tis the season

christmas has brought so many new and exicting things this year. an end to a WONDERFUL semester, a new family member, lots of friends, and new places to visit. i have been so blessed by the many wonderful people i can be around. it is the best season for getting together, christmas parties, and time to embrace the birth of Jesus.

this is my family in china! macie is our new cousin! aunt anne and uncle mike went with my cousins to bring home a new donohue. she is so sweet. it is such a blessing and such a ministry. God was a father to the orphans, and calls us to be one too. that is their heart behind this adoption. beautiful.

                                                

i stole a lot of pictures from julia.  she threw a christmas party with my friend jane this week. 

so great to see friends from school.  reminded me of phil 1:3 "i thank my God every time i remember you..."

 

 love SP.

a christmas story

hmm. what a day to start a blog. i'm hoping that one day all of these little moments will turn into a book. we'll see. anyways, yesterday as i was driving home from richmond, which is one of my new favorite places, i listened to a sermon on daniel 2. it was about king nebuchadnezzar's dream, which actually prophesied Jesus' birth. it says "in the time of those kings (meaning Herod), the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. it will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. this is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands.."verses 44-45. this rock being cut out of the mountain meant Jesus, and when Jesus was born, he started a kingdom that will never end, heaven. how cool that nebuchadnezzar, someone who hated God, would have a dream that signified Jesus' birth, and a kingdom that could not be set up by human hands, because God created it. who would have thought daniel 2 was a christmas story... not me!