Our Quiver is Full....or so we think!

Kambyri Senait

Thaddeus Joel

We received news today that we cleared court in Ethiopia. We have been granted custody of Thaddeus Joel and Kambyri Senait Brady. Currently Thad is 7.5 months old and Kamby is 4.5 months old. We will hear early next week about our exact travel dates. We are getting ready to go and are anticipating sometime around Thanksgiving.

My Oh My, How the Time Goes By

As I celebrate my 39th birthday today I have reflected a lot over life and particularly the last 6 months. It has been six months since Savannah's accident and six months since I finished the paperwork (dossier) to adopt two babies from Ethiopia. Today I feel blessed beyond measure. We are awaiting the outcome of our court hearing on Friday (30th). We will be represented via a power of attorney in an Ethiopian court to award us custody of our babies. If we clear court then we make travel arrangements to go pick them up. We are anticipating traveling around Thanksgiving. Lee, Alyx, and I are planning on making the trip while Savannah and the littles stay back home. We should only be in Ethiopia for less than a week, but with the long travel it will probably be a 7-10 day trip total. Last week our entire family came down with a nasty cold virus, thank God it was not the flu but it felt just as bad. It also spread just as much. But now it seems that everyone is better and except for the lingering cough we all feel well. While we were sick, for some insane reason Lee started painting and swapping the kids' rooms. So in between high fevers, coughing, and over all being miserable we completely moved everyone around. This was done in order to make room for all the kids. Savannah moved into Dax's room, since it is the smallest, Dax moved into Graci's room which he will share with Thad, and Graci moved into Savannah's room and she will share that with Kamby. Alyx is the only one that got to stay put. If you have ever seen Alyx's room you would understand why we would not want to move her. Let's just say this girl has some stuff and I don't look forward to the day that we have to pack her room. Every one's spaces look great and everyone is happy with their new rooms. On top of the illnesses, the room swapping, and receiving a court date we also had our computer down all last week. The computer guy spent 20+ hours here fixing it. Praise God for tech geniuses! He did a great job and our computers are up and running. So now that all the technical stuff is done and everyone is settled we will prepare for travel. We have to get our vaccinations, tickets, and pack. We are also doing a formula drive before we leave to take as much formula as we can to donate to the orphanage. If you would like to donate formula please contact me. Well, I mentioned it has been six months since Savannah's accident and we just stand amazed at how far she has come. She practically runs now and uses both her left and right hands over 50% of the time. Savannah has been asked by many to speak and share her testimony. Last weekend she spoke at a youth event that a local church was having. She continues on with therapy still three times a week and helps more and more at home. I especially love that she is able to grade Alyx's Algebra. It is totally awesome for me to get help in that! Praise God that Lee has had a ton of work. He has been able to work his normal days but also pick up night work at Starbucks. He has been helping a contractor that is remodeling Starbucks throughout the valley. This is just perfect timing for us to get extra work, with travel looming and all. Well that's it for now, I will post more when I have news after the hearing on Friday.