It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The rains seem to have finally made it.  It's cloudy dark outside right now and the girls are both having quiet/nap time.  Our Christmas tree is up and twinkling and we've dug out the Christmas CDs (do people still use CDs?).  4 strands of broken or half-working lights are resting on my couch.  I swear they are designed for maximum irritation...how do you burn out half a strand of lights??  Every year as we unpack our limited decorations, I tell Scotty I want to buy some decent stuff and he says to wait till we build our house.  We've put that off till March or April, but at the rate things are going, I still wonder if it will ever happen.  We have gorgeous, intricately cross-stitched stockings made by a family friend with our names on them (even Zion!).  I'm hoping baby boy Miser will have one hanging up next year.  My parents passed on Santa and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shakers.  And, we are slowly growing a collection of meaningful ornaments.  The girls went wild this year as we poured over each thing and talked about where it came from or who gave it to us- I love family traditions.  I found an old Christmas magazine someone had mailed to me and folded back the corners on some pages with delicious holiday goodies I'll be trying out this year.  Today marks the beginning of advent and I look forward to replacing our normally scheduled family devos with Nancy Guthrie's, Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room.  The girls and I crafted some salt ornaments today and we have a whole list of other activities we want to do together before the new year.  Natty will start the second half of kindergarten (she already did a full year in her Bolivian school) at Highlands in January.  She'll be in class till later in the day and, to me, it feels like a real school and that my first born is going to be gone for far too long.  This holiday season seems like the end of her baby girl days.  We're continuing to pray that our little boy will come home to us soon.  There's been a ridiculous amount of talk in the air about the horrific state of government run orphanages after a particularly devastating news story about a baby boy who died in one recently.  It's been hard for me to hear these facts over and over and know our little guy is living there now.  God is teaching me a new level of trust in Him, but we are anxious to rescue our son as quickly as possible.  Scotty has a full day of teaching scheduled tomorrow where he will be observed and then (we assume), offered an official position at Highlands.  Also coming up, my best friend brings a YWAM team to visit for 7 weeks!!  This month is FULL of expectation.