Merry Christmas & T-shirts

I know I'm about five days late but I wanted to share with everyone about our Christmas and the progress of our adoption. This was the year to spend Christmas with Meghan's family so the plan was to drive out to Colorado (a long 15+ hour drive if we didn't stop). The week of, Meghan and my mom were both getting pretty scared because there was a huge storm supposed to hit New Mexico and Colorado the day we were leaving and we were planning to drive our little Honda Civic. Fortunately, we got a call at about 7:30pm the night before we were leaving and some family friends decided that they wanted to fly us out so we wouldn't have to waste two or more days driving and would be a lot safer. We were pretty ecstatic and gladly accepted the free plane tickets. Turns out it was even a bigger blessing than we thought as some friends driving to New Mexico got stuck along the same route we were planning to drive and had to wait a day until the roads reopened.

We had an amazing time with Meg's siblings, just hanging out for a week. Christmas was a blast and Meg and I both agree that it was the best vacation we have probably had since we've been married. Cameron and Ellie got us this really cool little globe bank that would could use to continue saving up for adoption.
One of the other ways we plan to save up is by selling some shirts that we made. Meghan drew out the design by hand of Africa and I think they came out pretty cool. We are selling them for $20, so let me know if you want one. As you probably know or have guessed adoption is pretty expensive so every little bit helps. We have been so blessed to have so many friends and family that are supporting us through this.  If you feel really generous your welcome the adoption agency we are using has a place on their website where you can give directly to them and designate it to us. I put up a link on the main page of this blog that you can click and it will take you directly to it. Just make sure you select the 'Eternal Family Program' from the designation drop down menu and then write "For Brandon and Meghan Southall" in the notes section at the bottom. I believe that this may be a tax deductible donation as America World Adoption is a non-profit 501c3 (you may want to double check with someone before claiming though).

As of right now we have finished all of our paperwork and we are in the process of getting certified by the state of Arizona. We should be certified sometime in January, which then allows our family coordinator to finalize the paperwork to send to Ethiopia. We know that we are still a long ways out (we really have no idea of how long), but our excitement grows with each completed step. Please continue to pray for us and that God would bring us the perfect child in his timing. We appreciate all of you who have and continue to pray for us and those that decide to help out financially. God has blessed us with this opportunity and continues to reveal himself to us in new ways each day as we embark on this process.

Here are the pictures of us and some of our family in the shirts.