Merry Christmas!

We hope this letter finds you all well and thriving, and enjoying your holidays. We wanted to send a family newsletter this year and let our friends and family know what’s been going on in our world.
2010 has been quite a year for Chris and I. We both had big changes on the job front. After working in a very stressful environment for several years, I was happy to quit my job as the operations manager for a government contracting firm in February to be a homemaker, and to get our house ready to be put on the market. Chris left his position (in the same company) as a program director a couple months later - and is now happy in his new job as an instructor and course developer at the Defense Cyber Investigations Training Academy. He has always enjoyed teaching, and especially appreciates having every other Monday off! He has been honored by being asked to teach several classes at a special government training conference in January, since he is considered a subject matter expert in several very specialized fields. We’re both very happy in our new jobs.

We listed our house in July, but unfortunately didn’t have any success selling in this sluggish market. Our next goal is to get the house rented, and we hope to start that process in the next week or so.

On a more exciting note, one of the reasons for selling the house is the news that Chris and I have decided to adopt. Our decision last year to start the process led us to attempt to sell the house and then rent a small apartment, to start putting money aside for what is a pretty expensive undertaking. In the middle of trying to sell the house, realizing the market isn’t improving, and then trying to make alternate plans, we received news from a friend that there was an adoption situation in my home state of Louisiana. After a lot of thought and prayer, we are happy to announce that we are adopting a baby, due in April 2011!!!

Obviously, we are ecstatic! We have been hoping to be parents for quite a few years now, and are excited at finally having the opportunity. We should even find out in the next few weeks if it’s a boy or a girl. It’s such a surprise - a 2-3 year wait is typical with adoption, and we feel very blessed to have things happen so quickly.

Unfortunately, the suddenness of all of this leaves us with quite a large amount of money (close to $30,000) to come up with by the time the baby is born. We have plans to set aside our tax refunds, sell any furniture and tools that we won’t need in our rental apartment, as well as selling our old truck and anything else we won’t need while living in an apartment. We would appreciate your prayers for our success in this new chapter in our lives, and we’re looking forward to introducing you to the newest member of our family. If you’d like to follow our story you can visit us at http://houseofscott.blogspot.com/ to see updates on the adoption process and pictures of our house and life as we know it, for now.

We know that 2011 will bring many exciting changes, and we can’t wait to see what God has in store for us. May you have a wonderful, blessed Christmas season and a joyful New Year!

Love,

Christian & Sarah

So there you have it :). Our big news is BIG. And we are so very excited to become parents soon! We're hoping to find out the sex of the baby in just a couple of weeks - hopefully right after the New Year.

Don't worry, I'll definitely be letting everyone know when we find out!