Countdown to Christmas Ornament: The Christmas House

Today’s movie premiere is The Christmas House. Working through some difficult decisions, Mitchell family matriarch Phylis and patriarch Bill, have summoned their two grown sons, Mike and Brandon, home for the holidays. It is their hope that bringing the family together to recreate the Christmas house, will help them find resolution and make a memorable holiday for the entire family and community.

The theme for today’s ornament was an absolute no-brainer for me, because adoption holds an incredibly special place in my heart. As some of you know, in 2017, we traveled to China to adopt our second son, who was 10 at the time. He has completed our family perfectly, and I can’t begin to tell you all of the blessings we have seen as a result of the decision to adopt.

If you’d like to read more about our family’s story, check out this post. It is a beautiful, tragic, terrifying, rewarding, amazing adventure to bring a child into your family who was born to someone else, and I will always take every opportunity I get to raise awareness for the many children who are waiting for their forever families.

ADOPTION SYMBOLS ORNAMENT

To create this ornament, I combined two symbols of adoption: the intertwined heart/triangle, and the red thread.

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WHY AN INTERTWINED HEART AND A TRIANGLE?

The Birth Family, the Adoptive Family and the Adoptee each represent one side of the triangle and the heart represents love that holds them all together.

WHY A RED THREAD?

There is a Chinese proverb that is well-known throughout the adoption community…it goes like this:

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.

I love that thought, and I truly believe that we and were connected to our son long before he came home with us. Our journey together began before we even knew this child existed. Perhaps it began when hubby and I had our first date at a Chinese restaurant. Maybe when he proposed to me using a fortune cookie. It’s no coincidence that the very month and year we decided we wanted to start trying to have a child {although Little Crafter didn’t come along until the following year} is the month and year “Scout” was born. We believe that God planned all along for his story and our story to become one, and the red thread reminds us of that plan that is bigger than all of us.

Here’s how to create the ornament.

You’ll need:

a fillable plastic ornament (mine are these 60mm ones from Amazon)

red string, thread, or ribbon

white paint marker

scissors

Step 1: Cut a long piece of red ribbon/string/thread and place it inside the ornament.

Step 2: Use a paint pen to draw the intertwined heart/triangle on the front of the ornament.

I also chose to write the word “forever” below the symbol. Since it is so very personal to our family, somehow I felt like I should draw mine by hand, but you can also do this step with your Cricut machine and cut the symbol from permanent vinyl if you prefer.

Step 3: Attach ribbon, cord, or another hanger.

Now your ornament is ready to display!

This one is incredibly close to my heart, and I am hoping that it will mean something to some of you as well. If you make your own version of this, or any of the other Countdown to Christmas ornaments, I would love to see! In fact, I’d be so happy for you to share any of your projects with us in the Amy Latta & Friends Facebook Group so we can all inspire one another.

Be sure to check out the other ornaments in the series: