New Year, New House, New Life!

It has been a while since I posted, and with good reason.  This year has been just about the most life-changing one for our family.  Along with the immeasurable joy of finally receiving our daughter from China into our family came anxiety and stress like I've never felt before.  The challenges have been difficult for me, but God has gotten me through them.  If you'd like to read more about our trials and triumphs in the past year, please read my other blogs (links below).  They'll give you some insight into what is involved in overseas adoption, from the paperwork process, to travelling to your child's country and bringing them home, to possible challenges in your family's adjustment:

http://ourjourneytohannahclaire.blogspot.com/
http://thegriffinfamilyherald.blogspot.com/

Just as we are all settled in with our daughter, now we have decided to move (figures)!  Thank goodness we're only moving to another house in our same town, though, only 4 miles away.  The difference is we'll have a little over 2 and a half more times the space than our current house!  I'm not joking; we're going from an 1,183 square foot house to one that's 3,078!  One huge source of stress for all of us has been that we feel like we're constantly on top of each other.  Very little personal space combined with two kids, one of whom is VERY loud and  both of whom are VERY energetic, has turned me into a walking emotional disaster area.  I love my kids to death, no question, but too much is too much! Since we homeschool, I'm pretty much with them 24/7, so you can imagine, and I'm sure many of you don't even have to imagine because you're in a similar situation.  I'm so thankful we'll be outta here in two weeks and one day.  Yes, I'm counting down :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas, and are so looking forward to a Happy New Year.  Something tells me it will be.  No, not "something"--someone.  That someone is God.  I have felt his presence so much lately after having a long period of not feeling it.  I know God is there, and He's telling me everything will be alright.  My prayer is that it will be alright for eveyone reading this right now too.  May God bless you and your family in this coming new year.