Sunday, December 24, 2006

Merry Christmas!




Hello Everyone!

As promised, here are our new family Christmas photos. We have had three full days at home so far and still have not finished unpacking two of the 6 suitcase (imagine)!

We thought we only had Thursday to get the girls acquainted with Babushka Hughes. Dan and Grandma Hughes woke up at 4:30 Friday morning and headed off to the airport. Then Dan would head in for his first day of work. However, he was called back to the airport to pick Grandma up shortly after saying goodbye. Grandma had been bumped from her flight because the plane was overweight due to luggage. The plane left with three empty seats! Grandma had been given tickets for the overnight flight Saturday to arrive Christmas eve morning(isn't that fun after a month of watching 3 grand kids!). As it turned out, grandma was able to accompany Julie on a couple of shopping adventures with 6 kids for Christmas outfits and really realize she wanted to go home!! Jason arrived safely late Saturday, and Grandma left to go back to GA after getting a seat this time.

The girls have been having fun checking out the house and watching Christmas specials. We attended church this morning with our 7 children, where the girls were welcomed by the congregation with Drastwicha, Russian for "Hello", as Pastor Kenny guided them. It was an awesome experience to be back at our home church and praise our magnificent God for the blessings he has given our family. We also were able to meet several people who e-mailed and prayed for us. Thank you so much for the prayers to all of you. We still welcome them and will definitely use them as we raise our children and look to God for guidance while carrying out this task.

After Christmas service, we came home and took our first family photo. Today we are heading off to Wal-mart to make pictures for our late Christmas cards and pick up ingredients for the famous Ukrainian Borsch soup for Christmas eve dinner.

We will continue to update our blog site monthly at the beginning of the month so you can see how the transition period plays out and your prayers are answered.

Blessings for this glorious Christmas time when our God gave us the most wonderful gift of all, the gift of eternal life through his son, Jesus Christ. May you all have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed and Happy New Year.

Peace, Love, and Blessings,
Dan and Julie

1 comment:

junglemama said...

What a beautiful family you have. How fun to adopt three girls at once!