Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  May God bless you and your family during this winter season!

This has been a Christmas like no other for my own family.  In the rush to prepare for the all the snow that we keep hearing is coming we went outside and chopped and stacked wood today!  Never would have guessed I would have been doing that on Christmas Day, but I have to admit that the exercise and fresh air felt really good :)

We visited family/friends in Michigan over the weekend and had a wonderful time.  It was our plan to get back by about 5:00 pm on Christmas Eve to eat pizza and have a quiet evening, but the time with our friends/family was well worth the late night drive back home.  We pulled in our drive-way at about 11:45 pm!  No gifts had been wrapped and no tree had been lit (or even chopped down!) because of all the running around we have been doing getting prepared for Colombia. 

After the children were tucked in their beds with visions of sugar plums Kevin and I brought out three small fake trees we had in our attic.  I decorated them with lights and tinsel and made a funky star for the top of the tree that resembled more of a shiny turtle than a beautiful, guiding light for the wise men! Still, at 2:00 in the morning, just before we headed to bed, I took a second glance at all of our work and thought it quite a beautiful site.  The three trees standing together reminded me of our Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit.

Kevin, the kids and I had our drawing just a little bit ago for the free soap give-away.  I'm sorry that all of you who commented, emailed or helped spread the word about our blog couldn't win, but we did get to have 5 winners and I'm pretty excited about having that many.  If your name is below please email me at kevkarb@yahoo.com and let me know your address!  I also emailed or messaged you if your name was drawn.

Ami B.(you commented below about posting on Homeschool Share) your name was drawn first so you get 7 free bars of soap!

Alix - thank you for commenting below!  Your name was drawn second, which means we will be sending you 5 free bars of our all-natural goat milk soap!

Bonita T.  - thank you for emailing!  Your name was drawn third.  I'll be sending you 4 bars of our soap because the third child we are adopting is 4 years old!

Jennifer S. - thanks for sharing on facebook!  Your name was drawn 4th!  The fourth child we are adopting soon is 3 years old so you will get 3 bars of our all-natural goat milk soap!

Tina H. - your name was drawn 5th so you will get one free bar of our soap!  Congratulations!

I would also like to say a special thank you to those who have bought soap or made a donation to help us bring our children home! Our chip-in button fundraising goal to raise the five kids one-way airfare from Bogota to Fort Lauderdale has been met!  Thank you so much for blessing our family.  Words alone are not enough to express our gratefulness at your generosity.

And... when we arrived home late last night on Christmas Eve a big box awaited us on our front porch.  Someone whom we have never met in person and who is in the middle of an adoption from Colombia herself said they would be happy to send us some clothing for our Colombian children.  I thought she was so kind and, honestly, expected some nice, used clothing to be shipped.  (Which we would have been completely happy with!)   But when I opened the box and saw very nice, new clothes for the children I was overwhelmed.  Thank you.  I pray that God blesses you and your family this season and with your adoption!  Maybe we will see one another in Colombia in the new year.

Merry Christmas,

Karen and family