God's Amazing Provisions!

It is not the fact that God provides that keeps amazing me. I know God provides, He says He will, He always does, and I am completely confident in that. What keeps me in awe is His creative ways of providing. I know He does it so there is no doubt that He should receive the glory and praise. And that is what I want to give Him for continually calling us and then making a way for us. God is good!!! What has inspired this writing is a funny story about the IRS. Now over the past couple of weeks as we have prayed for our trip and a way to pay for it we have received several checks in the mail. These have been random, unexpected, refunds or reimbursements. None of which we have asked for or that we even knew we were entitled to. The funniest is the day we received two certified letters from the IRS. We were not home so had to wait to the next day to pick them up at the post office. That means we had a day to worry ( I mean pray) about them. Lee goes and picks them up to find out they are collection notices that we owe money and penalties and late fees. We found this odd for two reasons, one, we can't find where we owe them money and two, we have been praying for the money to come for our trip. So we started praying for God to provide for our trip and the IRS bill. So, Lee called them to find out what was up. The outcome was nothing short of divine. They said, sorry Mr. Brady, there has been a mistake. Apparently someone hit the wrong button you do not owe this but it is being refunded to you. A check will arrive in the within the next two weeks. We apologize for the inconvenience. The call ends and Lee is completely blown away. God is amazing, creative, funny, faithful, and 100% looking out for us!

We Are Off To Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Kambyri Senait 4 months old Thaddeus Joel 7 months

After many grueling days of travel planning and me agonizing over how to go and not leave the littles, we have finally booked our flights. We leave on Friday Dec. 4 and return on Sunday Dec. 13. This is much longer than I wanted to be gone but Africa is FAR!!! I thought we could run over there and be back all in less than a week. It cannot be done. If you would like to pray and follow our family as we travel here is our itinerary:

Dec. 4 - Leave Phoenix midday and fly to New York

Dec. 4 - Leave New York late night and fly to Dubai
Dec. 5 - Arrive in Dubai lat evening and spend the night in Dubai
Dec. 6 - Leave Dubai in the morning and fly to Addis
Dec. 6 - Arrive in Addis late morning, get through airport etc. then check in the guest house
Dec. 7 - MEET THE BABIES AT THE ORPHANAGE
Dec. 8-9 -Visit the babies in the morning and afternoon, sight see, and take care of adoption business
Dec. 10 - US Embassy appt. to get their visas
Dec. 11 - visit with the babies, etc.
Dec. 12 - Leave Addis WITH OUR BABIES TO COME HOME! leave in the evening
Dec. 13 - Arrive in Dubai early a.m., leave Dubai later morning, arrive in San Francisco mid afternoon
Dec. 13 - Leave San Francisco and arrive home at 6:40 pm

Lee, Alyx, and I will be making the trip. Savannah and the littles will be having a ton of fun having overnights and lots of play dates with their friends and family. Please pray for them while we are gone, especially Graci as she is the one most likely to miss mommy a lot.

Pray for Layla!

Layla Blakely - 6 years old

I have the link to Layla's caring bridge site on this blog. Please visit and pray for this precious child. We met Layla while were staying at the Rondald Mcdonald House during Savannah's hospital inpatient treatment. She captured our hearts with her beautiful bald head, her charming and mischievous smile, her constant laughter, and her incredibly positive outlook on life. She just amazed us! Layla is 6 years old and has had multiple surgeries to remove cancerous tumors. They have all been extremely life threatening and she has undergone numerous rounds of chemo since she was 4. After her last surgery in August when a very large tumor was removed she was hoping for good news on her follow up. Instead, two weeks ago it was found that she has many spots of cancer on her liver and now it has moved to her lungs. As a mother, my heart breaks for Nicole, Layla's mom. Please join us in praying for this family and especially precious Layla.

Every Mother Should Have a Son

Our Son!
This is kind of random but always on my heart. Many people told me for years, when I just had girls, that every mom needs a son. I thought, 'why'. Boys are hyper, dirty, bad mannered, and over all can be gross. Well, let's just say my feelings have changed immensely. My son is the most affectionate, caring, sweet, loving, funny boy I have ever met. I may sound a little bias but it is just because I am so in love with this little boy. God continues to amaze me with His desire to give us the desires of our heart even when we don't know them ourselves. The picture above prompted this post. Is it just me or is this little guy's smile intoxicating? Don't you just fall in love with him - I did!

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.