As I sit here and type this, another bustling family Christmas surrounds me. I think back over the course of this last year, and I am amazed at just how far we’ve come. The last year has been difficult, but we have also learned so much. There are so many things I am grateful and thankful for as I enter into 2017.

Our last year in review:

• Our first home study was finalized
• Our adoption profile was shown to two expectant mothers
• We’ve read, absorbed, and taken in as much adoption education as possible
• We took a road trip down to Nashville, Tennessee and Birmingham, Alabama
• I started to work on my Master’s degree (it will be a slow process)
• Eli took another one of his amazing canoe trips up in Canada (it was a walleye jackpot!)
• Our faith has strengthened and grown beyond our wildest dreams
• We are closer than we ever thought we could be

On this eve of the New Year I’m feeling many different emotions and feelings. I’d love to try to describe exactly what I am feeling, but it’s hard to put it into words. It’s a lot of excitement, gratitude, a tinge of sadness, but hope for what is to come. Here is to a wonderful, hopeful, and simplex 2017. Happy New Years to all!

~Chelsea