Katy and I are in the middle of a pretty intense road trip. This past week has been a blur. We have had to wake up early on EVERY day save Wednesday. The beginning of the week was more of less relegated to shuttling our Japanese girls to the airport. We had a very early morning yesterday. If you recall, it was the day of my green-card interview. For all those of you who called to check in, thank you. For the others, here is a mini-update. The interview by itself went great. The questions were very simple and were more of less to corroborate the facts in the documents we had filed. However, when the interview was done, we were told that we had to wait for FBI clearance before a green card can get issued. As soon as both Katy and I raised our collective eye-brows (as you probably have/are), he explained that there might be a backlog in the FBI, plus the fact that we had our interview so soon could have something to do with it. The officer told us that he was approving us to get the greencard.   So all in all...pretty anti-climactic and so we now wait for the green card to arrive in our mail.
Meanwhile, while all that drama was going on, we got a call from the bank (when we got into our car after the interview). It was from the ATM division that suspected that something was not right with my debit card. They suspected that somebody had stolen my ID and were making online purchases. They were absolutely right, somebody did steal my information and did buy things and so I told them to cancel out my card and my account. I should be getting a new debit card in the mail but I was absolutely impressed at how clever the fraud division really is. It didn't take too long for them to figure out what did not add up and they voided all the transactions. I am still trying to figure out where exactly my info was stolen.. but also how exactly the fraud division picked up on it. Quite impressive on both counts. Way to go Macatawa Bank!
Katy's sister Amy and her boyfriend were en route to Michigan from Seattle for Christmas and unfortunately, they got stranded in Las Vegas. We were supposed to do another early morning today to pick them up but instead we ended up having to look for plane tickets and other options. It was another circus of a day. We did figure everything out.. Amy and Kyle should be arriving tomorrow.. Katy's brother Ben and his wife Heather will be picking them up in Detroit and driving them up here to Glen Lake.
And finally, the last part of our road trip begins on the 27th. Katy and I head down to Holland and meet up with a group of Hope College students and we head down to St. Louis for Urbana (one of the largest mission conferences for college kids in the world). It should be fun but also a recipe for plenty of adventures!:)
So here I sit, next to a Christmas tree in this warm Wing household typing up my blog! Life does get crazy but thank God for moments like this. I can smell dinner cooking, cookies that will be baked tomorrow and the warmth of family. I hope we can slow the next couple of days down. I wonder if there is a little "time-freezer" for me under the tree this year! We love you wherever you are today.. Stay warm and I hope you feel loved in a special way.

Well, JP and I lit our first fire in the wood stove last night, as temperatures dipped and the first big storm of the season brewed outside.  All of the wood-splitting on Saturday really paid off, and we had quite a charming little fire.  Even now our living room has the slight scent of wood smoke, making me feel like it is really winter, and I should be making Christmas Cookies and Chex Mix.  Soon, soon.

We got the wood taken care of over the Thanksgiving weekend, and that was good, but I was even more excited that JP and my dad got our bird feeder set up in the back yard.  I just LOVE the bird feeder.  It was a Christmas gift from my dad last year, modeled after the one he has up in his backyard.  It looks kind of like a house with an attached open-air garage.  The house part is where the bird seed is stored, spilling out under the covered garage, and that is where the birds eat.  We always had bird feeders while I was a kid, and so I grew to love watching the birds with all of their colorful diversity, and their funny little personalities... that is, if birds have personalities... maybe I should say 'birdalities."  Anyway, our bird feeder had a slow year at our last house, and so I was delighted that within hours of having the feeder up an running, we began to see birds, and not just sparrows, but colorful exciting birds, along with the faithful sparrows.  So far we've seen:  sparrows, grackles, nuthatches, golden finches, purple finches, cardinals, blue jays, two varieties of woodpeckers, and my very favorite, the chickadee.  It is so fantastic.  The feeder is perfectly centered outside our kitchen windows, and so it is great to look out there as I'm baking and cooking, or as I'm making the morning coffee, or for JP, as he does the dishes.  I tell you, it is way better than TV. 

God, thank you for the birds.