Cluttered Christmas

I really like Christmas.

I am not one to decorate our house from ceiling to floor, inside and out. Heck, I haven't even made one Christmas cookie this year, but I still really like Christmas. The story of God becoming man, choosing and determining to wrap Himself in infant fraility thrills me to my core. Having a nativity set for Christmas seems so important to me. I want to look at it and remember what happened that day, and the implications it has for me in my everyday and ordinary life.

So, every year at Christmas time, I clean everything off of our entertainment center and put up our nativity. We don't have a mantle to display it on, and coffee tables are out of the question for the obvious reason that there are 3 children ages 5 and under living here. I love unwrapping every wiseman, shepherd, camel, and donkey and placing it carefully in position, and it only seems fitting that the simplicity of the nativity shouldn't have to compete with anything else. It should be the focal point, the attention-getter.

But, you know, the top of the entertainment center is such a convenient place to put things. It's close to the front door and high enough that the kids can't reach anything on it. Before you know it, life is crowding out my simple, beautiful nativity scene. This month's water bill, car keys, a movie we rented, a manual for Asia's new birthday bike, and on occasion, Trina's socks encroach on the sacred space meant only for Baby Jesus. In a matter of days, my Christmas scene becomes very...cluttered.

So many things are vying for our attention during the holidays. So many everyday life responsibilities threaten to make us forget the importance of our Emmanuel reaching through time to be with us. We have trouble keeping things in their proper place. The insignificant and temporal often overshadow the eternal and lasting.

Will you excuse me? I think I have some cleaning to do...

Moses the Marine

Last week, some wonderful friends from our church, David and Kisha, heard me mention that I needed to get Moses' hair cut again and kindly offered to do it for me. This is the end result, and I love it! Even though he'd already gotten one haircut, he still had several thin patches on the back of his head from laying down so much in his crib, and the hair on the top of his head was so thick I couldn't get it combed out. David took it down enough so that it will all grow back even. He looks like he just went to boot camp (I thought the camo shirt was a nice touch)! The first day or so, he kept rubbing the back of his head. So different! We also have to really make sure he wears his hat outside. Brrrr!

In other Moses news, he is picking up new words every day and he's starting singing songs. Today when we were in the Dollar Store, he was singing at the top of his lungs, "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, bye bye!" One of his other favorites is "Today is the Day" by Lincoln Brewster. He is getting a mini-drum set for Christmas (shh, don't tell!) and I can't wait to see what he does with it.

To My Asia Renee...

Dear Asia,
It's hard to believe that you came into our lives 5 years ago yesterday. You were so tiny at 6 lbs. 2 oz., but you were such a fighter! While you were being born, you were having some trouble and the doctor was concerned that you might not be feeling very good when you were born. She told me that I might not get to hold you for awhile because they would need to help you breath, but you screamed so loudly that the doctor laughed and said, "There's nothing wrong with her!" You're still not afraid of making your opinions heard!

You cried when the nurses were cleaning and measuring you, so Daddy went over to the table to see if he could help. As soon as you heard his voice, you stopped crying. When he could pick you up, you reached for his face and felt his beard, like you were saying, "So this is who's been talking to me these past nine months!"

What a wonderful, amazing day December 7, 2004 was! You have changed my life forever, Asia Renee. I am so thankful that God has let me be your Mommy.

Have I told you all the things I love about you?
I love ...
- Your curiousity and sharp mind. I'm pretty sure you can learn anything!

- The way you say words like, hostibal (hospital), bisgetti (spaghetti), chapskips (chapstick), efelant (elephant), renember (remember), and batatoes (potatoes). The other day at dinner we were having something with potatoes in it, and your little sister Trina said, "I don't like tomatoes!" and you said, "Not tomatoes, BAtatoes!" So funny!

- Your love for your sister and brother. You are such a good helper! What I am I going to do when you go to kindergarten next year?

- Your laugh! It is so infectious! Nobody can stay serious when you are laughing!

- Your sense of fashion. I love the outfits that you come up with! Grandma Dixie would say that you come by it naturally, and would point out all the pictures of Mommy wearing skirts and moon boots. In my opinion, the Limmer girls are stylish people.

- Your heart of worship. Don't ever stop making up songs to Jesus. He loves it and so do I.

Daddy and I love you so much, and I know that this year is going to bring so many good things to your life. Happy Birthday, Love!

Readoption

One thing that was kind of foggy to me when we entered this adventure of international adoption was the readoption process. I knew that we needed to readopt Moses in the U.S. once we came home, but I didn't know what the steps were to do that, especially in the state of Wyoming (it's specific from state to state). Some friends of ours in Indiana who adopted two girls from Rwanda were able to do the paperwork themselves, so I was hopeful that we could do something similar. I made a few phone calls to our county government, and after being transferred from office to office, I was told, "Just call an adoption attorney." We called the state government offices, told the same thing. Then we called the Department of Family Services, thinking that they deal with adoption all the time, and they had told us the same thing. We got the hint and called an adoption attorney!

We brought Moses home on an IR-4 visa. This means that we were not present in Rwanda for the court hearing where we were made his permanent guardians, thus necessitating our need for readoption. All his Rwandan documents, including his passport, are all in his Rwandan name. Here in Wyoming, we have to wait for 6 months (since the time we gained custody of him) and go to a court hearing where he is officially adopted as a Limmer. One funny thing the attorney told me is that in Wyoming, it is required to publish a legal notice to the birth parents in the paper (the Casper paper, no less) since we don't have any document where they officially relinquished custody of him. That sounds logical, right? Some very, very pale friends of ours threatened to respond to the ad. Ha ha! I threatened her with her life if she did!

So now we have to wait until March for our court hearing, then we can obtain a Wyoming birth certificate and apply for U.S. citizenship. After that, we'll get his U.S. passport and everything should be squared away. It'll be nice to have almost all of the paperwork done!