Light in the Darkness

Along with all the joy and wonder of Christmas this year we also had our share of sadness. We lost my cousin Patrick on December 23rd. We spent the week after Christmas in Illinois with my Aunt Susie and Uncle Terry and my cousin's son John Michael. Even in the sadness, there was a light in the darkness. The light of Jesus and the hope he brought when he died for all of us on the cross. We could rejoice in knowing that there is much more than this life here. This life here can sometimes be full of pain, heartache, and struggles. But if we cling to Christ and put our trust in him we can have hope.
I got to read the following verses at the funeral:

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

New International Version (NIV)

¹³ Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. ¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

 

The message at the funeral was a message of hope. That God loves you, that he doesn't make bad things happen but he does allow them to happen for purposes beyond our understanding, and that if we place our hope in him we get to spend eternity with him. How amazing is that?

Even through the sadness, the time my family got to spend together last week was another huge blessing. I was continually stopped by the realization of how lucky I am to be a part of the families I was born into & married into. God has been so good to me and I will give him thanks in all things, good & bad.

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas! We got to spend lots of time with both of our families and enjoyed just getting wrapped up in all the joy & wonder that Christmas brings!

Enjoying our time together.

My parents gorgeous tree on Christmas Eve.

Watching Christmas movies after Church on Christmas Eve.

Game time!

Aunt Carol & Ryan opening gifts.

Christmas Morning

The guys loving their gifts!

Me & my beautiful Mom.

Gabe meeting some cousins!

Gabe with Grandpa & Max

Merry Christmas

Loving his new present!

Checking out his new puppy from Grandma & Grandpa!

Just cute!

More cuteness!

Our Christmas Dinner

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by the ones you love. 

Christmas At the Capital

December was full and busy this year, but in a good way! Needless to say, I got behind on blogging. So now it time to play catch up...

Growing up one of our family traditions was to go to Pierre for "Christmas at the Capital". We would go look at all of the beautiful trees and then get our Christmas shopping done. As kids, my brother and I looked forward to it and always had so much fun. It is still one of my favorite things to do at Christmas and we can't wait to take our children someday!

I absolutely LOVE this sign. How blessed we are that "love came down" on Christmas day!

Mom & Dad

The "Prince & Princess" Table

One of our favorite trees was based on "The Chronicles of Narnia".

Looking down from a balcony at all the beauty.

It is just breath taking...

It was an unusual 50+ degree day in South Dakota! We were able to spend some time at the Veterans Memorials without our coats!

I am thankful for family traditions, the beauty of Christmas, and for the love that came down on Christmas day! 

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!