Christmas 2008

I would like to wish each and everyone of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We have had another amazing year with lots of blessings and of course a few challenges. I am able to type this today because I am home with McKenna because she got sick yesterday while we were Christmas shopping. It kind of worked out in my favor because I was able to come home with her and get out of shopping. Other than a few little illnesses, she has been very healthy. We had her 3 yr check up a couple days ago. She is still hovering around the 30 lb mark but is 37 inches tall. Just since her birthday she has grown about an inch. We realized it when she didn't need our help to turn off light switches anymore. It's great & sad all at the same time when I see how grown up she is. We still really need to work on important things like "please" & "thank you" but otherwise she does pretty well with her manners. Dr. Nau reminded us again that we are so lucky to have such a normal little girl. There are a bunch of little ones out there that will never get the chance to be as fortunate as she is.

As we prepare McKenna for Christmas this year, we try to teach her that just because there are wrapped presents in our house that she can't open them and that all the stuff we bought can't be played with because it's for someone else, there is still a large part of our family missing. This morning as I was making McKenna breakfast I read this poem that we put on our fridge each year...

**Christmas With Jesus**

I see countless Christmas trees around the world below

With tiny lights, like heaven's stars reflecting on the snow.

The sight is so spectacular; please wipe away the tear,

for I am spending Christmas with Jesus this year.

I hear the many Christmas songs that people hold so dear, but

the sounds of music can't compare with the Christmas choir up here.

I have no words to tell you, the joy their voices bring,

for it is beyond description to hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me; I see the pain inside your heart,

but I am not so far away, we really aren't apart.

So be happy for me dear ones, you know I hold you dear,

and be glad I'm spending Christmas with Jesus this year.

I send you each a special gift, from my heavenly home above,

I send you each a memory of my undying love.

Remember love's a special gift, more precious than pure gold,

it was always more important in the stories Jesus told.

Please love and keep each other, as my father said to do,

for I can't count the blessing or the love he has for you.

So have a Merry Christmas and wipe away that tear,

remember I'm spending Christmas with Jesus this year.

Ian, we love you dearly and miss you. The words above help though when I think about you spending Christmas with Jesus and all of those we have lost. Please guide us and protect us in 2009.

All our love,

The Feltons