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!! :)

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 :)