Remembering

I love home. There is always something so nice about pulling into the driveway and walking into your home. Not the house but the home. Houses are full of furniture and stuff and homes are full of memories. Christmas time certainly fills the home with lots of memories to me even though this year will actually be the first time we'll spend Christmas morning in our own house( and I am SOO excited about that by the way). Every year as I pull out the Christmas decorations I think back on Christmas' past for us and back to the very first Christmas when God came to earth in the form of a little baby.

This year I've taken special notice of what's around our house. And from obvious messages...like the nativity set sitting on our foyer table to little things that only hold special meaning to us... I just love how Christmas time fills the home with memories and especially those of the great gift of God's son.

We aren't overly sentimental but we do tend to fill our home with memories all year long... more pictures than artwork, trinkets from traveled places, or gifts given to us from special people...and now I love how our home is filled with little and big reminders of the blessing of Cohen in our lives. When we were pregnant with him we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to pay tribute to him and his life in our home without it feeling like like a shrine or overpowering. We did little things... like put up his ultrasound pictures in a frame and bought a box to keep all of the letters people sent us and later the notes people wrote and his concert. Our dear, dear friends threw us a shower and people showered us with gifts for Cohen and for us.. things to remember him by( shadow box, poems, a painting etc.), fun outings to do with Cort ( like zoo memberships or monkey joe parties) , pamperings ( like massages and salon gift card), sweet gifts for him to use during his moments with us(gowns, rattles, etc.). Those things fill our hearts and our home.
As I took out Christmas stuff this year it reminded me of these things as there were some things gifted to us last year at Christmas in that same spirit. I wanted to document some of the things that fill our house as a reminder of one of the great blessings God has bestowed to us in our life. A reminder of His love for us and the grace He extends to us daily....A reminder of the miracle...

Cohen's ultrasound pics and an angel of hope gifted to us...

A sweet sweet ornament given to us last year by a friend of my sister...


An ornament made by the Burn's - Molly makes these ornaments every year and we have ones from every year of our marriage and she gave us this before Cohen was born... not knowing if we would really get to hang it as his First Christmas ornament....by far my favorite ornament we hung this year!!!

Cohen's box with letters and words of prayer....
A painting given to us at Cohen's shower with symbolic meaning of our family and God.....( this picture doesn't do it justice and I'll have to do a whole post on this one day about it's meaning - it's AWESOME)


The frame given to us by the church staff when Cohen was born.... so so sweet....
I am humbled daily as I scoop my sweet baby out of his crib knowing full well that I don't deserve him. And am beyond humbled that God sent His own Son for me... that He suffered in unimaginable ways for a sinner like me. That Jesus stepped out of His comfort zone and rightful place beside our Father and came to earth by very humble means and put on our flesh so that we might live eternally...

what a Gift.....

...we are beyond grateful and thrilled to be celebrating Christmas with Cohen in our home this year and the gift of his life is unbelievable to us however, that Gift God send many years ago to a little stable in a small town of Bethlehem is what our hearts really rejoice over this Christmas and all year long...

...praying you all know that Gift this Christmas. Merry Christmas to all of you!!!