Christmas Cards!!!

Christmas cards are my FAVORITE thing about Christmas! They bring together some of my favorite things in life – Jesus, scripture, friends & family and pictures. I literally have to restrain myself from running to the mailbox every day during the Christmas season. I also have Christmas scrapbooks where I put what we did with family and friends that year for Christmas and then ALL of the Christmas card pictures we get! It’s so fun to look at their cards year after year, see the creativity of the cards, see how their family has changed and grown…

I always thought I would have a lot of kids in my Christmas picture. I thought our family picture would increase over the years too. A couple of years into our struggle with infertility, I started to wonder…At what point do we have to stop sending out pictures with just me and Patrick on them? Do people think this is old already? weird? Does it just make them feel sorry for us? Is it just a reminder that God doesn’t answer all of our prayers the way we think He will? Are the empty spots in our card as obvious to others as they are to us?

But every year, I plow through, sending out a card because it is a testimony of our love for God and relationships no matter who is in our family picture. God always gives me a scripture that is relevant and a testimony of what He has done in our hearts. This year – I had even more resolve and determination to share the joy He has put in our hearts (Psalm 4:7). I feel even more confident that we are a family! Me, Patrick, and our dogs! This is our family! Our family counts! This is the family God has given us! And it will always count!

I couldn’t figure out how to upload our card here – so I will just share the outtakes (and a few favorites from the past). It’s the best part anyway! I really wish that one year, everyone would send out their outtakes instead of the perfect picture!  It’s how our lives really are anyway, right??

P.S. I’m still taking New Years cards to go into this year’s album!!