A little this...a little that...

I was trying to remember where I left off at my last post, as so much as happened between now and then. So I thought I'd just share a little of this and a little of that.

1. Maggie's CPS caseworker came by for a visit on Monday afternoon. He was not even aware of the visit that took place on Saturday (are you kidding me?!) and he apologized with how everything was handled. He documented everything that had been happening with Maggie and assured me that he would take care of this never happening again. He dropped off some Christmas presents for Maggie and went on his way.

2. Maggie continued to have nightmares and attachment issues through Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve night was the first night that she slept through the night without nightmares. We don't believe this was a coincidence. We have been praying for so long to be able to give Maggie a wonderful Christmas, as we were fairly certain she had not experienced this in the past. She went down at 9pm and didn't wake up until 9am Christmas morning. Thank you, Lord.

3. Michael & I embarked on our first, I'm sure of many, assembly projects Christmas Eve. It all started with 2 very long flat boxes.....that 5 hours later became this....

Thankfully this marathon was playing for 24 hours, since we didn't finish until 3:49am.
4. We had a wonderful 1st Christmas with Maggie. She was a bit overwhelmed at it all. We did not put the presents out until Christmas morning, since she would have no doubt, opened them all up before Christmas. She walked in to find this.
She loved everything...her kitchen, her books, Dora DVDs, clothes, toys, baby doll clothes and her Magna Doodle. She hasn't stopped playing with any of it.

The aftermath of Hurricane Maggie (aka Christmas Day presents)5. Later that afternoon, we joined the whole Crews clan for our family Christmas @ my brother and sister in law's house. There are 20 of us now(7 kiddos - 6 girls, 1 boy with 5 under the age of 6!)....can you tell from all the presents?
A great time was had by all! The kids always have so much being with all their cousins.

6) Momma has been busy trying to organize Maggie's play room. I sure am glad that I decided to transform our dining room into Maggie's play room a while back, otherwise, we'd be in trouble! I'll have to post before and after pics soon...I'm still working on it. Now, not so sure how long it will stay organized, but Maggie is good about putting things back in the right bucket/basket, etc. A girl after my own heart :)

7) I have watched more Dora the Explorer in the past few days than I have in the past 6 months.

8) I have been overly emotional this past week. I know alot of it has to do with all the events of last week, but I also think it's just part of being a Momma. Christmas took on a whole new meaning for me this year. This was our first Christmas morning as parents. We had a little girl sleeping in the other room....and we were going to be making such sweet memories with her. It was like experiencing Christmas for the first time. Every tradition took on a new meaning. It was just so neat to watch her experience opening up the presents and enjoying each new little toy with wild wonderment. She was so happy and playful and loving. Giving out tons of kisses and hugs. I sat back and found myself just staring at her, so curious as to what was going through her little mind. I loved watching her figure out the Magna Doodle and get so excited when she figured out she could erase what she drew. I loved seeing her push her baby in the stroller and the shopping cart, and trying to figure out which one to push next. I loved watching her play with her remote control puppy and getting so tickled with she barked and rolled over for her. I loved seeing Maggie read through her new books and want to play with her musical instruments (yes, we got her a tambourine and a recorder! crazy parents :) I watched as she explored her new kitchen, figuring out all the gadgets and amazed at how smart she already is (I'd like to think that we had a little to do with that :)

Most of all, I was thankful for the wonderful blessing that God has given to us in Maggie Joy. As we said on our Christmas card this year....

Last year's hope...this year's miracle!