Hopest of hopes

Merry Christmas, friends!!!!! It's hard to believe it's here again, but it is. Seems the years just travel around faster and faster... Sometimes that makes me sad. Forty years old and childless at Christmas. No children to teach about that babe in a manger, to go fill up boxes for Operation Christmas Child, to bake with... honestly, the baking is where I feel it the most. It probably sounds silly, but oh how I want to have a little one to teach and bake with.... to pass my recipes to. To teach our traditions - to create new traditions together. It's so hard! No doubt, I thought I'd have a little one or two by this Christmas... Milestones are so tough, but Christmas is still a joy!! IF cannot take that away because Christmas is bigger than IF. It's bigger than everything, really. Christmas is about that babe in a manger - why he came and what he did and who he is. So while there are some sad moments, I feel such joy as I think of our Savior in his swaddling cloths. Such hope he brought into the world that holiest of nights.... the hope that fills me still. Things are hard - things are so very hard, and we are not as strong as we thought we were, but that hope - that hopest of hopes - that hope is ours! That hope won't let us down - no matter what! May the peace that passes all understanding be yours this Christmas - and always. Merry Christmas!!!!