Wow! What a Month!

This happened
This happened (twice!)
The Tree was put up and decorated!
Kelsey did NOT cry when she saw Santa! Mommy was proud!

The last month has flown by so quickly!

We've spent it:

creating some adorable holiday cards (in the mail as I write this!)

Meeting Santa

Celebrating Advent dinner

Making 200 dozen cookies for our church's annual cookie walk and a YWCA event

celebrating my Mom's birthday with our family

Christmas shopping!

Christmas planning....decorating and having fun!

Cutting Angels for our YWCA event, Hanging of the Greens

Creating the Hanging of the Greens event and running it (Dec 11)

Another ear infection for Miss Kelsey!

Another cold for Miss Kelsey!

Another cold for Mommy!

Another cold for Daddy!

Our Angel Face is a petrie dish of germs!

Mommy and Daddy working up a storm

Kelsey now feels confident enough to walk most of the time now...the first time she really walked (not just baby steps) it brought me to tears and I was so proud of her!

Christmas cards are starting to pour in from our China travel group and Kelsey loves all the photos of the babies! She holds them and walks around with them.

Our good friend Rachel (Auntie Rae-Rae) gave Kelsey a magna doodle toy and our girl just loves it!

One exciting piece of news...Kelsey's going to be an Angel in the Children's Pagent at Church Christmas eve morning. I can't wait to see our Angel Face become an Angel for real!

On a sobering front, China has put forth a new set of criteria for new adoptive families to meet before being approved for new adoptions. They are fairly strict and I wonder if this eliminates all possibility of a Chinese brother or sister for Kelsey. We're no-where near ready for this (perhaps never) but to have zero choice in the matter is sad. Many of my fellow adoptive parents (who adopted very close to the time we adopted Kelsey) have compressed their timelines in order to try to swing another adoption before the new rules go into effect. We won't do that...but I have faith that if there is another child out there for us, we'll find him/her.

I know that China is looking out for their children the best way they can, and they should be applauded for their care and concern. It's just sad to know that many people's dreams ended this month....

Work is going very well, but its strange to have little festivity (no holiday parties or luncheons in this non-profit world) so we've been making our own. I am about to complete my 3 months of employement (hello benefits!). The company I worked for before this is such a distant memory...and I worked there almost 6 years! I tried to remember my phone number the other night and couldn't! :)

Kurt made his annual trip to Chicago and his work is going very well too. HG really appreciates him and I am very happy that they do! He's such a dedicated hard worker, and he's reaping the rewards he is due!

I can't wait for Christmas morning! I can hardly believe that THIS is THE YEAR that we celebrate Christmas with our daughter instead of being a couple. Kelsey understands the concept of presents and toys, it will be so interesting to see her interact with the warehouse full of stuff she's getting! (Mommy was very indulgent this year!) We'll take lots of photos and hopefully video of the raucus event!

Have a joyous Christmas with YOUR family. Celebrate whatever you believe in and your family most of all!

Love, JoAnn, Kurt and Kelsey