Still WAITING :)

Nope, not submitted today. 

We are waiting on some test results and then hopefully NEXT week the children will all be submitted....

in the meantime: 

Here are some more pictures! 

Love, Tracy

My Coffee POT left last week

I was going to title this post Life CHANGES & waiting but decided the coffee pot about summed it up :)

Last Thursday we moved the baby of our 1st batch of kids into the dorms at the University of Utah

7 years ago we thought at this point we would be Empty Nesters.

The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps. Prov. 16:9

My baby, coffee pot and babysitter left. The coffee pot because I had bought it for him and ours broke so we were using his : ) 

Because he is only about 40 min. away I told him I could come and check on him everyday.

He said that was okay as long as I brought Apple Pie.

And no... I am not a Helicopter Mom :)

That is the 1st Life Change.

2nd Life Change:

The SURPRISE BLESSING baby 12 years later is starting kindergarten.

7 years ago we had no idea  a precious blonde hair blue-eyed boy of ours would be starting school.

cotton candy face 

We are sure thankful we are not Empty Nesters!

3rd life change:

I know you know this one :)

God has increased our family by 4!

We are waiting to be submitted to the US Embassy. 

We thought we might be submitted last Wednesday...nope..

thought it would be this Wednesday...nope...

hopefully next Wednesday?

Our agency is gathering court decrees, birth certificates and other paperwork on our children. They can only submit that on Wednesday's. After it is submitted the Embassy has 10 days to tell us if we are cleared for travel or they need more information.

Our best guess is we will bring them home mid Sept. 

As we know though we have learned to not keep to a timeline :)

Soooo.. while we wait we are preparing-

painting, cleaning out rooms, trying to finish all the Attachment books,

clean out 25 yrs of file cabinets..just joking, continuing to raise funds for our 2nd trip to pick up the kids (yep, 5 airplane tickets on way home- Baby can sit on our lap!)

We have so much to be thankful for and some day I will write what some of those specifics are along our journey.

love, Tracy

Introducing our newest family members!! :)

Tsegaye Autry (Eribka in background)

Eribka Autry

Sintayehu Autry

Mikniyat Autry

The boys were exhausted by the end of play time! :)

We PASSED court today! Our MOWYCA letter was written on the last day before rainy season!

We were totally surprised!

We do know that God's timing is always best

and are so excited we are able to bring the children home sooner than later.

We have sooooo much to do to get ready and once 2 boys head out to college we will start rearranging rooms!

Thank you thank you thank you 

for standing with us this far and please continue to pray for us and the kids!

Tracy 

Home again- home again!

View outside our guesthouse-notice stick scaffolding with man on top!

Yonas and Dawit (our America World guide and driver-they were great!!)

our guest house where we lived for 10 days!

view outside our guest house- we were on 3 rd floor

a van like we drove everywhere in

former palace-now Ethiopian museum on University campus

country side on way to Sodo

Beautiful!

Every place had high walls and gates

All on way to Sodo - south of Addis

No traffic lights :) People, cars, goats everywhere!

a store- notice veggies on porch

Always people walking in the roads-

goats walking in roads too :)

a town we stopped in for breakfast on way back to Addis

We went in this hut! The family was very gracious to allow us in-

Randall ducking in-

funny little taxis-3 wheels - fit 3 or 4 people--looked like to me out of Star Wars!

coffee tree behind Randall

Ethiopian girls

ping pong along side of road- 3 or 4 tables set up. Zach, Nick and I played.
Didn't realize we were supposed to pay to play--oops! :)

road along street in Sodo-big drainage ditch- our hotel was along here as well as ping pong

The BIG Question: 

Did we pass court?

Nope!

We were missing our MOWCYA letters

which the Ministry of Women Children and Youth Affairs (like our social services here)

must write a recommendation for each family.

We expected this so it wasn't too big of a surprise but was hoping they would be there!

Our time with the kids was amazing and exhausting! :)  They greeted us on the first day with big hugs and kisses. Can't wait to share pictures with you when we pass court! 

Even though we don't speak the same language we communicated quite well! 

Soccer was played everyday! Stickers, coloring, running around, painting nails and toes, etc.

We were SO thankful to have Zach and Nick with us!! With one of us always holding the baby that left 1 person basically for each kid.

Ethiopia is a beautiful country! I will post more later but wanted to just say 

THANK YOU to all of you praying for us and our children.

We have lots of stories to tell and precious memories.

Please continue to pray we pass court soon. Court closes Aug. 7th (for 2 months) and if we don't receive letters by then we are looking at around mid-Nov. to bring the kids home.

We wouldn't have been able to come this far without each of you...

More to come!! :)