Christmas with the Hitchcocks

It's a wonderful annual tradition to visit with our friends Greg and Judy Hitchcock. The special bond we have with them goes back some time, beginning when we traveled together to Israel nearly ten years ago. Through the years, we followed another similar course though - and that is the journey of adoption.

Greg and Judy went in a different direction, though they did visit the same continent. Whereas we went to China, they went to Russia to adopt their children Abbie and Rachel.

Here they are, Abbie to the left and Rachel to the right. They've just opened some Christmas presents we've exchanged - dolls for everyone. We got the girls a Cinderella doll, and an Aurora doll, which both seemed to like. Cinderella kept losing her shoe - seriously. It must be some new feature on that one. Madison's doll was smarter: it actually says out loud which part of the body her hand happens to be over. "Those are my eyes," or "That is my ears," or "That is my pancreas."

Just kidding about the pancreas.

Seriously, it was great evening to be over at their house. The kids were having a great time, and when we plugged in Rolie Polie Olie's Christmas DVD, everyone settled down and we had a chance to talk a bit and catch up.

Although, I have to admit that as Mommy and Judy talked, Greg and I were quite interested in what Rolie Polie Olie was doing to help Santa!

The grown-ups exchanged gifts tonight as well, and it was nice to be with old friends again. Someday the girls will know how special their connection is, and how each was adopted. But for now, it was just fun seeing them race around the house together, seeing who could speed through the kitchen with their doll stroller the quickest!