Longing

I feel tortured right now because we left Koen with family for two days while we started our conference an hour away. Keith drove to pick him up this morning while I was in a meeting, and I expected them to be in our hotel room when I finished. I was so excited, and now so disappointed. To top it off, I couldn't even get a hold of Keith on his cell to know where they were. I got my jacket on to go down to the lobby in hopes they were there, but my mother-in-law called and apparently Keith had yet to meet her, meaning, he is still pretty far away. I am bummed.

I wonder if this is what it will feel like when we get our referral. I want so badly to see and hold Koen, but I am stuck in this hotel room and can't get to him. It's totally going to stink!!!

So, on a happier note, Christmas was enjoyable. We got totally spoiled, a little too spoiled perhaps. Koen unwrapped his presents, along with some other people's gifts. He made it through two church services - not perfectly, but happily enough. We even had snow on Christmas day. The drive south on Christmas day was a little rough because of the snow, and it made for a very long day, but we survived. I'm not sure how many double Christmases we can handle in the future. We want so badly to just stay at home and relax and start a few of our own traditions. We could invite our familys, but we have so little space. So, we will likely; continue in what we've done, and end up totally exhausted after 3 days.

As we drove on Christmas day we read chapter two from Philip Yancy's The Jesus I Never Knew. I discovered this eye-opening chapter about the birth of Christ a few years ago and have made it my goal to read it on or before Christmas every year. What Yancy writes is good at giving some perspective to the real Christmas in the midst of a world that makes it about materialism, santa, a dream world.... The reality is that the two realms of existence : the eternal Heaven where God is, and earth where man is collided at this one point in time, and made a way for the salvation of man. Mary was a virgin who experienced the shame of a growing belly while being unwed - something that women of her time were stoned for!

Anyway, it's good to read, and really made us talk all the more about trying to avoid the Christmas the world offers next year, with santa, and reindeer, and all of the things that satan has used to distract us from Jesus. I'm not exactly sure how we'll do that, and I don't want to deprive our children of certain joys, but there is a balanced that we hope to find. IF you are reading this and totally understand, I would love to hear your ideas on some family traditions you have to focus on Christ during Christmas.

So, my parents' birthdays are both a few days before Christmas and while we were celebrating, Koen started saying "Happy Doo!" We think he is trying to say happy birthday, as he knew who he was supposed to say it to. I was kind of fun to then tell that we were celebrating the birth of baby Jesus too. He was saying "Happy Doo" on Christmas too. He's fun.

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary. Like every year, our special day is in the middle of this annual conference we are required to attend. So, the most we usually do is go out to dinner, and maybe a movie. But, our favorite thing is to get away. Two days before Christmas Keith surprised me with an Amazing Race style get away to a lake house about 1.5 hours away from home. We had a very nice stay, enjoying the quiet, the view, games (especially xbox's Dance Dance Revolution!) and time together without kids. Thanks Keith and happy anniversary!