A Christmas to Remember

Christmas at my Papaw and Mamaw's house (my mom's side of the family) is never lacking in fun for the adults.  The past few years we have all picked another's name and bought them a gift.  But this year my sister proposed a different idea for our Christmas.  We usually buy gifts that we really don't need (not that there is anything wrong with getting someone a gift), so why not chip our money in together and do some good for people who really need it.  Everyone decided that was a great idea and that we were going to do it.  We chose to have everyone pick a charity of their choice and then whoever got their charity drawn out of a bag would be the one we would donate to and we would all give that person our money/check (choosing from a bag made it a fun twist to just picking one).

Our family Christmas came and the kids had just tore into their gifts.  My sister, Amy, announced that we were getting ready to draw for our charities and passed out some paper.  Mark and I filled ours out and stuck them in the bag.  Quickly after that, Amy handed the bag to my Papaw so he could pick one out.  He grabbed one and opened it, he was trying to read it, when I decided to sit by him and look too.  I knew it wasn't our charity because it was in blue marker.  As I got closer I saw, "Holly and Mark's."  As it actually sank into my head I finally comprehended what it said, "Holly and Mark's Adoption!"  Immediately the tears came to my eyes and I looked up and saw that everyone was looking at me.  WOW! I was shocked!  We just weren't expecting that at ALL!  Now that I look back, it's kind of funny how quickly we drew it out and no one even talked about the charity they were choosing (we had no clue at the time).  So now I know why.  Everyone wrote our name on their paper and they took Mark's and mine out...Sneaky...Sneaky!!!

This is definitely one of my top Christmas memories!  We are obviously putting that money toward our adoption.  For that we are excited and extremely grateful!  But more importantly for us, is the tremendous support our family has displayed to us!  Papaw, Mamaw, Mom, Dad, Buzz, Julie, Brittany, Derek, Alivia, Colton, Bob, Amy, Stephanie, & Shannon THANK YOU & we LOVE YOU SO MUCH!  We are grateful that you are a HUGE part of bringing our future child home to us (your great-grandchild, grandchild, great-niece/nephew, cousin, & niece/nephew)!!!