Did Christmas Come Here??

I wrote this post back on December 23 but after much debating, I originally decided not to post it. I have now decided to post it. The folks at the orphanage were against us taking pictures of the other children and putting them on the internet. I am putting these pictures up here, not out of disrespect to the wishes of the leaders of the orphanage, but as a reminder to myself that there are still many very adorable children that are waiting for a forever family.

Here is the scariest Christmas lion that you have ever seen. You know about the story of the Christmas lion don't you?? Don't feel bad, we didn't either. Actually, the pre-school where Coy goes had a Christmas program and in their efforts to include all of the children, the older children sang a song about God and the animals and they had the young kids parade in and Coy got to be a lion.

Coy went to see Santa today. I am not sure that he even knows who he is because we don't really talk about it much but he got his picture taken with him anyway.

We have had friends and neighbors over the last couple of nights and it has been lots of fun. Stacey cooked for everyone one night and we ordered pizza the other night.

As we have gone through this Christmas season, I can't help but think about all of those children that we saw this year that aren't going to have the Christmas that Coy is going to have. I always feel guilty about all of the "stuff" our kids end up with but this year it has been especially bad for me. While we are basking in our excess this year, a much bigger part of me than usual will feel guilty about what we have. When I hear mothers that have many many resources here in the US worrying about what amounts to very trivial things and I know that children in other parts of the world are struggling just to eat and stay warm, I think things are sadly out of whack. As we sit here in our large homes, with multiple vehicles, and an over abundance of everything that we could possibly need or want and we hesitate to sacrifically give to God because we think we don't have the money then we are missing the point. I don't like to think about what God thinks about that.