Our beautiful adoption story: Where Did December Go?

"Jack in the box." Why bother with Christmas presents?

I knew that once the holidays began with Thanksgiving, that the rest of the year would fly by and it did.

We spent one Monday in December road tripping to St. Louis where we were fingerprinted at the USCIS office. This place didn't offer free parking like the location in Kansas City. So, we parked a few blocks away because we didn't want to pay the $7 parking lot fee. It was a bitter cold day but once we made it inside, the process went fast. We were early, that was fine. We were the only ones there at the time so we got right in. (In the past, we've had to wait hours for our prints to be taken.) The fingerprinting staff had issues with my pinkies. They were too dry. They used a mock credit card, like the ones you receive in the mail with those annoying credit card applications. They tried chaffing the dead skin off my pinkies. They felt violated but the ladies were finally able to get prints that seemed to work. Now, we wait for our approved paperwork and our referral for Maggie Rose that we still hope to see in 2011. We'll see how slow China gets.

We spent two wonderful weekends with our families for Christmas. And our Christmas continues into January when we will visit with Jack's birth family and have a wild and crazy time.

We've actually had two snowfalls this year so far. And I had a white Christmas! I always say that is God's gift to me for Christmas!

My brother Steven was kind enough to remove the snow from our cars.

Of course, I received several other wonderful gifts this year, including a very special present that arrived before Christmas, and foot pajamies, a rolling pin and Nano Ipod.

We attended Christmas Eve mass this year, a tradition in our house. You have to get there an hour early to get good seats because everybody goes on Christmas Eve. We didn't arrive there that early so we were fortunate to find seats near the front.

My brother Doug directed the choir.