December... Time for goodbyes and new hello's. On December 6 my friend, Elissa, and my other adoptive mom friends showered me both for Sunny's birthday and as a goodbye. We were set to pull out of San Antonio on Dec 16 for our move to Amarillo. It was a beautiful party stirred by mixed emotions. At the time, I thought Sunny would be home in 1-3 months. And there was much anticipation about our move and Billy's new opportunities. But saying goodbye to dear friends, a beautiful home and everything familiar was tough. Not to mention the exhaustion of packing with 2 little ones around.
The move was relatively smooth. We first moved into a rent house. The first week in Amarillo, Billy had to have surgery to remove a kidney stone on Christmas Eve in a city where we knew only a few...and those few were celebrating Christmas. Billy was in a lot of pain. And I found snowy Amarillo to be eerily quiet. However, the snow was a blessing as it eased the girls' transition incredibly!
The pictures below are many and out of order, but they sum up our first month in Amarillo except for Gracie's 3rd birthday which I will post next.
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| White Christmas! |
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| Palo Duro Canyons |
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| Me with Elissa's oldest, Hope for Sunny's birthday/shower |
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| Elissa's made-from-scratch cake, yum! |
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| Christmas pics at JW Marriot before our move. |
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| Coats ready for the Amarillo snow. |
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| Saying goodbye to Maliah |
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| First day in Amarillo |
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| Our tiny Christmas tree (it was all we could do since we had just moved and Billy had just had surgery) |
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| Girls - first thing Christmas morning |
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| Gracie could not stop eating snow |
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| SNOW FUN! |
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| beautiful Libby |
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| Precious Gracie |
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| Hiking in the Canyons...Someone's got some attitude! |
Billy and I participated in one of Trinity Fellowship's most important events of the year - Zion. The first four days of the year they have worship services to seek the Lord for the year ahead. Billy was introduced to the congregation and I had a chance to help lead worship. It was an exciting, exhausting, wonderful time.
It was the middle of January when I realized we had much further to go for Sunny's homecoming. It was a dark, tough day for me. In all, January is a blur to me. Unpacking, homeschooling, making new friends, adjusting to a new life style....what a month!
