Merry Christmas

Isaiah 9:6

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, And he will be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

This year Christmas has even more significance to us. As we think upon what God has done for us in sending his one and only Son to be our Savior from sin. We look at our little girls and praise God for his amazing grace. Praise the Lord for his kindness, mercy, and grace in sending undeserving sinners Jesus to save us from our sins!

It has been a very busy 11 days with Adelain and McKinley. We have stayed with them in the NICU since they have been here. We are currently staying in the same room as them which makes for little sleep with all the beeping machines. We feel blessed to be able to stay with them though. They are in the "growing and eating" stage which means they need to continue to gain weight and do all their feedings without the feeding tube. Adelain started out as our eater and was very good at sucking. Now McKinley has taken over the eating and has been doing really well and almost eating all her meals without the tube. Adelain doesn't seem to be as hungry and eats only half her bottle before she is exhausted. She then gets the rest fed through her tube. She is still a lot smaller however she has moved to the 4 pound club with her sister!

Clay and I continue to learn how to care for our girls. Clayton has mastered the diapering and continues to enjoy them laying on his chest after they eat. Besides diapering, we get their bottles ready, bathe them, comfort them when they cry, and ask the nurses a lot of questions.

We have enjoyed getting to know our girls and their personalities. They continue to amaze us and we can't wait to bring them home! Home..... it has been 4 weeks since we have slept at our place! The doctors say that this is the boring stage- waiting for them as they "grow and eat." We think that they will be going home some time next week.

We are so thankful for our families and how they blessed us this Christmas. Grandma Mankin, Sara, Micah, Rylan, and Madisyn came to the hospital on Christmas eve. We enjoyed our traditional meal of soups in the lobby. Christmas day we traveled to Aurora for the Christmas dinner with 24 of the Mankins. We enjoyed our time even though it was short. Christmas eve supper consisted of peanut butter toast and popcorn as we watched a movie in our hospital room. Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa Jones, Zach, Megan, Conrad, Izzy, Amelia (born 6 hrs after our girls), Michala, Jared, Kai, and Julia came to Grand Island. We hung out at the Holiday Inn down the street in between feedings. We had a great time with them and look forward to being able to enjoy family more when we can take our girls with us places.

Clay had his holiday basketball tournament in Dodge where they went 1-1. He has been busy traveling back and forth but we are so thankful that it is Christmas break and he isn't as busy as he could be. He starts teaching again on Tuesday and we are really hoping that we can be home soon after that.

Please continue to pray for all of us. It has been really overwhelming but we know that each day we must trust in God for the strength for that day.

Clay, Erin, Adelain, McKinley Mankin