone is completely worth it.

We had a magnificent holiday season. We hosted the family here for Thanksgiving -- my folks and Tuck's folks, plus his brother and family. It went smashingly well.

My baby brother got to come home from Atlanta for Christmas!

Since we were kids, my family has spent Christmas Eve out on the town. We have a big lunch, go to Crown Center, see a movie... It was my folks' way of making Christmas morning come faster, and it still works with Madison. By the time we get home, she has just enough energy to open her gift of new jammies and put out Santa cookies before crashing into bed.

So far on Christmas morning, we've had to wake up Madison... but not this year! Every night, she asks what number to look for on the clock and we usually say "8." On Christmas Eve I told her she could come to our room if there was a "7" but to stay in her bed if there was anything before that. She came into our room at 7:01 and said "I saw a 5 but stayed in my bed until there was a 7!" Thank God for small favors!!! Below is a picture of the ONE gift she wanted more than others... her princess kitchen.
After letting Madison open her presents here (my folks and Chad joined us at 8:00), we went to Tuck's brother's house and repeated the chaos -- with 3 times the kids! It truly was lots and lots of fun!

We had a New Year's Eve party here -- kids played in the basement while we had a serious game of Trivial Pursuit upstairs (which "my" team won!). Being surrounded by family and friends is what it's all about.

Which brings me back to my original sentence: we are planning to bring a new member of the family home sometime in March! Over the past 3 years we have been in multiple situations where we "might be getting a baby." Clearly none has worked out, but the best part of all that is how close it has brought our family together. Both our actual family and our family of friends. We have so many people that have prayed for us it's overwhelming.

I hope 2008 rang in beautifully for you and that it's your best year yet. As my little friend, Moe, likes to say "Peace out, Homey!"