court date, court date, COURT DATE!!!

PRAISE GOD!! WE HAVE A COURT DATE!!!!

So today was day two of surprising and awesome emails from our director.  She is really just making my week!!

This morning we received an email with the subject: Your Court Date

I almost fell out of the bed!! 

We weren't supposed to hear of our court date until October...it's AUGUST!!! That God of ours is full of surprises!

And our court date is...........

source

Which means we will be blowing this joint the last weekend of October!!

I am so thankful to have a court date and to know when we will be seeing our son.  And hopefully we will pass court on the first time. Since we were submitted in June our MOWA letter (one of the documents that is needed to pass court that is often times not there in time) should be there waiting on us.  At least we are praying that is the case!

My kids like to make the beginning of November a time to be anticipated...Ava was due on November 2nd, Nora on November 3rd and Now baby T on November 4th!! Kind of cool :)

We keep on praying that everything goes well for our case, that we pass court the first time, that we travel for embassy really soon after, and that Baby T is happy, healthy and loved...oh...and for me...I have a fear of flying that I do believe will be amplified over a big fat ocean.

Well I'm going to get off of here now and go look for plane tickets....TO ETHIOPIA!!!!!!!

Psalm 100

 ¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
 ² Worship the LORD with gladness;
   come before him with joyful songs. ³ Know that the LORD is God.
   It is he who made us, and we are his^[a];
   we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
 ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
   and his courts with praise;
   give thanks to him and praise his name. ⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
   his faithfulness continues through all generations.

New Pictures of Baby T!!!

This morning I woke up to an email from our director with the subject line: He is a cutie pie!! 

NEW PICTURES OF OUR SWEET BOY!!!! 

Oh, he is so precious and so cute and looks so healthy! AND he's looking down at the picture book of our family that we sent him and holding it with his sweet chubby fingers!! And his friend next to him is holding the football we sent him...I can already tell he is such a good sharer :)  

This is just one of 8 pictures that we received and in one he is eating a big ol' plate of food which couldn't make me happier!  It is so hard to not be the one caring for your child and wondering and praying daily about his health, care and happiness so to be able to see his needs met with my own eyes is such a relief and I couldn't be more thankful for the people taking care of my son while I can't.

Even though in our hearts he is our son, we can't show his face until he is LEGALLY our son.  So, that is why he has the heart over his face to protect his identity.  But if you picture the cutest little boy with the cutest cheeks that looks a whole lot like his sister, Nora, you will get the gist! 

It is bittersweet though, to see how much he is growing while he is a world away from us.  He looks SO different than the pictures we got of him over three months ago and that is definitely hard to see.

I am so thankful to our director for checking on Baby T and sending us these sweet pictures that we love and cherish!!

little bit of everything...

I haven't written much on the blog lately for many reasons....

We have been pretty busy enjoying these last months of summer.  We have been swimming, traveling to see family, cookouts, pool parties, spending time with friends and just having a lot of fun!


Our agency had their annual reunion and this year it was in Nashville! We had so much meeting such sweet families and made some great friends! It was also so great to meet the people CCI who we speak with so often through emails and phone calls!

The stomach bug got us down, one by one, we made it though, but no blogging was to be had!

Nate turned the BIG 3-0!! We had a surprise party for him with some good friends.  He had a great time and now claims that since he is a dad and has turned 30 he is allowed to wear a mustache whenever he wants....I kind of disagree!

The last week of courts before rainy season came and went without us hearing of a court date.  We were sad to not know our date and to have to go another 2 plus months without knowing when it may be. However, many families from our agency went to, and passed, court in it's last few weeks of being open.  We are excited for them and know that each family who goes to court means we are that much closer to going ourselves!

My grandmother had open heart bypass surgery and was in the hospital for a good bit.  I was out of town a couple of times to be with her and thanks to MANY prayers she is doing much better and was able to go home yesterday!

Now we have family coming in town this weekend and are really looking forward to some fun family time!!

My sister, Taylor, is moving here to go to Lipscomb and we are so excited to get to see more of her and to have family dinner nights with her!!

We are getting ready for school to start in a few weeks for Ava girl.  I can't believe that she is going into her last year of pre school...next year I will be total mush when she heads off to Kindergarten! It hurts my heart to even think about it!! Even though Ava started pre school when she was precisely Nora's age I think Nora baby is going to stay home one more year...couldn't send her off just yet :)

And then we will be planning the birthday bash for the girls...Ava will be 5 and Nora will be 2....I think this will be a hard one for me because 5 just sounds SO OLD....and 2 is no longer a baby!  I just wish I could slow down time, but at the same time it is so amazing to watch them grow!

And hopefully before or right after that (clearly I'm hoping for sooner than later!) we will be in Ethiopia for court!! I am not EVER one to wish away summer...I love it and you will never hear me complain about 100 degree weather!!...but this year I am hoping the time between now and our court date passes quickly and painlessly as we wait to get to our sweet boy who I know is growing and changing every day without us!  We continue to pray that he is cared for and LOVED by his nannies and that he is healthy and happy!

Recovering with pedialyte pops!

Family Fun

Backyard Fun!

Fun with Friends!

Pool Party!

Daddy's BIG 3-0 Cake!

Mommy and Ava at CCI reunion