Christmas 2008 (Part One)

Our birthday cake for Jesus! These two precious kiddos sang "Happy day to You, Jesus!" Don't you know it was music to His ears!

Christmas par-tay at uncle Dougs...JP and Matthew wrestling..

Happy Jonathan enjoying everything and everybody.

Eating his yogurt like a "big boy" with the adults.

Jamie and our friend Gideon. Gideon is serving our country in the Army, but was able to make it home to spend a little bit of Christmas with us!!

My house Christmas Eve. JP checking out the chips for supper! YUM!

Holly reading JP's new book to him....goober head Jamie thinking I'm taking a picture of him! :)

Bubba and Laurie

Lovin' the Lightning McQueen thermos cup from BJay.

MiMi and all the grand kids on Christmas morning.

More Lightning McQueen!

Christmas morning...JP finding his gifts from Santa.

Nemo fish tank w/ fish!!!

Staring at the Nemo fish tank w/ fish....

As I said, we had a very blessed Christmas. In more ways than one!

A few updates:

• My second mom, Christi has her surgery yesterday. It went well. She is recovering in the hospital for the next couple of weeks. Continue to remember her in prayer.
• Megan's daughter, Erin, will be having outpatient surgery Monday. Pray for her comfort. Megan had the Christmas she expected to have without Brian, but her words to me were, "I survived and I'm still breathing..." My prayer is that one day it might not hurt her so bad to breathe.

We are going to a New Year's Eve party tonight. Hopefully I will have pics to post from that!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

FYI

I have tried to upload pictures of our Christmas now from TWO computers! I don't know what's going on....

I will keep trying.

Anyway, we had an awesome Christmas! JP has been running WILD all week. Santa brought him a NEMO fish/fish tank for his room. Nanny and Papa gave him a Lightning McQueen power wheels car. GaGa and Bop gave him CARS luggage/lunchbox, remote control car, clothes etc... We spent Christmas Eve with Rose and the boys at our house. Last night, my uncle Doug had a Christmas party at his house. JP has had a BLAST! He is sleeping on the couch at this moment!

I hope everyone is doing great! I am looking forward to having another week off work. I will continue to try and get some pictures on here....

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Scott and Daniella Enjoying birthday cake

I haven't looked at these pictures in over a year. I am surprised at how emotional it makes me. These are from JP's first Christmas. He was four months old and we spent seven days with him at the orphanage. These precious kiddos are enjoying birthday cake that we baked for Jesus. Every Christmas Eve, the children and their nannies have a birthday party for Jesus. They sing/dance, and of course, eat cake!!

Every family has their traditions. Scott and I have been trying to think of one for the three of us. We decided that we would have a birthday party every year the way they do in Guatemala. By doing this, JP will learn the TRUE meaning of the Holiday, and he will grow to understand that this was how they celebrated before we became a part of his life. I am really excited. I posted these pics for you to see. I will take pictures of our party tonight and post them as soon as I can. We have a busy night and day ahead. I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas and I love all of you!!

JosephAngelo

Before
The artist

the Masterpiece

We made homemade picture frames for a few people this Christmas. JP LOVES to paint and did a great job!

I am writing for no other purpose than to rub it in that tomorrow is my LAST day of work for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!!!!

(I am sorry to my dear, precious friends and family who do not work in the school district!)

Hang in there with me.. I am playing around with my blog design. There is only so much you can do unless you spend money. I am tired of the Cute as a Bug theme. I mentioned earlier in the postings that I was going to turn it into more of an "our family" thing. It's a work in progress. I am going to try this out for a while and see if I like it.

Updates:

• All of Christi's tests/scans came back clear of Cancer! Praise God! We are waiting on one more test before the surgery date can be set. We are looking at sometime between Christmas and the New Year, so soon!! Continue to be in prayer for that.
• Megan's little girl, Erin, will be having surgery to remove a lymphnode in the back of her neck on January 5th. The doctor will cut out the node and biopsy it...Megan DEFINITELY needs our prayers!

Megan and I were talking today...Life for them right now is like an ocean. She has been standing on shaky, wet, soggy ground for the past three years. In May, a HUGE wave came and knocked her down. She's trying to stand back up, but every time she gets her footing, another wave hits and she falls again.

Salt water is in her eyes. It burns. It's hard to focus on what's in front of her. It's tempting to just lie in the mush and let the waves swallow her. My prayer is that with the help of our prayers she will be able to one day wipe the water from her face and regain her focus on the Maker of the water.

From time to time my eyes burn from the salt. It's easy to get caught up in the sting. I am thankful today that no matter how rough the water gets around me, each time I dry my eyes, I find that my Anchor has not moved!

Heavy Heart

The "Twelve Days of Christmas" will have to be postponed until next year....if you really want to enjoy it, head on over to Melissa's blog--she was going to "steal" my idea anyway!! (Ha! Just jokin'!)

Anyway, a lot is going on around here and honestly I just don't have time to do it. I am going to share with you two prayer requests that are close to my heart:

1. My 2nd "mom," Christi was diagnosed with Cancer a few weeks ago. She has undergone TONS of tests. She is meeting with her surgeon bright and early in the morning to hear the results and find out when her surgery is going to take place. PLEASE pray for comfort, peace and healing!
2. My friend, Megan's five year old daughter is going to have to undergo some surgery in the near future. I am not going to give all the details, but they are worried and tired of the stress that is surrounding their lives right now. This is the family who lost their husband/dad to brain cancer in May. They desperately need our prayers!

Thanks so much! I will continue to keep you guys updated on these concerns. You know, I was thinking last night during my quiet time with God about how blessed I am. To be honest with you, it makes me feel somewhat guilty. I've said it before and I'll say it again...NOTHING in this world belongs to us. And I want to publicly tell God that I do not take that for granted. I love You, Lord, and I know that at any time everything could be taken from me.

That is why my relationship with Him is so important. Ultimately He's all I need. As a wife and mom, that scares me sometimes, but at the same time, it's comforting. I was talking to Megan on the phone this afternoon and she made a statement that is so true. She said, "You know, Andrea, I've learned over the past year that EVERYTHING is out of my control..." She hit the nail on the head! NOTHING! I ran across this passage in the Bible and thought I would write it down...

" When my heart was grieved

and my spirit embittered,

I was senseless and ignorant;

I was a brute beast before You.

Yet I am always with You;

You hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with Your counsel,

and afterward you will take me in to Glory.

Whom have I in Heaven but You?

And earth has nothing I desire besides You.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever.

Those who are far from You will perish;

You destroy all who are unfaithful to You.

But as for me, it is good to be near God.

I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;

I will tell of all Your deeds."

Psalm 73: 21-28

12 Days of Christmas

On the 1st day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me...

a tiny elf who we call J.P!

Only 12 days til Christmas! I am very excited! I am blogging the 12 days of Christmas, I have to think of 11 more! We have always loved this picture of JP. This was taken on Christmas day at the orphanage when we visited in 2006.

FYI

I tried to post pictures a week ago from our Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I found it today as I scrolled on down the blog. It was out of order and not sure when it posted.... oh well. Sometimes this blogger stuff gets on my nerves!

Not much going on tonight on the "Beam-front." We are just hanging out around the house. JP and Scott are going to make reindeer cookies in a little while and then hopefully we will go to bed early...JP is acting sleepy/cranky, so keep your fingers crossed! ha!

We've probably all wondered before what we will see when we get to Heaven. I know I have. Well, I saw a glimpse of it tonight. We had the opportunity to go to the Christmas program at a local church. My uncle is the minister of music and my cousin, Jonathan, was making his drama debut as a Wise Man! We heard through the grapevine that Jonathan was so excited he had trouble sleeping the night before.

I had to see this!

Jonathan has special needs. He has a hearing impairment and learns differently than most. I don't have enough time to type out how special he is to our family, or all of his challenging abilities. However, what I can tell you is that EVERYTHING Jonathan sets out to do, he does it with excellence! Everything is important to him. Well, tonight was no different. I was on my way back from the nursery about to take my seat when I saw him standing in the dark hallway awaiting his cue.... It wasn't hard to recognize him even though he was disguised in a beard and sandals. He was the most handsome of the three. No offense to the others! I found my seat just in time to watch the Wise Men make their way down the isle...towards the manger. Jonathan only has full use of his left hand. With that hand, he carried his gift to the Baby Jesus. He completed his mission with pride! He stood on the church platform proudly for more than half an hour with the rest of the cast making us all proud!

I was reminded tonight of how we all look different to God. We all come to Him carrying different gifts. None are the same. I may be blessed enough to carry my gifts with TWO hands, however, when I reach the Throne, all that matters is that I've brought my best.

Like any other church Christmas program, I am sure that countless hours went in to the preparation. Some of the participants may have filled in for someone or decided to join at the last minute. Some may have felt obligated to join. I don't know. What I do know is that for Jonathan it was a precious honor that he did not take lightly. He carried his gift to Jesus with his whole heart. Jonathan has traveled a very long and difficult road to get to where he is today. Thankfully, he is oblivious to a lot of what has taken place. He's always just been happy. He loves God and his family. He loves life. I could learn a lot from Jonathan.....

He really is a Wise Man!

Cancer has introduced itself into yet ANOTHER body of someone near and dear to my family...the devil just will not give up!!! I am not posting a name at this time, but if you pray, God knows who you are referring to!

(P.S. This sign is VERY nice....you can imagine what I wanted to write!!)

God made the Butterflies

It's 5:30 am. The only reason that's significant at all is because I have already taken a bubble bath, read my Bible and am about to have a bowl of cereal. The only reason I turned on the computer is b/c the rest of the house is dark. My boys are still sleeping. So...watching t.v or continuing to read is out of the question. So, I will go ahead and share what's on my mind....

I was sleeping sooo good. It had to be God who woke me up, b/c I am NOT a morning person! In fact, the only reason I was dreading going to work today is b/c I hate getting out of bed. So, when 4:15 rolled around God must have thought it would be a good idea to get me up and moving so that my day would start off better than if I had to drag myself out from under the sheets! Now, the other thing that's going on this a.m are the major set of butterflies I have swirling around in my stomach. It took me a while to figure out where they were coming from. Nothing exciting is on the calendar for today. But, as I sat here typing away on different blogs and FACEBOOK (I know, I know!) it dawned on me that maybe I have butterflies b/c today can be exciting! I sat in the bathtub and asked God to open up doors for me to serve Him today. I thanked Him for all of the many blessings in my life right now. He is reminding me through these butterflies that it doesn't have to be Christmas Eve or the night before you head to Disney World to be excited. Maybe I feel excited just b/c He's given me another day. I'm healthy, I love my job, my husband and baby are so special to me etc...etc.... SO...I am not going to look at today as "just another day" like I normally would. I am going to give in to the butterflies and be anxious about how God is going to use me throughout this day!!

Thank you, God for butterflies!