COME ON COURT DATE!! UPDATED****

W1's unfinished room. See the red in the corner? That has been there for a month!

W1's cool loft bed, just waiting to be finished...

Does this look like a little girl's room to you? Hopefully it will soon!

W2 at awards day. He racked up!

W1 and the crew at awards day!

Two Gladney families passed court this week and will be traveling to Ethiopia in November to pick up their children!! Yeah! One family has graciously agreed to take a package to Baby B. The wait for a court date is getting really difficult...I keep thinking that she HAS to be home by Christmas. It will be so hard without her.

Well, we have such a mess, here. We have been working on W1's new room for 2 1/2 months now. I am getting really frustrated waiting on people who never show up (or answer their phone!) My Dad is ready to finish W1's cool loft bed and we have some neat surprises in store...I just want Baby B to have her own room, not just a pile of stuff in a corner.

Maybe good news is right around the corner. Praying for all waiting for court dates and referrals!! Still stalking your blogs and LOVE to see good news!!

WE HAVE JUST RECEIVED A COURT DATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT IS NOVEMBER 13, 2009!!!! PLEASE PRAY THAT IT GOES SMOOTHLY AND WE ARE ABLE TO TRAVEL BEFORE CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

A Great Success!

Chillin at the yard sale (notice W2's bookmarks-)

Some of our yard sale contributions!

W2 cleaning up a toy!

Our yard sale for Baby B's orphanage this past Saturday was a great success!! We had 20+ friends and family donate items and we made $800.00 for Baby B's foster care center in Ethiopia. It was so much fun and we had such wonderful responses from strangers who came to the yard sale. Thanks to all who supported us!! We can feel all of the prayers lifting us up!

Courts in Ethiopia reopened on Monday, Oct. 12th. At least one family from our agency has received a court date in a couple of weeks. I keep hoping that the next phone call we get, is Natalie with our court date!!

Have a great week!!

Still here!

Run W2, RUN!!

My little nascar driver

Dad B trying to pass W1!

W2 and his pal since birth, E. She is a sweetheart.

We are staying so busy at the Britt household. Soccer, scouts, tennis, choir, SCHOOL, remodeling and now a yard sale. W1 has decided to do his school project on the orphans of Ethiopia. In conjunction with his project, he is having a yard sale and all of the proceeds will go towards buying supplies for Baby B's orphanage. We have been cleaning out the house and hopefully friends will come through with some donations for the sale. Every little bit helps. We are so proud of the boys for wanting to donate their time (and toys) for such a wonderful cause.

A wonderful family, sent us 14 pictures of our daughter this past weekend (while I was at the beach scrapbooking her life book). They took a care package to Ethiopia for us and it is so neat to see her holding items that we picked out just for her. Our case worker has also sent several updates this week and we feel so blessed to see how happy she is and how much she is growing. She has a head full of beautiful black curls!!!

On a sad note, the courts in Ethiopia are not reopening on schedule so several families have lost their court dates. Please pray for quick, new court dates for them and that we receive a court date soon as well. Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and prayers-you don't know how much they help!!

Happy 17 months, Baby B!! WE LOVE YOU!!

SEVEN SHOTS!!! (each)

Dad B's grandmothers 90th birthday celebration.

Our new hobby-the men all caught a catfish at the same time!!

Well, it has been awhile since I have updated our blog. Everything is going well-we are definately staying busy with school, sports, scouts and church. We still have a lot of remodeling to do but hopefully we will be finished by the middle of October. We finally got (some) of our shots today. Oh, it hurt, but Dad B was proud of me-I did not pass out. We have so much else to do-packing alone could take weeks. No, we don't have a court date but we are VERY hopeful we will get an October date and have her home by Thanksgiving. Wishful thinking...maybe...but I just need her in my arms. Everyday she is growing bigger and bigger and we are MISSING IT!! I am just so thankful for our agency and the caregivers in Ethiopia. The children all look so loved and happy.
Today, Baby B. turned 17 months old. I thought about her all day-especially during the shots-and wondered if she knows how loved she is. Everyone is so excited about her-the number of people who ask about her, send notes to us, and of course pray for us is staggering. We have been so blessed. I am saving everything to create a Lifebook for her to have when she gets older. It makes me sad that we don't know what her first 12 months were like, but we are going to have so many memories together!!
Have a wonderful week. It is wonderful to see the referral list on the FBI getting longer!

Tagged

OK, Tam tagged me, so here goes:

1. I am scared to death to get on an airplane. The last time I flew, I was 18. The next time I fly, I will probably be by myself on a 22+ hour trip to Ethiopia. TERRIFYING!!!!

2. I am addicted to interior decorating magazines. I have so many, and I can't throw them away. The thought of ripping out pages (and saving them in a folder like the organizational magazines say) is unbearable. What if I need to see an article I have thrown away!! Interior design blogs have helped a bit...I don't go to bookstores as much as I used to, sometimes I just surf the web.

3. I had a tubal ligation during my second c-section and regretted it the next day. I knew I made a terrible mistake. I had a tubal reversal in 2007 but in my heart I knew that we would adopt-and here we are!!

4. I am CHEAP!! I won't pay full price for anything. In fact, thanks to all of the magazines I hoard, we have decorated much of our house with furniture and accessories from a warehouse in town that sells a lot of junk. Luckily, my sweet husband can fix anything!

5. I don't like cats. I think they are so sneaky. BUT, my favorite pet is our cat, Winter, aka Mittens, aka Kitty, aka Bootina, aka Cleopatra (we can't decide on a name for her...she is probably one confused cat!) (by the way we have a cat, three dogs, 2 turtles, 3 fish and a frog) She is the best animal I have ever had-She just chills-even though W2 terrorizes her-he throws her over his shoulders like a scarf-I just love that cat-go figure!!!

6. I LOVE sports (especially college football)!!! So many wives complain about their husbands watching too many games on TV but I watch WAY more than my husband does. W1 is a sports fan, as well. He gets up every morning to watch ESPN and he is in a fantasy football league online. I was a cheerleader in high school but would have loved to play football or flag football.

7. OK, last one, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I have been a stay-at-home mom for the last 10 years. Before that, I had quite a few jobs, none that I was passionate about!! I am very passionate about adoption so maybe I can explore that field. We will see...I have a wonderful husband who is such a great provider and I have been so blessed to be able to stay at home with our children. Baby B...can't wait for you to get here!!! We love you so much.

TAG to anyone who reads our post!!

Back to School Blues

Heading to school-Nana and Pawpaw made a sign for their first day!

This is what Kitty-aka Bootina-thinks of the sign-I know she did this to torment Nana who does not like cats!

Well, our boys went back to school today. They had a great day-I just missed them so much. We had a great summer together! They are really excited about their classes and I think they were ready to go back, I was just not ready for them to...

The boys had a great time showing all of the teachers Baby B's pictures at open house. She is already so loved by everyone. You can't help but love her when you see her. One of my friends called and said that every time she walks by Baby B's picture, she thinks about how she is going to rule the roost and have everyone wrapped around her finger-(she already does) W2 and I went shopping for her yesterday and he was so funny. He picked out the cutest outfits and at one point when I was scanning items, he said, "Mom, I'm going back in..." and charged back through the aisles. He is so happy about his little sister and I am so thankful because he is giving up his "baby" status.

Have a great week. A family received a referral yesterday...keep them coming, Gladney, we need some more families on the referral list!!

Somewhere over the Rainbow

Referral day! We were driving in the car to go celebrate and saw this beautiful rainbow! What a wonderful sign!

A sweet family traveling at the end of the month is going to take this to Baby B. and give her a big hug for us! The boys picked out the outfit and were so excited!! I hope I will get a picture with our daughter wearing it!

Shopping with Nana!

One of the pictures we sent to Baby B. We were laughing thinking that she is going to wonder who that hairy looking boy with the big ears is!! Buddy the dog is a ham!

This is our last week before the boys go back to school and we find out who their teachers are tonight. I cannot believe the summer is over!

We had a great weekend at the lake and yesterday we went back to school shopping with Nana-
They will look spiffy for their first day back.

We keep looking at Baby B's pictures and love her so much! When the boys go to school, I am going to start painting rooms-We are still working on W1's room - thanks to my Dad it is going to be so cool-a real "tween" room.

Have a great week!