Birthday Gift for Jesus!

Today we bought the Christmas present that was the most fun to give! It was a birthday present for Jesus. Since Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birthday, we decided we needed to figure out what he would want for a birthday present. We got this idea from author Ann Voskamp, you can check out her blog here (http://www.aholyexperience.com/ ).
While I enjoy getting gifts for the people I love more than you could possibly imagine and would never want to give that up, I LOVED the thought that we should be thinking about Jesus and what he would want us to be doing for his birthday.
So we decided that giving to those in need this year would be exactly what Jesus would want us to do. We decided to pick some things out of the Food for the Hungry gift catalog that would feed families living in poverty. We ended up buying some chickens and a fish farm that will feed families in need. Buying that gift for Jesus, that will help those who most need it, gave us such great joy!
We hope that the joy of giving far out weighs the joy of recieving for you this year as you celebrate Jesus birthday!!

Our Profile Book

Last Friday we turned in our Profile Book to the agency. This is the book that expectant mothers/parents will look at to choose a family for their baby. We put a lot of energy and love into this book. We wanted to make sure it sounded like us. And according to our family and friends we did it! Here is a little peek into some of the book.

The Front Cover

The "Max & Leslie Overview"

A page showing our love for family time & a page about our faith.

These pages talked about our home.

The back cover has an envelope with a personal letter we wrote to the birth family.

We started the profile book with a little note to the family on the first page. We talked about us as a couple and our interests. We each wrote a page describing each other. There was a page introducing and talking about each of our immediate families. We described our home and our business, which of course featured cute pics of the nursery! And there was a whole page showing our love of travel. It was a fun book to make and we know it is going to bring us to our baby. How exciting is that? The personal letter in the back explains our story to the birth family and tells them how much they mean to us. What an honor to write this letter to the Mom or family that will carry and give life to our baby! 
Now that we have turned our book in, we are ready to be picked. Which means we have reached the waiting process. I have to tell you, I don't feel anxious at all. I am just extremely at peace and know that when the time is right our baby will come to us. I am joyful and excited to be at this point and am more than ready to wait!
Since we started the adoption process this bible verse has stuck with us. We even included it in our profile book:
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
What comfort and peace this verse gives us & we hoped that it would give our future expectant mom peace and comfort too!
Bring on the wait...

Three Thanksgivings

This year we were blessed to have not one, not two, but THREE Thanksgivings! Thankfully we have mastered portion control or we would be in major trouble. :) We headed to Chamberlain the Tuesday before Thanksgiving! On Wednesday night (Thanksgiving Eve), we did a simple appetizer dinner. Taco dip, egg rolls, veggies, and dips. And of course, some cup cakes for dessert!

No Leiferman get togther is complete without some Yahtzee! Our first get together was with my Mom's side for lunch on Thanksgiving day. The meal was amazing!

We watched the parade togther!

Mollie got some extra attention during the parade.

It was over 70 degrees in Chamberlain that day! Insane for SD. We took advantage and worked on our tans all afternoon.

Randy & Brittany joined us later in the afternoon. Just in time to head to my Grandma's for the Dominiack Thanksgiving!

Aunt Donna, Morgan, & Mom ready to eat!

Makenzie & Chesney. Adorable!

Full and happy after an amazing meal!

The next day we had a Masters/Friman Thanksgiving at our house.

We had some VERY special guests at our house! The Masters' from Rockford came to Parker to spend the holiday weekend with us. We were so excited to have them here. We hope that they will come visit again soon. We also had the Pesicka family and Aunt Barb here too! It was a full & happy house!

Uncle Jack got to meet Gabe for the first time!

The Masters & Pesicka boys spent the day playing outside!

Family time!

Christian & Gabe were best buds.

Masters men relaxing.

Cousin Jack, Christian, & Aunt Barb.

Having good times!

They even got a tour of the Parker Fire Department.

We ended our finally Thanksgiving cuddling this little cutie. We loved having our nephew with us for the holiday weekend. Can you believe how adorable this little man is?

We hope you all had a wondeful Thanksgiving too!

We are truly blessed.

All Done!

Between Thanksgiving and getting sick this week, I got WAY behind on blogging. So much has been going on. We have LOTS to share with you. Our most exciting news is that we have finished our homestudy. We had our last visit on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We got the draft back on Wednesday and it should be approved at anytime now! So exciting.
We also ordered our profile books on Wednesday night. These are the books that the birth families use to pick out the family for their child! The books should get here between the 8th-14th of December. At that time we should be ready to be picked. We are amazed and excited to know that we are already at this point.
We could have a very long wait ahead of us or it could happen very fast. Either way we are just beyond excited to be at this point in the process. We know we have so many of you praying for us and we don't take it for granted. We are honored to know you keep us in your thoughts and prayers and we feel them every day. Prayer is so powerful and God is so good! We truly can't thank you all enough!