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.

Awaiting a court hearing date

The courts in Ethiopia are closed now until the end of September. When they reopen we should receive a hearing date. It is anticipated that this date will be sometime the beginning of November. After we 'clear' court we will travel 4-6 weeks later to pick the babies up. We will spend about one week in Ethiopia bonding with them and visiting their country before we bring them home. Two things we ask prayer for at this point is: 1) God's continued provision to supply final payments and travel expenses. 2) God's provision and care for people to take care of Savannah, Graci, and Dax while we are away.

Proud to Announce our Baby Boy and Girl

Oh, how I wish I could post their pictures for all to see. They are so adorable!

Announcing:

Thaddeus Joel Brady born on 3/16/09 and
Kambyri Senait Brady born on 6/9/09 !

Both babies are healthy and thriving well. They have been moved to the transitional orphanage which is where they will live until we go pick them up. It is anticipated that we will travel by the end of the year to bring them home.

3 year old boy - Gotcha for 2

Dax getting ready to blow out his candles
Dax with his friends' Jaydon and Jackson, and with Graci and cousin Serenity

Dax and Serenity snuggling

Best 3 year old friends - Graci is so happy Dax is now 3 like her

Crazy big sissys

Dax's train cake (made by mommy) - I am quite proud because Dax said "I like it mommy, I really like it, my train cake!"

Graci teaching Dax to show "I am 3"

Daddy successfully teaching Dax to show "I am 3"

Bath time after a long party

Graci loves to hold her 'baby' brother

Graci and Dax lounging in the pool - they have quite the life!

Last week we celebrated Dax's 'Gotcha' Day and his birthday. It was two years ago August 20 that we received Dax in Guatemala and processed the paperwork to bring him home. He was three days shy of turning one year old when we came home. I did not have time for many pictures but they were two very special days. We spent Gotcha day preparing all Guatemalan food and recipes. We decorated the house with Mayan decor and Guatemalan treasures we had collected while we were there. We focused on teaching Dax about his heritage but most of all about how he came to be Phillip Daxton Brady. The week just continued with celebration as Dax turned three. He was more excited about his birthday than he was about Gotcha day. His birthday party had the house decorated in trains and he had a train cake. He likes trains more than Guatemalan decorations at this age. He also liked the food better at his birthday. He ordered hot dogs and chips, which is his absolute favorite meal (if you call it a meal). It was great week celebrating our precious boy!

Jiangxi, China Girl's Reunion, PA 2009

Schneider Family
Jiangxi sister's w/ siblings
Emmi, Arden, and Graci

Graci with Arden and her brother, Roger.

He became Graci's favorite Causey brother.

Savannah with her Anni

Brady and Brady Families

Our Family

Debbie, Shawn and Shyann and Desiree Brady

Denise and Emmi Corbari

Causey Family

Graci loved Chocolate World!

Sissys at Chocolate World

Savannah, Daddy, and Dax

Sissy Love!

Mommy and my girls!

Emmi, Graci, and Arden

Shyann-there is nothing shy about this baby girl-she is always smiling!

Graci, Emmi, and Arden

Dax and Daddy

Shawn and Savannah

Debbie, Shyann, and Aunt Savannah

Mommy, Daddy, and littles

Graci with her daddy

Can't catch the geese.

You are my sunshine...

my precious sunshine!

Graci and Dax pretty much ran for a week in PA

Brady kids

Friends - Emmi and Graci

Friends

Daddy and Alyx

Sisters - you can't tell there is 6 years difference in their ages. Brady Family

Graci, Dax, and Emmi..on the count of 3!

1-2-3...jump!

Hangin by the pool with the Corbari's

Graci and Daddy

Run, Dax, Run!

At the Amish Village

Savannah was tired of trying to walk in the grass

Amish cart

Our Alyx

Our littles

The first week of August, our whole family spent a week in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. Although the weather was more unbearable than Phoenix at times, we had a fantastic week. We met up with three families that we had traveled to China with back in 2007. We also were able to spend a couple of days with Lee's son, Shawn and his family. This was the first time Savannah was able to see them and meet her nieces. She was still non responsive when they were here to visit in May. Graci bonded right away with her China sisters. First she met EmmiGrace and they hit it off great. They were hugging and playing just minutes after meeting. Well, of course they had met before but the last time they saw each other they were 10 months old. Then as the days went on she met her friend Arden and then Anni. All the girls have gotten so big and they are all still so beautiful. It is so precious to see how happy and developed each girl is. When we parted in China in Feb. 2007 we all had unique and challenging children. Now they are all well adjusted, happy, outgoing, sweet little girls. I love to see it! Besides reconnecting with her brother and meeting her sister in law and nieces, Savannah had a great and challenging week. She became a pro at stair climbing. When we checked in the hotel we found out that our room was on the second floor and there is no elevator. Savannah said confidently, " I can do it, Mom!" and she did. She climbed stairs up and down all week and never fell or stumbled once. By the end of the week I had to tell her to stop taking the stairs just for the fun of it. She is doing great but I still get very nervous. Since we have been back she has been going full on therapy and is progressing wonderfully. She walks independantly most of the time. She only needs to hold on when going over bumpy terrain. But she does hyperextend her right knee almost 100% of the time and her therapists are afraid she is going to do some damage to it. So she is going to begin wearing a knee brace/cage to help the hyperextension. Back home now we continue to plug away at therapy 3x a week with daily therapy at home. Savannah is making huge strides in recovery and is surpassing what anyone had hoped or imagined. We praise God who is able to do more than ask and hope for! School is underway for Alyx (and Mom). To say that this first couple of weeks has been challenging would be an understatement. It has been very difficult to start the new curriculum and online school. Alyx is determined and excited about receiving 'real' grades so she has really dug in to make it work well. We are ending our third week of school and I think we are finally getting the hang of it and getting in a routine. Graci and Dax were not able to get into to preschool this year so we are schooling at home. Graci loves it! She asks everyday to do school and she is super smart. Dax (is super smart as well) prefers his learning to come directly from the tv. Right now he likes to do school for about 5 minutes and then must get back to watching tv. We continue to find it hilarious in the difference between our boy and girl. Graci loves to sit at the table with her worksheets, crayons, scissors, pencils and glue. She loves to construct and accomplish projects and papers. One day last week, Dax was working on numbers, it took the entire living room to do. We spread out the large foam number puzzle on the floor and he had to find the numbers and put them in the right spot. First, of course, he had to watch Mickey Mouse while doing this (luckily Mickey was working on numbers too) then he had to climb to the top of couch and jump into the bean bag, do a forward roll across the floor, jump up, grab the foam number from mommy (kind of like a football player receiving the ball) and run across the room. Then he would slam it down in the puzzle, stomp on it, and yell tah dah! I did it! Graci had about 3 worksheets done in the time it took us to do the whole puzzle. Boys are great aren't they?!