Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Merry Christmas! We are wrapping up 2007 with thankful hearts for all the many ways, both big and small, that Jesus has loved on us. It has been a year of blessing, of growth, of provision, of waiting, a year of hope. Our Savior is truly our Emmanuel - God with us! He does not leave us on our own to figure things out. He loving and faithfully guides us, nudges us, sometimes pushes us...to grow and trust in Him, and not in ourselves or our understanding of things. He proves Himself with unexpected blessings, with daily provisions, and with sustaining us and teaching us in the difficult and, at times, disappointing times. Our faith in Him has been tested and strengthened this year!

We have traveled the world this year! Christiaan and Kristina had an amazing opportunity to travel to Israel with our church during the spring. (Christiaan's parents came from Holland to babysit!) The four of us were able to spend three weeks in Holland in August, reconnecting with all of Christiaan's immediate family. Then, in November, a special family from our church blessed us with a free 7-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera, for all four us! Our passports have certainly been well-used this year! Scroll down the blog for more pictures and stories.

Our big news is that we are currently a "waiting family", waiting to adopt a baby! We are with a non-profit adoption agency - Independent Adoption Center, or IAC - and plan to adopt within the U.S. We have completed all of our paperwork and requirements and could receive news at any time! We are so excited to bring a new child into our family, another hand to hold.

Our adoption website is: www.christiaanandkristina.com.

Christiaan continues to enjoy his work at Cornerstone Fellowship as the Director of Children's Ministry. He also enjoys working on computers and staying up-to-date on the latest technology. He's looking forward to becoming a new dad again!

Kristina spends her time as a stay-at-home mom and a part-time piano teacher. She has stepped down from doing music for the women's ministry at church, in preparation for our new baby, but still occasionally participates in the weekend services' music. Both kids are in school now, but it's still amazing how busy life has stayed!

Mariana just turned 8 in December. She is in 2nd grade at Valley Christian. She loves school and is becoming an expert reader. Her favorite subjects are science, math, art, music, and reading (I told you she loves school!). Mariana loves Jesus and knows that He loves her! She started piano lessons this past fall, and loves it. So far it's working out to have her mother as her teacher. We are embarking on our orthodontics adventure (yikes!). In January, she will have four teeth pulled, the first set of several. It's a bummer when both your parents needed lots of work done on their teeth.

Jack celebrated his sixth birthday in Holland and started Kindergarten at Valley in September. He loves school, too! He is a hard-worker and is so proud of the assignments he brings home. He loves transformers and all kinds of action figures. Jack is learning to pray and loves learning about the Bible.

That's us in a nutshell! We pray that you might experience the true Joy of the season, the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the reason we celebrate at this time of year!

Come, let us adore Him,
Christiaan, Kristina, Mariana and Jack

Jack's Christmas Program

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Christmas Recital

Kristina's students performed at the annual Christmas Piano Recital. First year performer: Mariana!

Santa...revealed.

Friday morning I went to wake Mariana up for school. Usually she "mm-hmm's" me until I come back again five minutes later, when it's time for her to really get up. This time, however, she immediately launched into the question, "Mom, is Santa Claus real? And I WANT THE TRUTH."

I knew this was coming. She has been pondering this question for weeks now, and I'd been able to evade the question thus far. I had even wrapped a few gifts from Christiaan and me, purposely, so she would know that we give her and Jack presents, and then I was planning on putting out a few more for Christmas morning from Santa. (Disclaimer: we teach our kids the REAL meaning of Christmas - Jesus becoming a human, coming in the form of a baby, a Gift to us, which is why we exchange gifts. We hang stockings and enjoy pretending Santa comes, too. For fun.)

So, back to her question. I didn't want to lie. She had successful phrased the question in a way that pinned me to the wall. I told her I'd be right back. I ran down the hall to Christiaan and was like, "What do I tell her?" He said, "Tell her, 'Santa is fun!'" I told him, "She's not going to buy it. She's been thinking way too hard on this!"

I went back to her room and told her the truth. Santa was real. But not anymore. We have fun pretending he comes. She guessed, "But the presents are really from you and Papa?" I had to admit, "yes." "I KNEW IT!" she exclaimed.

Then we had a nice heart-to-heart where I threatened her that she would not get any of those extra presents if A) She went looking for the presents, or B) She told Jack. I think the threatening worked! :)

Now we have to keep the dream of the toothfairy alive...

Mariana's 8th Birthday!
Our little girl is growing up -- fast! She loves Jesus, is becoming an accomplished reader, still loves school, is learning to play the piano, and has big teeth coming in. Boy, that changes her look!





We started her birthday celebration last Saturday (Dec.1)with a trip to see the movie "Enchanted" and ice cream with Chloe Sylvester, her friend from church. Cute movie!





















Then our neighbor, Christina, and her mom, Pat, took Mariana for lunch and birthday shopping on Sunday.

Mariana's birthday was on Tuesday, December 4th. We started the morning by waking her up with 8 roses...8 roses for Mariana Rose! OK, actually she was so excited that she woke up 20 minutes before I usually wake her up on school days, and I had to send her back to bed so I could "wake her up". Grandpa Bakker stopped by to wish her a Happy Birthday and Grandma and Opa called.

Good morning, birthday girl!

We had baked special cupcakes for her class. She even said a speech to her class. She has to do one per quarter. Her speech was on Maebe, our Boxer. She did a great job. She got to wear a golden crown and the class sang to her and prayed a special prayer for her.







For our finale -- the one with opening presents and cake, we had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner with the Esmeyer family (Grandpa and Grandma had to go to a class and came over on Thursday instead).

Oh yeah, got money to burn!

Music box from Opa and Oma

Pretty cake

New ugg slippers

Oh, brother!

We love you, Mariana!

Family Vacation November 2007

Our family was given an ENORMOUS BLESSING by some friends - a 7-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera for the four of us! We were blown away! And, of course, we accepted!

Christiaan and I had been on a cruise before, but the kids hadn't. Jack was so cute when we told them about the trip -- he said we should take our fishing poles along, since we were going to be on a boat, and all. We looked up lots of pictures on the internet to help them get a concept of how huge the ship would be...all the pools, food, etc...he didn't bring up fishing again.

We sailed on the Golden Princess, of the Princess Cruise Line. Beautiful. It was SO much fun! We did a whole lot of...nothing! Nothing besides eating, resting, swimming, eating, playing games, eating. You get the picture.

The weather was hot, and so beautiful. That was such a treat! So every afternoon we would hang out poolside with the kids. Nice to maintain a little of what was left of our tans.

We thank God for this unexpected blessing. He is our Provider, and He loves us so much. To give us this treat, not because of anything we did or earned. He just loves us.

Checking out the port as we leaveFather/daughter dessert on the balcony right before dinner - not bad!

Riding the shuttle to go walk around Mazatlan

Check out the name on this boat we saw...same spelling, too!Swimming...obviously

Fun in the sun at Cabo San Lucas

Shopping for stuff

What a long day!

Thanksgiving 2007

We give thanks that we were able to be together with the Bakker family, minus the Stirlings :(. We all gathered at Dan and Crystal's house. We had a great time hanging out, playing games, eating, sharing, holding babies, laughing and joking around! "Scattergories" was our adult game of choice. The kids enjoyed Jr. Monopoly and Zingo.











We thank God for our family! We thank God for His mercy, His goodness and faithfulness. We thank God for His love on our family, that we all share in His salvation and can share in the work that He is doing in our lives.
One of our favorite new traditions is after our delicious Thanksgiving meals (with Dan as master chef), we each write down 2-3 things we are especially thankful for. Then we go around and share those things. The kids are definitely included in this. It is such a sweet time. Crystal, who started this tradition, has kept our cards from previous years, and place them all at our place settings, so we can look back and remember what God has done and the things we were thankful for in previous years. What a blessing!

Since we will not all be together for Christmas, we wrapped up the weekend with "Christmas". So everyone got to open a gift. No complaints for that!




Dan, Jordan and their babies: Owen, 15 months and Morgan, 10 months

Playing at the park
Jack and Andrew

Uncle Jordan giving the kids a whirl

Christiaan doing uncle duty with Morgan

Owen and Morgan

"I love my pretty mommy!"

Dan and Crystal - still cuddly after hosting 14 people for three days!

First Day of School

School started TWO DAYS after we got back from Holland, and the kids did GREAT! Now they are both at Valley Christian School. Jack is in Kindergarten, and Mariana is in 2nd grade.

Jack got Mrs. Bennett as his teacher, and we are so excited because she taught Mariana in Kindergarten, and we love her! Mariana's teacher is Mrs. Handy, and she is awesome! Both kids were excited about school and ready to go (phew!).

Off he goes!

Does this kid look nervous about starting school???











Getting all of Mariana's supplies unloaded and ready to go. 2nd Grade has a lot more to keep track of than 1st grade!

Mariana and Jack's 1st chapel dress day (Friday). You can tell they have perfected that "natural" smile!

A Visit from Friends

We had a special visit from Kristina's college roommate, Tracey, and her family over Labor Day weekend. Tracey and her husband, Sam, and their two kids, Caleb (8) and Ema (5). Tracey is Kristina's bosom friend from their days at The Master's College. They are missionaries to Portugal. We hadn't seen each other for six years! So it was a sweet visit - a chance to catch up, share ministry and Europe experiences, and see each other's school-aged kids.

All of our kids -- from left, Jack, Mariana, Ema and Caleb

Both families

Holland Trip -
Part 3
Jack's Birthday

We started out Jack's birthday with opening presents from Opa and Oma and one we brought from home. He scored on an awesome playmobil castle, complete with knights, horses, and weapons













We had fun assembling all the parts, and Mariana even got a present.



Later in the afternoon, we went to Jacoline and Paul's house for a kids' party. Our cousin Sam's birthday is a week after Jack's, so we had a joint party with other friends and relatives, and then a BBQ. Thank you, Paul and Jacoline!









Christiaan and Jacoline







Jack and Maurice (Paul's nephew). A bonus -- Maurice speaks English!!

The cakes - straight from a real Dutch bakery - #6 for Jack, #7 for Sam. They were delicious cake, fresh fruit filling, and loads of real whipped cream on top, and, as you can see, lots of goodies on top. YUM.

Sam's ready to blow out her candles!

Opening presents in Jacoline's living room. Oma is in the middle by Maurice, and Paul's sister, Patricia is on the righthand side, holding Lies.




Paul, the muscle man and master bbq-er!