Our online profile is complete, our home study paperwork is submitted, our adoption network cards arrived today, we are stockpiling donations for our garage sale, we just need to finish our video and paper profile book. This book we have put a lot of thought and effort into. It’s the book that will be sent to expectant moms to look at and discern if we are the couple she desires. The paper profile book has many requirements and the photos within it must not be posed (i.e. looking at the camera). One of the things we talk about in our book is how Christmas is our favorite holiday and time of year. Since it’s just the two of us we never had the opportunity to take a candid photo of us putting up our Christmas tree. We have photos of the tree itself, and selfies of us in front of twinkling lights lined with tinsel, as well as our cat playing amongst the branches but never of the two of us.

To capture this we decided to put up our Christmas tree while our friend shot some candid photos of the process. Being the second of April, we missed April Fools Day by less than 24 hours but I simply love Christmas so didn’t hesitate at the opportunity to celebrate the joy of the season.

We dug out the tree box from our storage room, and the ornaments from our garage and got to work. Fluffing the branches, lacing the lights and laughing with delight as we do when it’s actually Christmas. We even turned on background Christmas music to complete the atmosphere and if you didn’t look at a calendar you’d swear it was early December.

Posed photo from this past Christmas

With the finished product to our liking we sat to take in the moment. A very merry Christmas (in April) it is. The hope of this season of our life, reminds us of the hope that comes each year at Christmas. With the excitement and expectation I am reminded of the people of the Old Testament who were promised a savior and the long wait that they had and many did not see in their lifetime. I particularly think of Simeon and how the Holy Spirit revealed that he would see the Christ child before he would depart this life. Being “advanced in years” I imagine he anxiously waited with each passing day for the Promised One.

While we also await our child we remain steadfast to the promise that all things happen in God’s time.  We remain faithful in Christ and in the meantime share the Good News of our Savior. The spirit of Christmas need not be saved for a single season or time of year but boldly proclaimed each moment of our lives.