This little angel has been lighting up Christmas for as long as her presence in our life has been known. Even the year we were still anticipating her arrival was brighter and so blessed ... it's tender and tough to be without that same brightness.
Lauren loved to give gifts - she loved snow, lights, trees, the music, and the baby in the manger. Finding a list of 1000 things she loved about life, was grateful for, or made her happy - - I wasn't surprised to find out that many of them involved this time of year, as well as the life of that baby in the manger. Lauren just 'got it' . . .
On that same list of things was "having my missionary home for Christmas." Taylor did, in fact, return home in time for Christmas -- as did Sara last year and our season was tender and loving and happy, although not as we would have hoped for. This year, it is Lauren who is really home for Christmas and the tenderness goes beyond containable borders.
We hope for a Christmas like 1993 ... when the anticipation of time together will fill our hearts with "tidings of comfort and joy" unique to this season, the 'babe in the manger', and the precious gift of her life.
"May your days be Merry and Bright . . ."