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!

LEAPING out of the boat!

Well... I haven't fallen off the planet just haven't had any inspiration :) The times I have had some words to write I have been elsewhere (like McDonalds with Micah).

I know I haven't written about our adoption journey in a long time.... even though this blog is supposed to be about our Journey to Ethiopia! :)

We would covet your prayers this week as we might be LEAPING OUT of the boat! 

This has been a week of WAITING which is hard for me. As I was talking with Randall about this he said WAITING doesn't mean being inactive. Still moving forward with the YES' we get and seeing how GOD moves. I don't need to rush God! His timing is perfect as He sees the whole picture. Sometimes I think if I don't move things along "it" won't happen. All I do is mess things up! 

Once again in my Bible study book by Charles Stanley, 30 Life Principles, he says, "No matter what God reveals to be His plan, He will make sure that everything is in place for it to come to pass. Your responsibility is simply to obey Him right now."

We have an AWESOME fundraiser coming up! As soon as I get all the info. I will post it. Every little bit helps to give a child/children a home who are WAITING. 

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; 

   therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. 

For the LORD is a God of justice. 

   Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18

 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, 

   is God in his holy dwelling. 

God sets the lonely in families,

   he leads out the prisoners with singing; 

   but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. Psalm 68:5-6

Valentine's Day roses from my Hubby!

The Perfect Bird

I had a fun conversation with my 5 yr old the other morning. We heard a little sweet chirping outside and he said to me, "We should get a bird that doesn't stink or poop!" Hmmm...interesting thought. We talked about that for awhile till I finally told him I didn't think there were any birds that didn't poop :)

As we were sitting at the table, he and I eating breakfast, he says to me,"My Dad is your Dad." I said "No, my Dad is Pop-Pop. Your Dad is my husband." 

Micah: "R.J. is my husband."

Me: "No, R.J. is your cousin."

Micah: "Why?"

Me: (thinking to myself this is getting complicated) "Because Aunt Kelly is Daddy's sister and R.J. is Kelly's son."

Micah: "Aunt Kelly is R.J.'s Aunt."

Me: "No, Aunt Kelly is R.J.'s mommy."

Micah: "I know that!"

Why is it that a my 5 year old sounds just like my teenagers did? 

My husband has a saying with Micah--How old is Daddy (or Mommy)? (he answers) How old is Micah? 5

Who knows more? (you do) Who is the boss? :) (you are)

They say it together laughingly and it's cute b/c Micah plays along and has fun with it. Just so you know...it doesn't work with teens or older :)  They are trying to figure life out on their own. Some of my most awesome moments have been when the boys have left home for college and called asking for advice! It's a great feeling! 

Once again in Bible study there was truth that resonated with me...

God does not require us to understand His will, just obey it, even if it seems unreasonable. 

Joshua 3:8

"Sometimes it feels as if God is no longer working in your life because you've insisted on doing something your way instead of His way. Perhaps you've placed a condition on God: you only obey Him when you think His instructions are logical. What that really means is that you've failed to commit yourself to Him completely, and that's bound to cause frustration in your life." 

"Are you hesitant to obey God because He's commanded you to do something that you're not comfortable with or that you think is irrational? If your prayers seem unanswered and the path ahead appears blocked, then it could be that God is waiting for you to take the step of faith that He's commanded. Don't lose hope about your circumstances." Charles Stanley  30 Life Principles

Much like our teens and young adults want to obey and follow instruction when it makes sense to them we (I)

as grownups struggle with the same obedience to  God. And it's all about relationships...with our children...and us with God. The more I know Him and read His word the more I am able to discern His will.

I am able to effective where He has placed me now if I am filled with Him. He doesn't demand  for us to obey  Him without desiring a deep relationship with Him. We can't expect our children to desire to obey without a relationship with them...TIME spent with them...getting to know them as God made them..not as who we think they should be. (oops...got off subject a bit :)

Just some things I have been learning this week. 

Take a moment to really focus on what your kids are saying to you...really listen...without trying to fix it :) I am learning to really listen this time around with Micah.

I am my boy's greatest fan and they need to know that!

taken by Christopher

Adoption Video with 'One Less'

I saw this and it spoke to me today...


Pause my playlist at bottom to hear this song by Matthew West

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday - Jan. 23, 2011

There is a Pregnancy Resource Center or Crisis Pregnancy Center near you!

YOU can SAVE a life and bring HOPE by being involved! 

Stop the music from the playlist at very bottom of blog so you can here this :)

a

BRACELET BLITZ!!

                                             They say P U R E religion with a cross symbol in front of the P U R E

Okay! Time for some serious marketing! :) 

I have around 180 bracelets left! (and my son in Spokane has around 95!) I know, I know...what was I thinking?

I was thinking they would magically sell and all the teens would swarm the house in hopes of  owning one! Apparently, I am not a great marketer! 

So...please help me redeem myself in my husband's eyes :) He is a little hesitant for me to start another fundraiser until these sweet things are all gone!

Please pass our blog along to any friends, family members, acquaintances, and your dentist to get the word out!! 


There is a new paypal button on the right to order and pricing is according to how many you buy :) Shipping and handling included! 

THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!

P.S. They are great for youth groups, presents, you can make balls out of several of them, fit perfectly around the bottom of glasses to tell whose is whose (a suggestion from a friend)

What is keeping me from....

February is right around the corner!

My JOY is in the garage and our picked- from-the- forest Christmas tree has been cut in half and recycled into a Valentine tree :) The day we took down JOY and the lights wrapped around another tree Micah wanted to put them on this recycled tree in the pot. So we transferred them from one tree to the next. Then he wanted to put heart decorations on it. So we made heart decorations out of those plastic overhead sheets. Colored them purple and red with Sharpies and hung them on the tree.  He loves it!


We are working through the Radical Series in our Bible study. It is very challenging to me personally and convicting... URGENCY    Jesus is telling the disciples the harvest is now...not in 4 months. So what is keeping us (me) from being urgent about the harvest?
The Samaritan women went and told all that Jesus had told her...immediately.
The pastor talked about us seeing people as immortals...not just people with a physical body but souls that will live forever...either with Jesus or without. Our challenge to each other was to be watching for those opportunities that God placed in our lives and to actually share HIM.
 In Sunday school we are doing a series by Andy Stanley. He talked about the people who have intersected our lives that God used to bring us where we are today. In all our stories we can think back to a relationship/relationships that drew us towards Jesus. Andy asked are we willing to have that awkward conversation...putting our nose in someone else's business because we know the Truth and can be the person who points them to Truth. Are we willing to invest in our co-workers, neighbors, grocery store clerks lives and be urgent about it?? I had the start of that conversation yesterday with my neighbor in the middle of the sidewalk in between her dog running off and the kids running around. She brought it up and I joined in :) 


"Our intimacy with God-His highest priority for our lives-determines the impact of our lives."


"It's only through your fellowship and communion with God that you can truly affect other people's lives in  a way that lasts eternally." 30 Life Principles by Charles Stanley

John 4- need to read the whole chapter :)

 ³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "^(A)Rabbi, eat."

 ³²But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."

 ³³So the ^(B)disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?"

 ³⁴Jesus said to them, "My food is to ^(C)do the will of Him who sent Me and to ^(D)accomplish His work.

 ³⁵"Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white ^(E)for harvest.

 ³⁶"Already he who reaps is receiving ^(F)wages and is gathering ^(G)fruit for ^(H)life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

 ³⁷"For in this case the saying is true, '^(I)One sows and another reaps.'

 ³⁸"I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."

 ³⁹From ^(J)that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "^(K)He told me all the things that I have done."

Our Quail visitors the other morning

JOY In January?

Yes, there is JOY in January... at least on my front lawn :)  I am a sunshine person...I LOVE the sun and seem to have much more motivation and energy when it's out! Winter is hard when we have days of inversion and freezing cold... (although I am not complaining because Utah mostly has beautiful sunny days even in winter).  So I have to remind myself where my JOY comes from... I know some of you are like me and so let's remember together... "The Sun will come out tomorrow..betcha bottom dollar that tomorrow will beeee...tomorrow, tomorrow, I love Ya Tomorrow..you're only a day away!" :) (Imagine music with that!)


Most importantly though...my JOY comes from abiding in Jesus. John 15:11.. "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." The previous verses Jesus is talking about being the true vine and us abiding in His love by keeping  His commandments. 


Also, Prov. 17:22: "A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones."


Our joyfulness or lack of it even affects our physical bodies!  I know there are lots of broken spirits all around us so I pray that we who know the truth will share our JOY from abiding in HIM.  I can be the sun in someone's life even if it isn't shining outside! :)

taken by CPA in our backyard last year

PS... It's also encouraging to have an awesome friend named JOY! :) If you don't have one get one :) 

Happy Foggy Friday

Well, this is what we woke up to today. Our world covered in a thick fog and every tree branch covered in white icy stuff. This was a little fat sparrow sitting on our back porch railing wondering where the bird seed went. Terrible picture with my camera but it is what it looked like :)


I am finally getting our fundraiser up and out to you!! (remember I mentioned it eons ago?)


                                               PURE religion silicone bracelets!


They are a great conversation starter and also help us with our next costs. They have a cross symbol in front of the PURE. One of our sons wears both colors! 


Kids and teens love them! They are pink and yellow (my oldest son said those were the colors to get) and come in one size. 


I have LOTS of them so don't feel shy about ordering lots and passing them out! He, he! :)


2.00 each if you are local and I will hand deliver.


If you are long distance please check the paypal button for prices. 

The Journey So Far

After having an exciting, crazy, fun -filled Christmas and New Year with all our kids home from college, Memaw here from Texas and my brother from TN I thought I better take a moment to sit and give you all an update.


Our homestudy has been completed and approved. Our next step is to send that in to the immigration department along with some other paperwork and receive back appointments for fingerprinting and authorization to bring an orphan home from another country. 


Right after the time our homestudy was completed we became aware of 4 young girls in need of a home. Their parents had come out of a polygamous community, were in the process of a divorce, and not able to mentally or physically take care of the girls. Instead of putting the girl's in the foster system a Christian home was being looked for to take care of the girls. One other family along with us said we would take the girls in. We both met with the parent's along with a counselor, social worker and a couple of other people so the parent's could meet each of us. The other family was chosen (who already had girls :)) and they are becoming guardians of these girls. 


Through all this our eyes were opened to the need for foster parents here in the state of Utah and that there are children here already in system in need of forever homes and to be adopted.  We have been praying about if that is the direction we should take or continue on with Ethiopia. 
Also, going through our online training we learned that worldwide there are more people requesting healthy infants than there are infants available for adoption. The majority of orphans in need of homes are over the age of 5.  Although we are requesting a girl up to age four we are still struggling if this is the best way to make a difference (of course to that one child it makes all the difference in the world!). 
Because we have Micah who is 5 we want to stay in birth order and adopt younger than him.  After learning that we having been talking/praying whether we should adopt a child with some special needs. 
 Coming up with the finances for Ethiopia is a main concern as well but I am trying to think of creative ways to save, earn money and fundraise! 


With over 147 million orphans the need for them to have loving families is so great it can be overwhelming but we can all make a difference together one way or another! :)


So that is where we are at which seems to be in limbo : ) but God knows and we are praying He gives us clear direction. 

Have a wonderful beginning of your 2011!

Christmas Memories

A window into our family Christmas. Trying to get everyone serious about taking a picture is like pulling teeth! :)

                                                             Julie, Chris, Zach and Nick


                                                                    Me and Zach :)

Pop-Pop and Micah

All the boys and Julie in hats from Aunt Kelly

excited Nick about his bull hat with Luke and Chris watching

Chris and Julie

Micah and his doggie hat

2 Wheels

 Happy Monday!
Life has been crazily flying by. Here are some highlights from the last couple of months:

Fundraising garage sale: made about $300... made about 5 dozen cinnamon rolls which I think Nick ate 2 dozen---seriously!

Road Trip to Texas:  7 of us in mini-van...6 adults and 1- 4 yr old... straight through on way down. We had a wonderful fishing trip with family and then a big fish fry. Randall's little sister was married and we caught up with family members we haven't seen in years. Told about adoption journey :) Spent the night in Alb. on way home. Sweet memories with all of our children.

Women's Retreat:  Stayed in a lodge with about 15 other women. BEAUTIFUL fall colors in Utah mountains... God's artwork and color is incredible. Shared more about adoption journey :)

I don't know how many other women are in the same boat as me...preschoolers and 20yr olds but it is quite an adventure. I had a conversation with one particular son tonite who said , " I have no purpose or sense of direction right now." What does a Mom say to that? :)
Thankfully he is not down in the dumps. He is involved with church, people and will be on the mountain soon working. (I did tell him I was going to put that in my blog b/c it was just so matter of factly said)

On the other hand I had a conversation today with my 4 yr old about 2 wheel bikes and that he already knows how to ride one (even though he doesn't) and he is going to get one on his birthday. And he is only having boys at his party, not girls...not even Grandma could come. (hmmm... I did tell him Grandma would be sad and she was coming :))

The other conversation with a different son was about a weird dream he had and how funny it was. Also, how on earth was it possible that his grade point went down even though his grade went up in a class. He has missed a lot of school due to being sick and the Texas trip.

Talked with the son who is married who is my natural salesman. I asked him if he would be comfortable selling our new "fundraiser" at school and to his friends to help raise money to bring home a little girl. Of course he would...send him as many as I wanted and he would start taking orders now!

On that note!!! I am excited because I ordered a fund raiser for our adoption tonite. We get them in 2 weeks. YEA! I will post more when we get them about how you can be a part of giving an orphan girl a Mom, Dad, 5 brothers and a sister!

We have just gone over our homestudy and will meet one more time to go over the final copy. I will post more in depth about where we are at and the next steps.

Excited to be on this journey and hope you will join in as you can!