Perhaps one of the sweetest things I've ever seen...

Every year the five cousins put on a Christmas play retelling the Christmas story in a creative way. Over the years the play has taken on a life of its own. The kids start writing the script and practicing in the summer and planning with a fury. Every year it gets better, with the addition of new costumes, props and sets. The laughter of the audience has changed from laughing at how cute the funny little kids are to how funny and talented their growing senses of humor are.

This year we added the twins to our family, (Danny's sister's family adopted deaf twin 3 year olds from the Philippines this summer) which added a new dimension to the play. They don't know a lot of sign language yet, although they are learning like crazy so the kids didn't want to sign the whole play but they wanted to find a way to include the twins in the play somehow. So, they added them briefly to a couple of scenes (they were slaves sold in the marketplace) and they signed a couple of songs in the play.

During the signing (and yes, I spelled that correctly) of the song O Holy Night (my favorite Christmas song) the twins watched with great attention and then Emily started joining in, copying all the signs that the big kids were doing. There was not a dry eye in the audience (which consisted of us, LaNae & Roland, my parents and Danny's parents). It was such a sweet thing and the big kids loved watching them from the "stage" even though the twins totally stole the attention. I included a short video of this part because it was so cute. The best part is when Emily tries to get Ashley to join in too.

Watching a little girl signing the Christmas story (a story she may never have heard if not for adoption) for the first time in a language she might never have learned if she hadn't been adopted by a family that knows sign language just reaffirmed my excitement in the process we are going through right now. I'm praying that next Christmas there are two more new little people watching that play and seeing the story of Jesus' birth played out in front of them.