Watch. Consider. Pray.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Keller family!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We celebrated the birth of our son, Aaron Matthew in June and are now expecting the arrival of our son from Ethiopia sometime this spring. As I sit here at the kitchen counter, I am thinking about a verse that Aaron and I read out of the bible while waiting for Jack to come home from work. We were reading in Luke 2 and there is a verse that always jumps out at me whenever I read it. "...but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often."

I feel a little like Mary tonight....my heart is full as I reflect back over the last year and look forward to the next. We have been so richly blessed. We have so much to rejoice over this year - a healthy son, the journey of adoption - and the referral of another son from Ethiopia, good health, a stable job, a warm home, food in the pantry, wonderful friends, precious family....

As a family we also faced the unexpected and had many opportunities to grow in faith and trust of our Savior - pre-term labor contractions, bed rest for 12 weeks, financial adjustments as I became a stay-at-home mom, the journey of adoption (it has many ups and downs :), on-going health concerns for Jack, praying and searching for a new church family....

Through the times of rejoicing this year and the times of refinement one theme is resounding in our hearts - contentment. We don't want to be a family that is only interested in the gifts & blessings of God. We want to be a family that is in love with the Giver! We want to be fulling satisfied in the Giver - not just in His gifts. God is enough. He is satisfying. He is beautiful. He is able to do more than we could ask or imagine. He is worthy of all that we are, do and have. He is the only one that will not disappoint us. His love for us is sure. His mercies are new each morning. He is our Father, Defender, Strong Tower and Rest.

May our greatest gift, Jesus, delight you with more of Himself today!

 

Placement Papers

Yesterday we got our packet of placement papers in the mail! Yay! We have one form to notarize tomorrow and then they will be back in the mail to our agency. We are hopeful for a court date in about 6 weeks time. We have had fun putting together a welcome packet for baby M. We have included a disposable camera and are excited to get to see pictures someday of these next few weeks that his nannies take of him and the care facility. These will become a special part of baby M's adoption book. There is a family who traveled yesterday to ET to pick up there children. We put in a picture request of baby M and so we are hoping by Christmas to have some more pictures!

Referral!

Yesterday we got the phone call that we have been waiting for for a long time. Our agency called us to tell us that there was a precious 3-4 month old little boy that was in need of a home.

The miracles that surrounded yesterday were so sweet. Jack was working out of town and called me early in the morning to tell me that he had forgotten to take his medicine that he needs to take each morning. As a result, he was going to have to come back to town early.

I was on the phone with a friend when I noticed I had an incoming call. When I answered, the director of our agency asked me, "Is this a good time to talk about a baby." "Of course," I said!

As soon as I got off of the phone with our agency, I called Jack and wouldn't you know that he was just pulling into town. How sweet it was for him to be home so that we could read our referral email together and get to see the first picture of our little one together as well.

I don't think that we have ever had a day like yesterday....I think we felt every emotion in the book. Extreme joy and excitement while at the same time extreme sorrow and loss. That is the thing about adoption - our joy has been another person's sorrow, either due to poverty, sickness, death the list goes on and on. Today, if you are prompted, say a prayer for not only the children that are awaiting forever families, but also the birth families of these children.

Today I praise God that He is the Father to the Fatherless and the Defender of the Widow....that His love is pure....that He sets the lonely in families....and that He is our Ancient of Days!

6 Months!

 

On Sunday, Aaron turned 6 months old. It is hard to believe that already 1/2 has passed since he was born. Our little baby boy is definitely growing up into such a big boy.

Aaron loves people! He loves being out in public and watching all that is happening around him. He is not scared to be held by other people and loves to smile back at anyone who smiles at him.

His most favorite activity is jumping...yes I think we have a very active boy on our hands! :) He also loves to put anything and everything he can get into his mouth. No teeth yet though. It is so precious to watch him explore his surroundings. When he discovers something new he gets so excited - his little hands and feet move like crazy and he lets out a joyful grunt!
Even though he likes to always be moving, he also loves when we read to him. He loves to look at the pictures and try to grab the pages.

We started rice cereal several weeks ago and he loved it! Aaron has also had bananas, avocado, and sweet potatoes. Even though he was a little suspicious about his big boy food at first, he has come to love all of the foods that we have introduced. I made squash and pears yesterday so those will be the next foods we introduce.

Aaron has such a sweet spirit. Our love for him grows daily! Happy 1/2 birthday little buddy!