Home and Holidays

chapter 24

Back at David and Lisa's house, they had just finished up the paperwork, interviews and home inspection for the adoption, both David and Lisa feeling more relaxed now that they had completed those things.

David let out a sigh of relief as he plopped down on the couch next to his wife before looking over at her with an excited grin.

"We did it, baby. We're one step closer." he said to her, his eyes sparkling with joy.

"One step closer to officially being a family of three." Lisa happily added, mirroring his smile.

He reached out to hold her hand before kissing it, causing her smile to widen.

"I'm so happy that your brother's been so helpful to us with this. It's made everything so much easier so far." she mentioned.

"That's true. And he's so supportive about it too. Everytime I talk to him about Noah he refers to him as his nephew. He says he already considers him family even though he hasn't actually met him yet." David said, smiling fondly at the thought.

"Oh my gosh, I noticed that too, it's so sweet." Lisa beamed. "We'll have to make sure we do something to thank him." she reasoned.

"I think that new PS5 gaming system I'm giving him for Christmas is at least a good start." David joked with a light chuckle, making Lisa giggle as well. "Hey, you know, it won't be 3:00pm for another 20 minutes. You wanna wrap Noah's Christmas presents with me before he gets back home?" David suggested, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course!" Lisa instantly agreed. "I can't wait for him to see them sitting under the tree." she happily added.

By the time they were done wrapping Noah's gifts and setting them under the tree, Noah was arriving back home.

As soon as the doorbell rang, David waisted no time in opening the door to see Noah standing there, holding a shopping bag with the Christmas Village logo on the front of it.

"Hey guys." Noah greeted, smiling at them as they let him inside the house.

"Hey, Noah. Did you have fun with Ella and her parents?" Lisa asked him, hanging his coat on the coat rack for him once he took it off.

"Yeah, we went to Christmas Village in the mall. And we got stuff from the gift shop there. I got this picture." he said, getting the Nativity scene picture out of the shopping bag and showing it to them. "Oh! And I picked out something for you guys there too." he excitedly added, reaching in the bag to bring out the other two items that were in there. "I chose this bracelet for you, Lisa. It has little jingle bells on it." Noah explained, handing Lisa the red, glittery bracelet with gold colored bells on it.

"Awww, thank you, Noah I love it." she reacted, instantly putting it on her wrist.

"You're welcome. And David, I picked this keychain for you. It has a Bible verse on it." Noah said as he gave the keychain to David.

David smiled gratefully as he accepted the gift, getting a closer look at it. "Oh, this is really cool. 'Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.' Romans 12:10." he read the verse aloud. "I love that verse. Thanks, Noah." he expressed.

"No problem. There were so many cool things in the gift shop I just figured you guys might like something from there too." Noah replied before taking a seat on the couch. "So, did you guys have a pretty good day so far too? I know you said you had a lot to do today, did you end up getting everything done?" he thoughtfully asked.

"Oh, yeah, we got everything done. And it was a pretty good day. It was a really good day." David responded, subtly glancing over at Lisa as he couldn't help but smile at her, watching as she mirrored his expression. They were thinking about the day that they had, dealing with the home inspection, interviews and paperwork that they had to complete for Noah's adoption earlier. Everything had gone extremely well, and that made them want to smile like crazy.