(Note from Jeremy: My wonderful wife, Laura, wrote today’s blog as I was driving to our Christmas vacation. Merry Christmas to you and to your family!)

This week while many of you were probably busy preparing for Christmas, I was preparing for the arrival of that special child that Jeremy and I hope to adopt in 2014. We don’t know when our child will arrive, we don’t know when our child was born, we don’t even know if our child will be a boy or a girl, but we know a little one is coming that will turn our lives upside down… in a good way! And so there has been much to do. I’ve started evaluating how to make our home safe for a toddler (It’s likely our child will be 2-3 years old when they arrive). I’ve started contacting pediatricians, and asking advice from parents. But I had one task ahead of me that I have been dreading for years… cleaning up the bonus room. This is our room upstairs that we throw stuff in when we have guests coming for a visit and lack the time to discern whether to keep, toss, or donate. Nothing in that room was organized or neatly put away. I would be completely mortified if anyone was allowed to see this room.

Well, what would cause me to finally tackle this messy room of mine? A child! A child that needs room in my life. I have a vision that this messy room, once cleaned up, will serve has a perfect room for a child to run, jump and dance around in, to throw a ball, to build a grand Lego construction, to cozy up with Mommy and Daddy for story time. And so with this vision in mind, I dug in and got to work! I went through EVERYTHING in this room, and if you have ever tackled a project like this, you know it takes longer than you anticipate. The reason it takes so long is that this mess is full of memories. I found old photos, old letters, old newspaper clippings, my wedding dress, remnants from a scrapbook that I worked on with Jeremy’s mom, old plane ticket stubs from trips with Jeremy, notes from my first Caterpillar project, and many many books (someone really needs to introduce Jeremy to a library card). The work stopped many times to reminisce. It seemed appropriate to reflect on the great gifts I’ve been given as I was preparing for the next chapter in our lives. But as great as all those memories are, I think the best is yet to come.
So how is God calling you to prepare this Christmas? God might not be calling you to prepare an actual room, but is He calling you to make a different kind of room in your life? More time with Him? More time with your family? More room in your heart for a prodigal in your life? The smallest act is not in vain. Whatever it is, know that it is God’s grace that is giving you time to get your rooms in order, to get your heart and mind on track, to awaken you to how you can help redeem this world. Because someday our Lord will come again, and someday will be today!

Laura