Christmas Is Almost Here!!

I'm so excited about this Christmas!! Last Christmas was our first Christmas morning with a child in the house. It was incredible. This Christmas there will be two children and with that comes twice the excitement. We still have gifts smuggled away in our room and may set some of them under the tree today. We are going to make a gingerbread house today, cookies & reindeer food tomorrow. We went to my parents last night and the kids got to open some of their first Christmas gifts. On Christmas Eve we are going to Oklahoma to visit with my grandmother - their great-grand-nana.

We are having a hard time with distinguishing between all the relatives and giving everyone sign names, but I think that we are doing it. Each name has a story behind it, like we will say "Nanny", do the sign, and then say "this is my mom, so it is your grandma & we call her Nanny". We realized this was going to be a trouble area pretty early on, we told her that we were going to see my mom & dad - told her their names & showed her pictures. Then we got to the house and she saw both of them and was asking for Grandpa, Joe's dad. It took us about 5 minutes to explain these were my parents, Nanny & Papa & that Grandpa was Joe's dad and we would see him on Christmas day.

This was my parents first time to see Rebecca, like everyone they couldn't get over how adorable she is & how much the sisters really do look alike. We had sent them pictures, but this was their first opportunity to see them. It was a night of a lot of learning sign language & they are going to take classes again with me in February. My family has been pretty great with seeing the kids as no different then their biological grandchildren. I am the first in my families generation to adopt, so my grandmother only had biological grandchildren before I adopted the girls. Joe's dad was in an orphanage growing up, so he has a special soft spot for the girls.

Nanny, my mom, was not so sure about me adopting a "special needs" child, but now that she has seen Rebecca I don't think that she would change a thing. To me, both of my children have special needs...Rebecca's is just more obvious.

I pray that everyone has a wonderful Christmas season! I'll let you know how it goes here, but I'm thinking it's going to be pretty incredible!