Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Chrismas!! Love all of us!!

Tomorrow we will have been home for 4 months!!! I can't believe that the time has gone by so quickly!!! Alea is doing really well. She's cruising along the furniture and is into everything. She's loving the tree, but has learned that she can't touch. She really understands no, no now:O) LOL!!!

Yesterday was her first snow. The first time I took her out was too close to her naptime, so she screamed for most of it. I took her out after her nap and she seemed to really like it. She had her first taste of snow and her brother held her up on top of the fort that they are making. She thought that was pretty cool. Her cousin came over and played with her until their second naptime. It doesn't take long for them to get worn out. I can't wait until she can walk in the snow next year. I think it will be much more fun for her. She was just adorable in all her snow-clothes. Too bad she didn't think that they were all that great. Poor thing, she looked like a little Michelin baby, she couldn't even roll over in them, much less sit up!

She has been such a joy to us, and we can't believe that there was even a time when she wasn't with us. I look at her and can't imagine a more perfect fit for our family. Our social worker termed her "spirited." That's saying the very least of it. She has to have sass to be able to boss her brothers around:O) She's got them wrapped around her little finger. They are all so cute together!!! I love to watch her lean in for kisses from them.

She's starting to realize now that mommy isn't the only person who can take care of her. She has decided that she now has a daddy. It is so cute to watch her find him in the room and then crawl over as fast as she can and reach up for him. She'll bounce on her knees with her arms up in the air until he sees her and picks her up. It is really doing a wonder for his heart. He was so sad when we got home and she didn't want a lot to do with him. He knew that she would come around, but it was still hard.

I can't tell you how thankful that we are to God for leading us to our daughter in Kazakhstan. Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined the road we had to take to find her, but it was a journey that we wouldn't trade for the world!!!! It was a journey that changed our hearts. It truly makes real the sacrifice that God made for us in giving us His Son, Jesus.

Christmas this year has taken on a different meaning. Now that we have Alea home, I can't help but think about last year this time and how very different it was for her. This Christmas, she gets to celebrate Jesus' birth with us. Last Christmas, she had never even heard the name of Jesus spoken. This Christmas God has given her a forever family. Last Christmas, she laid in a crib with no one to hold her and tell her they loved her. I prayed last Christmas that God would hold her and whisper of His never-ending love to her. This Christmas, we get to tell her about God and how He loved the world so much, that He gave His Son Jesus to us, so that whoever would believe in Him could have everlasting life. God made a way for us to be adopted into His family. What an incredible gift we have been given in Jesus!!

Join us as we remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas, it's Jesus' birthday!!!

God Bless you all, and Merry Christmas!!!

The Heckert Family