WHIRLWIND and 2 hr to go :)

Good MORNING (it's 2:23 am) Friends!

I am POOPED but ready to go I think...my brain is a tad fuzzy!

This week has been a blur...

MONDAY and TUESDAY college orientation with Nick

very informative

very enlightening

very different from Christian schools... I finally realized the Orientation leaders weren't going to pray before or after their talks

enjoyed meeting new Mom's 

can't believe Nick is registered for college

Have 4 suitcases stuffed with donations (oops just remembered I need to duct tape one of them!)

and 4 suitcases of our stuff plus all carry ons

Have a bag food of goodies for my little guy

this will be the longest time we have ever been away from him

he is sad

and excited he gets to be with Grandma and Pop-Pop

Pray for Grandma who is playing with him!

I am having a multitude of emotions and know they will be magnified when we get to Ethiopia and love on our children

and see

what we have never seen before

Pray we will be a LIGHT

Marshmallows-Typhoid Pills & Garage Sales!

Last Friday

 5 of us went to the International Travel Clinic for a consultation and shots :)

As we sat waiting in the lobby a Grandma and Grandpa were there with their around 4 yr old grandaughter who was sacked out on the chairs. I gathered they had been there awhile just from listening to them talk with a nurse. After a moment the Grandma pulled a half eaten bag of marshmallows from her bag and handed one to the Grandpa. Some whispering and looking our direction went on and then Grandma offered Micah a marshmallow :)  He declined :)

They were so kind to offer and I thought how funny that here we are sitting in a Travel Clinic being offered a marshmallow! 

We have decided that Zach and Nick will be going with us to Ethiopia next week. Because of the importance of this trip we want them to experience our children's culture and history as well as be with the kids for this first meeting.  

Two hours later we came out of the clinic learning about all the possible parasites,virus', what they do and symptoms. Very eye-opening...Nick made the comment that he wants to stay in the US of A after hearing all that! Ha! :)

Hep A, Hep B, Tetanus, Typoid Pills, and a prescription for Malaria pills and an antibiotic.

We decided not to get the Yellow Fever shot.

PHEW!

GARAGE SALE

this Saturday July 9th!

(starting to think I was a little nuts planning this right before we leave)

Hoping to raise GOBS of mula  to help for the Embassy trip when we bring our 4 children home!

We will have a snow blower (winter will be here before we know it!), Cannondale Tandem Bike (great for a pre-marital exercise in who is in control!),

furniture, weight equipment, clothes, stroller, Little Tyke kitchen, wedding dress, plus all kinds of other TREASURES!

If you have anything you would like to donate give me a call! :)

COME ONE COME ALL! :)

Blessings for orphanages and transition home :)

We are able to take donations for orphanages and the transition home our children are in...if you would like to give please let me know. We need to have everything by July 11th to get it all packed and sorted.

This is a list from our agency of the needs!

Here are the donations we are seeking:

1.   Iron drops

2.   A+D diaper ointment, diaper rash and all purpose skincare formula

3.   Diapers (for up to 30 pounds)

4.   Unscented baby wipes

5.   Powder Formula with DHA/RHA

6.   Enfamil and Similac lactose free formula

       *  other lactose free formulas with identical nutritional value also accepted, including: 

           a.  Kirkland brand from Costco

           b.  Target's generic formula

           c.   Parent's Choice formula from Wal-Mart 

Soy based or other special formulas are also acceptable as long as they are the above-mentioned brands

7.  Children's clothing (new or slightly used); both genders; 0-8 yrs old.  Needs include day clothes (especially pants), pajamas, underwear, and shoes...girls clothes (18-24 mos) is now covered!

8.  Bath towels for children

9.  Toys to stimulate babies such as colorful objects, rattles, etc, that are appropriate for babies up to 2 years

10.  Children's DVDs, especially educational or spiritually based movies

11.  Children's devotional books and books with spiritual and character building focus

12.  Devotional books for older children

13.  Hair shavers (3 needed)

14.  Hand sanitizer

15.  SCRUBS - nannies wear scrubs while working (sizes small and medium)

Medications/Medical Donation Needs

16.  Multi-vitamins

           a.  Tri-vi-sol (0-6 months)

           b.  Poly-vi-sol (6 months - 2 years)

           c.  Chewable multi-vitamin (2-9 years)

           d.  Adult mulitvitamin (9 years plus)

17.  Tylenol (acetaminophen)

           a.  Infants

           b.  Children

           c.  Suppository

18. Baby nose saline spray

19. Neosporin

20.  Syringes for giving medicine

21.  Plastic and Latex disposable gloves

22.  Mouth and nose masks

23.  Benadryl liquid/elixir

24.  Permetherin for scabies

25.  Lice kits

26.  Toothbrushes, toothpastes, dental floss

*PLEASE check the expiration date on all donation items as expired items will be discarded upon receipt and cannot be used.          

Tickets Booked

--heading to Ethiopia on July 14th! Hard to believe we are going to be meeting our

kids for the very first time in a little over 2 weeks! After much thought we have decided to take Zach and Nick with us. We are excited that they will get to experience where our children have come from and start to form relationships with them while we are there.

As you can imagine we are in the midst of preparation, getting shots, figuring out what to take, plans for Micah, meals for Luke and Micah, etc. etc... :)

Plus we are having a GINORMOUS garage sale on July 9th! I know that's probably going to put me over the edge since we leave the 14th but need to raise some mula for our 2nd trip to ET which will be when we bring the

kids home.

If you have any "TREASURE" you would like to donate to our sale please let me know! I will be glad to pick it up (or send a boy to pick it up!:))

Thank you for being excited alongside us!! 

PS

You can order anytime from Ordinary Hero and we receive 40%.

They do have awesome stuff! :)

Ethiopia HERE WE COME! :)

YES! We have a court DATE of July 22nd!

We got the call today... I was having lunch with my Dad for Father's Day at a barbeque restaurant and had my phone sitting on the table on vibrate. I noticed it buzzing around on the table with the 703 area code. By the time I grabbed it there was no one there. I ran out the door (b/c it was too loud) telling my Dad I thought it was our agency...poor Dad, left him eating his ribs by himself! :)

I called back the number and told the gal on the other line someone just called me from there..she asked who and I said I didn't know... (I guess I could listen to the voice mail!) but I was hoping it was Kristen!

Sure enough it was Kristen calling to say we had a court date!

Everything seems like it is in fast forward motion as we will be figuring out flights in the next day or so.

We haven't gotten our shots yet so have to call the international travel clinic tomorrow..etc. etc.. :)

Now is an AWESOME time to pass the word along about the OH $500 grant we could win plus 40% of  all sales goes directly towards our adoption travel costs! 

It's only until Tuesday @ midnight! (TN time)

Just go to the Ordinary Hero Store

and select Tracy Autry from the affiliate drop down bar when you check out.

         

We covet your prayers.

WOO HOO again!

Nick and Luke modeling OH shirts :)

Ordinary Hero

is doing another grant give away! The top 3 sellers will win a $500 grant! WOO HOO!

If you missed the last OH sale NOW is the time to shop and help us bring our 4 sweet children home!

We receive 40% of all sales!

They have all kinds of cool t-shirts

bangles

totes

donations for children in Africa

Check them out!

Just make sure to select Tracy Autry in the affiliate drop down bar.

We are waiting patiently for a court date in Ethiopia. Praying it is in July!!

Saving up for the 2 trips we will make--1st is court, 2nd is for Embassy and bringing our children home.

THANK YOU for being a PART of our JOURNEY!

Light in a messenger’s eyes brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones. Prov.15:30

We DO have NEWS for you! :) 

I haven't posted b/c it has been crazy around here! 

The good NEWS is:

We received our I -171 H form in the mail (also called Favorable Letter of Determination)

in the mail on JUNE 2nd! 64 days after our application date...whew! USCIS had sent us a letter requesting more financial info. so we had to have our social worker do an update on our homestudy and then we submitted that. 

Christopher, Memaw, me, Luke and Grandma at Adoption Surprise party

Family album with encouraging notes

I overnighted our approval letter to our agency on June 3rd and they shipped it to Ethiopia. It got to ET today which means our case can be opened for court. YEA! 

Please pray that we have a court date in before the end of July! Rainy season starts August and goes through Sept. and the court shuts down so we wouldn't be able to have a court date until October. 

We have been getting such sweet pictures of our children by other families taking care packages for us and it makes us want to go asap to bring them home!! :)

donation box and fundraising bracelets

Vince and Lynette! :)

The next GOOD NEWS is Nicholas graduated from high school last Friday. Wow! It's hard to believe he is done. Our family from Texas and TN all flew in and we have had wonderful times together!

More GOOD NEWS :

Our sweet friend Lynette and my brother Vince organized a surprise Adoption Celebration Party for us on Sat. We played an Jeopardy Game with Ethiopia facts and had lots of laughs. Lynette had everyone fill out encouraging notes for our kids in ET and us and put them in the family album. They also set up a box for donations :) For us it was very encouraging! Thank you to all our sweet friends who came and surprised us!

Good news! Good news! Christ died for me. Good news! Good news! If I believe; Good news! Good news! I'm saved eternally. That's wonderful EXTRA good news.

That's the song I think of when I look back at all the the good things these past several weeks!

DTE 5/06/11!

In the adoption world your DTE  date is a momentous occasion. This is the official date that our dossier is sent to Ethiopia. Dossier To Ethiopia. It is being Fed Ex'ed to Ethiopia. Once ET receives our paperwork they will begin translating it. Our family coordinator (who is probably very glad I have stopped emailing her so many questions) said that it takes around 8-16 to get a court date after that. 

We are STILL waiting for our 1600 A application to be assigned to an officer with USCIS.

(I know because I call them once a week to see where we are :))

We can't even be submitted for a court date until we receive the I- 171 form (that comes from USCIS after they approve our application) which states we are approved  to bring orphans into the US. 

USCIS says our application is still in the queue.. the waiting place to be assigned an officer...since March 31st.

Please help PRAY our application out of  the QUEUE!

AND the I 171 H form here soon! 

Why this is important is that we would LOVE to have our court date in Ethiopia before rainy season which is August and September. Court shuts down during these months and reopen in October.  Embassy dates still happen during rainy season (which is the second trip we make to pick up our children's visas and bring them home!)

4 Sweet Children In Ethiopia

have received our care packages and photo albums...

These are some of the words the sweet family who took them our gifts said about them:

Happy

Always Smiling

Loving

Shares

Takes cares of sisters

More interested in pictures of us than gifts...

Beautiful

We have gotten updates from our agency on the kids plus updated pictures.

They know they have a family and so it's hard to imagine having to wait months more for a court date to go meet them and finally bring them home and be a family.

Another set of care packages was sent to Texas (again :)) and will be on a plane next Thursday to ET.  We are praying that as these kids see our pictures, letters to them, gifts that they will know they are loved by us!

One thing I am especially learning is how unpredictable this process is... :) 

It's better to not have any expectations of how things will go!

THANK YOU for praying for us, supporting and encouraging us...

Please keep 2 little boys and 2 little girls way across the world in ET in your prayers as well.

Tulips from our yard :)

Dossier Mailed to our agency!

Moab! Wishing we were there :)

After a few hiccups and taking all day to assemble, copy and double check I mailed

our dossier today! It will go to our agency and then if all looks well next Friday they will send it to Ethiopia on Friday! WOO HOO! :)

We have moved from being paper chasing to being paper pregnant (in adoption terms)!

The only slight backwards thing about this is we are still waiting for approval from USCIS dept. so our dossier will be translated in ET but our case won't be opened for court until that form is there.

Our agency allowed us to do this because we already have a referral for our 4 children and it will save us time. Praying that I- 171 H form comes soon! (this is the one that can take 75 days to process)

Also, my fingerprints did pass even though the gal at the local office here said they would be rejected. YEA!

God does work out all the details and this was an encouraging news for me!

Wanted to let you all in on this important milestone! :)

fell asleep while reading!

SHEEP?

YES! Sheep are now available to purchase for children in Africa :)

ORDINARY HERO

is offering ANOTHER grant opportunity through Sunday!! $500 for 1st place!! $300 for 2nd and $200 for 3rd!  WOO HOO!

So if you missed out on last times contest here is another OPPORTUNITY!

Check out the CLEARANCE section!

New CUFF bracelets made by a woman in Kenya and of course shoes, blankets, raincoats and now SHEEP for children in Africa!!

Just select Tracy Autry  in the drop down affiliate bar when you checkout!

And remember we receive 40% of every purchase directly towards our adoption costs! 

THANK YOU!


Just click on the OH link to the right or on the words Ordinary Hero above :)

Worn down fingerprints?

We had our fingerprint appointments today. The boys did get their appointments for later in the week and were able to get them done today with us. YEA! 

My fingerprints are WORN DOWN on one hand and the gal said they would probably be rejected and I would get another appt. letter in the mail and have to have them redone. Then the FBI would compare the two. I asked her how long it would take and she said they were pretty quick. (I was thinking a few days) Usually a few weeks!! We were hoping to have our dossier sent in by then!!!

Please pray along with us that my fingerprints would "pass" the first time!

Hope you had a wonderful Easter celebrating Jesus' resurrection!

And the winner is.....

YAHOO!

We won a $300 grant from Ordinary Hero!!

We came in fourth place but OH decided to give 2 grants per 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place so that moved us to number 2 spot! (A BIG Thank You to Ordinary Hero!)

Thank YOU!

To all of you who purchased from OH and helped us we THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts!

With commission and grant money that is over $500 put into our America World Adoption fund! YEA!

P.S. If you missed out you can always order from them and we will still get 40%!  Spring stuff coming soon! :)

You can check out OH's blog and read all about it!

http://ordinaryheroblog.blogspot.com/

COUNT Down!

We need YOU! :)

Only 9 hours left of the ORDINARY HERO  20% off sale!!

Remember we earn 40% of every purchase towards bringing our 4 children home from Ethiopia AND are in the top 10 for a $500 grant!! YEA!

PLEASE help us by purchasing t-shirts with a purpose, African jewelry, hats, totes or donations for needy children in Africa. LOTs of COOL products! 

http://www.ordinaryherostore.org

(just select Tracy Autry in the affiliate drop down bar when you checkout)

THANK You to all have helped so far and passed the word along! 

Please continue to let your friends and family know!!

Change the World For One and Speak Up (has verse on back)

Wow! Look at those muscles! :)

SALE and MATCHING GRANT!

Okay... all you friends and family! 

Ordinary Hero is having a SALE...

20% off of all their products through Sunday!

We earn 40% of all sales towards the adoption of our 4 kiddos

and

if we are top seller we will win a grant of $500!! 

They also have awesome donations of shoes, blankets and raincoats for needy children in Africa if you would rather help in that way!

Just select my name (Tracy Autry) in the drop down bar when you checkout!

http://www.ordinaryherostore.org/

Thank you and please pass along!! :)

WOO HOO and PRAYER REQUEST

March- In like a lion out like a lamb
Nope: here is out like a lion

Despite the weather Spring is bustin' out all over!

Our WOO- HOO

 is that Randall and I received our fingerprint appointments in the mail for April 25th. YEA!

The prayer request is that the 2 big boys living here would get their appointments soon. Apparently, according to USCIS we have to have an officer assigned to our case to check our homestudy for the other adults living in the house. It's first come first served and could take 75 days to process. I'm not sure if that means process from the time we are assigned an officer or what...I'm calling them back and hopefully will get a more helpful lady :) My first response was to WORRY...and then I realized first of all that does no good and second of all God already knows all this and His timing is perfect. 

Another EXCITING thing for us is that the sweet TEXAS family that took our care packages to our children in Ethiopia called and told me all about the kids. They loved on them and gave the packages to them.

She said they were the sweetest children and they looked and looked at the pictures of our family!

They also took lots of pictures of the children opening their packages and emailed them to us. Our hearts have melted looking at them! They also took video which we should get in the mail soon!

On the home front we are getting ready for graduation and all that entails! We are thankful for the gift of TIME

with our children!

Birthday Boy!

Dressed up as Green Lantern..happens to be his birthday!

Birthday dinner

Yum! Fried Calamari!

Brothers having a laugh

Lemon Buttermilk cake...don't ask me why he's being a bird! 

Can we ever get a serious picture? :)

Micah giving Nick his own helicopter for his present.

18 years ago...Nicholas was born...the only dark haired boy of the bunch! With Luke just having turned 6 when Nicholas was born and the others stair stepped down he joined a loud boy- filled home. I remember my Mom asking if I was ever going to put him down b/c I carried him around so much. :)(okay, maybe it was because he was 3 and I was still carrying him around) What a whirlwind the last 18 years have been. We are so blessed to have Nick in our life...our home has had much laughter and joy with him in it! Yes, he drives me crazy sometimes and I drive him crazy but I love him (and all the boys) with all my heart. We are excited to see where God leads him as he heads off to college in the fall!

Care Packages!

It has been an eventful last couple of weeks! One of the exciting things is that we sent 4 

CARE PACKAGES to our children in Ethiopia. As we speak they are being taken by a family who is flying to Ethiopia today for their own court date. They will be giving our children their packages and taking pictures and videos of them!! Included in the care packages are clothes (see the cute girl clothes! Boys clothes are cute too but I've never bought girl clothes for our kids!), markers, paper, beanie babies (we selected ones of ours in very good shape :)), balls, playdough, pictures from Micah and letters from me. We also included a photo album for each child with all our pictures in it. This will be the first time they see us. I wonder what they will think! 

Where are we in the process??

I mailed off our application to USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Dept). Included was our homestudy, birth certificates and marriage license. We will receive back in the mail (hopefully in a few weeks!) appointments for all of us over 18 to be fingerprinted. After that we wait in the mail for the I-171 form which states we are allowed to bring orphans into the US. Once that is done our dossier will be complete! 

Once our dossier is turned into our agency we will wait for a court date in Ethiopia!

We will go to Ethiopia at that point to meet our children for the first time and go to court to become their parents legally. 

Then back to the US while the children stay in Ethiopia. We wait for an Embassy date when we go back to Ethiopia and get the children's Visa's and bring them home!! 

This could all happen in the summer or fall. Praying it happens sooner than later!!

As you see there is alot of WAITING!  

There was a very good post on the Ordinary Hero blog today that I wanted to share:

"I will leave you with a bit of encouragement from Jesus Calling Devotional today......


Stop trying to work things out before their times have come. Accept the limitations of living one day at a time. When something comes to your attention, ask Me whether or not it is part of today's agenda. If it isn't, release it into My care and go on about today's duties. When you follow this practice, there will be a beautiful simplicity about your life: a time for everything and everything in its time. 
A life lived close to Me is not complicated or cluttered. When your focus is on My Presence, many things that once troubled you lose their power over you. Though the world around you is messy and confusing, remember that I have overcome the world. I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. 
(Eccl 3:1, John 16:33)"

GOOD NEWS!

Remember awhile back when I talked about waiting...

Well... what I was referring to was that Randall and I were reviewing the files for a sibling group of 4 from Ethiopia on our Waiting Child List. We have spent the last two weeks praying and looking over their info and this past Wed. said a definite YES to adopting them into our family!! (due to confidentially purposes we can't share pictures on our blog until after they are legally ours). Today I mailed our official acceptance paperwork!

Please pray for these sweet children in Ethiopia who are WAITING and for us as we prepare to bring them here. We are EXCITED along with a myriad of other emotions that are hard to explain but know God has drawn us to them and HIS TIMING is perfect in doing so. 

Our next steps are to get our homestudy updated, submit paperwork to USCI (immigration dept) and then submit our dossier to Ethiopia. We are hoping all this goes quickly but just a very rough guesstimate is maybe a June court date? After the 1st court date in Ethiopia there is a second trip to Ethiopia to pick up the children's Visas from the Embassy and then bring them home. We really have no idea though so would also ask for your prayers that everything moves along as quick as possible.

I will post more later but wanted to let the CAT out of the BAG! :)

"Children Of God" - Official Music Video

Ordinary Hero

YEA!

Check out Ordinary Hero for AWESOME apparel for the WHOLE family. We receive 40% of every purchase which adds up to help us bring a child/children HOME.

Just click on the banner at the right or link below and shop till you drop knowing that YOU are making a difference! YOU can help to CHANGE THE WORLD FOR ONE!
(choose Tracy Autry under the Affiliate drop down bar when you checkout!)

 www.ordinaryherostore.org



Thank YOU!