The Ultimate Gift

So, we had our referral and boy was it a wonderful Christmas gift.  Now to tell Emma.  We decided since we got our new daughter for Christmas why not give Emma her sister.  So we printed the photos that we got from the referral and put them in a silver photo frame/album.  I wrapped it up and we decided to give it to her for Christmas Eve.  Christmas Eve morning I was so excited... I couldn't wait for that night.  We had things to get done and cooking to do... that helped me a lot.  Emma and Mark got busy making our traditional meatballs for Christmas dinner.

  As I watched them, like I have done for the last 4 years, I couldn't help but think... next year Lauren will be here to help.  Daddy and his 2 girls.  See, our Christmas dinner tradition is Ravioli.  Mark is from and Italian family... and to be honest I love the tradition. So they got busy making the homemade meatballs, I did the sauce and I was in all my glory.  Once that was finished it was time to get ready for church.  Emma put on her beautiful dress and was just stunning.  We decided to do our family picture before church since we were all dressed.  As we stood there, again, I couldn't help but think how this was the last year we would be a family of 3!  Our last Christmas photo with just the three of us. 

 We went to church and were lucky enough to actually get seats... lots and lots had to stand.  All during the service my mind wondered.  I was into the service, but I couldn't help but get excited about getting home to give Emma her gift.  How would she react?  Would she be happy?  Would she understand?  All of these thoughts raced through my mind.  We went out to eat dinner and let me tell you I couldn't get out of Ruby Tuesd*ys fast enough. 

We got home and we told Emma we had a gift for her.  She knows she gets new pj's each Christmas so she wasn't really surprised by that.  I gave her the pj's, she loved them along with sleep socks.  Then she said, "can I go change now?"  We said we had one more gift for her.  She look shocked.  So I handed her the gift and said to her, " this is something you have wanted for a VERY long time, I hope you like it!"  She unwrapped the gift.  I looked at her and asked, "do you know who that is?" With a sparkle in her eye, a smile on her face and in the most sweet small voice, "is that Lauren?"  I got tears in my eyes and said, "yes it is."  Emma thought she was "so cute."  She was over the moon.  She kept asking, "is she born yet?"  I think she was having trouble understand that the girl in the picture was real and that was indeed Lauren, her sister.  She wanted me to take her picture with her new sister, I of course loved the idea!

We got a daughter, Emma got a sister... God, he worked a miracle in our lives!  Best Christmas ever!