the last week

things just keep getting busier as we are preparing for the holidays ie: finishing our shopping, doing laundry, cleaning the house and preparing to pack, brandon is studying for/taking a final, etc. And this morning we woke up to a dusting of snow here in Portland! the funniest thing is people are shutting things down! there is literally about 2 inches of snow at our house. :) It's definitely different than in Colorado!
Well, all of that to say, we are holed up in our cozy little apartment with the Christmas lights on and candles burning. All of you that know me, know that I am not a fan of snow. However, when snow only comes once every couple of years...it's kinda fun. ok. that's probably the only time you'll ever catch me saying that! So sitting here in my sweats is a good time to post a few pictures...

last Tuesday our life group participated in Advent Conspiracy with our church. For those of y'all who don't know what that is, i would urge you to visit www.adventconspiracy.org it's a movement that is all about refocusing our Christmas on Christ and less on materialism. Anyways, our church has "adopted" several families in a lower income elementary school in the neighborhood and are helping them with Christmas. Our group was able to shop for two of them. here are a few pictures of us getting into the spirit of the season at Target:)


And today we delivered Mo's Christmas present...just a good excuse to go see him:) he's doing well. all through with his chemo treatments (you can see the last dose caused him to lose his hair). We love going over there and just being with them. Kim and Christian (his mom and dad) are super sweet and we all pretty much just sit there and play with Mo. Here he is chewing on Brandon's shoelace:)



Mo was the second baby I watched after we moved here and I'm about to start with my 4th family in less than 2 years. It definitely wasn't my ideal working for this many families and having to look for a new job every 6 months, but as I look back I'm seeing how many people Brandon and I have been able to get to know through it. We still see Addie and her family every other month or so. I see Mo about every month. Sam's parents have already started asking for me to come back and see him after I leave. I feel so priveledged to hold this place in all those babies' lives. And after caring for their children for 40 hours/week, there is such a special relationship that I have with all those parents. I'm not sure that I can explain it but I feel so fortunate. I love all of those families and thank God for the opportunity to love on those kids.

wow, that was a super sappy ending to a not-so-deep post:) thanks for bearing with me.