My favorite Christmas gift. . .ever!

Just before Christmas 2010 we were still searching for "home." We had been searching and dreaming of this place called, "Home," for such a long time. I never could quite imagine what it looked like, but I kept saying to myself. . ."you'll know it when you see it."

Kinda like love. . .you'll know it when you find it.

Kinda like going into labor. . .you'll know when it's the real thing.

Sitting side by side with my husband on the couch, we were both on laptops
still searching for this place. . .Home.

Farmboy saw it first. . .

(If you have never read his version of the story you really need to check it out here.)

This was both of ours first view of Home.

We both knew it when we saw it. . . it was the real thing.

On January 7, 2011 we stepped out of the car and onto the ground that would be Home.

In about one month we will move into this place called Home. 

We have been waiting and dreaming and sighing. . .Home.

Finally.

This brings me to the part of my favorite Christmas gift. . .ever! In our family we draw names each year. My brother and his wife decreed that they needed to draw us this year. . .they decreed it with a smug smirk. . .like they were up to something.

On Christmas day, standing in the kitchen of my mom's house, I was handed a wrapped gift. 

I took off the paper. I took off the cover. I cried a little.

They had had a friend of theirs paint this picture for us. . .our first glimpse of. . .

Home.