Isn’t it SO MUCH FUN to run out to your mailbox EVERY day and sweet faces on pictures of friends and families you just love!? I just LOVE it! AND…I have to find a way every year to display EACH and EVERY one!!! We have already filled up BOTH of our huge message boards with Christmas cards…so this momma has her creative juices flowing where she can start displaying the rest!!! Oh it’s going to be so tempting to keep these up ALL year…I just love seeing them full of family and friends!!!
My boards are magnetic–so to hold the cards on, I just bought huge packets of magnets and hot-glued some of Martha Stewarts flowers that are for card decorating and scrapbooks on them. The packets were just $1.50 for 20–so it is pretty inexpensive to cover 40 or even 80 magnets…and they are so pretty…and sparkley:)
AND…dispite our craziness and actually having our cards in hand since mid-November…I FINALLY got the last batch mailed out today!!! I was really excited about this last batch as it was my AGCI family and all of the families we traveled with to Ethiopia. How DEAR they are to me…so I can’t wait for them to get Mr.Isaac Temesgen’s first family Christmas card in their mailbox:)
As I addressed my cards…I had time to reminisce and I was thinking about all our different cards past. AND I thought how crazy our lives have been since Richard and I got married in 2003…YES–NOT that long ago really!!! I just had to dig through old files and find old Christmas pictures!!! And I can’t help but take ya back there with me!!! SO…check out our family changing since 2003!
2003…
2004…(nope…we didn’t wait very long before starting a family…we got married in June and had Parker just 14 months later in August!!!) So our next year’s card looked like this:
2005…and just 14 months after Parker was born…we got our next year’s Christmas gift…
(We waste no time people!)2006…
2007…We were actually dreaming of another baby this year and HOPING and praying and wishing and dreaming some more! And this year the kids were just TOO cute that I just couldn’t pick ONE picture so I made a really fun tri-fold card…
2008…And oh–THIS year just MELTS me. Frank was a DREAM COME TRUE!! How we longed for him!!! And we just went all out with our card this year…truly you have to see all of it to appreciate it fully!!! It opened up vertically and folded down where you could read the Christmas story…it started with THIS on the front…
This was the next page…
This was the following page…
AND this was the back…
2009…This was last year—our much anticipated wait for our baby from Ethiopia. My how our hearts were LONGING this time last year!!! And I kept thinking how the world LONGED and WAITED for Jesus…and how our hearts now should long for Him continuously. How much we learned, also, about our own adoption by the God…and although that season of waiting was hard–it was all so worth it!
AND FINALLY!!! 2010!!! Our little miracle baby boy…who from the beginning came with a list of unknowns…only our Father knew them all–and how perfect He was for our family!!! This is the front…
LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!! I have to say I am so amazed and thankful for the support and love we have received from some of the adoption moms planning on coming to the adoption momma retreat in February!!! EVERY month, different moms from our agency’s listerv (AGCI) have sent little happies to encourage the volunteers who are helping plan and serve at the retreat—you won’t believe my precious non-adoption mom friends who are giving up their ENTIRE weekend…actually PAYING the resort to come AND SERVE!!!
LAST month, Kim Jewett sent these to our volunteer meeting to love on the volunteers…
AND just yesterday–I got THIS in the mail…a box full of them…one for every full-time volunteer! Wow!!!
Oh I can’t WAIT to pass these out to the volunteers at our next meeting!!! What is inside you ask?? Pure sweetness!SOOO many fun things ahead…nap time is coming to an end at my house–and it’s time for me to go check my mailbox!!! Can’t wait to see if any Christmas cards are inside!
XOXO,
Andrea
by admin
I agree, Darcee is the Best!!! WOWWWW!!! So very cool and her heart is so strong with passion and love for others. Love Darcee, and Love your cards throughout the years!
LOVE your cards throughout the years! Such a great idea to post them all together. Going to have to do that too! And I LOVED getting your precious card in the mail! Made my day! 🙂
I love all your cards from the past and we loved getting yours the other day. SO precious!
Blessings,
Amy
I see ours and am so glad you got it! 🙂 The Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus one is SO precious! I just saw that idea this year and am so sad I didn’t do it last year when N was an infant. 🙁 You seriously need to do a blog post on how you get your kids to all look and smile for the camera. I try all sorts of tricks and don’t even force them to and just try to be silly… and it still barely ever happens! You have amazing talent!
I really like your 2008 card… so cute!! Darcee is such a sweet, sweet lady. LOVE her:)
I love the cards. Of course Frank makes a grand entrance that year on the card. 🙂 That is DEFINITELY the cutest card I have ever seen.
I also like the 2010 with Frank’s great smile looking over at Baby Isaac T
I love Christmas cards too!! Your Christmas cards are beautiful and your family is precious. We keep our Christmas cards up all year so we can pray for the families that have sent them to us throughout the year. Merry Christmas and God Bless!
Andrea,
Oh my gosh…that nativity card is the best and most blessed card I have ever seen! I have 9 grandkids under 8 and I think we could re-create the nativity in a big way next year…as the nana who sews, I might have to whip up some costumes…thank you for always sharing your heart and your blessed family with all of us.
Merry Christmas!
Wow! ALL of the Christmas cards are so wonderful. I love that you shared them all with us. 🙂 I have to say, that the manger scene one was amazing!! Your kiddos will love having these to look back upon. That is so cool about all of the volunteers, I’m so grateful for their willingness to serve us adoptive mommies, what a blessing!
Love your Christmas card message boards. I just made a much simpler (read: less crafty) version. Kari from My Crazy Adoption is posting it Monday as a guest post on simple decorating ideas.
Your cards are so precious and it is beautiful to see how your family has grown!
Love all the cute cards, especially the manger. You deserve some sort of “Best Christmas Card Award”. I nominate you.
You are amazing ! Your family is BEAUTIFUL and a reminder of how GOOD God is, has been and always will be….Isaac has been loved and dreamed about and how sweet our Lord is to have put this desire in your family’s heart and to watch over the months of your trust and obedience and REWARD…ITY…he looks as if he has always been with you and your family… BEAUTIFUL !
Love. Just FYI, we will be the ones that surprise you with a Christmas card in like, March….just don’t think we forgot about you. 🙂 And, actually it won’t even be a card…you just wait. 🙂