May Numbers

To celebrate the last day of May, we received our May monthly update. Our numbers will look familiar; they are the same as our April numbers. We trust that God is in control and are grateful to have moved as far along the list as we have! In case you forgotten, here are the numbers:

#23 for GIRL 

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.^"

^{Psalm 23}

^{#16 for BOY}

"Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Psalm 16

^{#4 for SIBLINGS}

"Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him. Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord! You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Psalm 4

The LORD is GOOD and FAITHFUL! Blessed be the name of the LORD!

  

 

5 months...

 I can hardly believe that tomorrow will be 5 months since we first saw this sweet picture (minus the little heart) :). This sweet little girl and her mother have been on my heart so much lately. In so many ways it feels like it has only been a moment since that day, and in other ways it feels like a lifetime ago. So much has happened in the past five months. I can honestly say that I didn't think we would be still waiting 5 months later, but I can also say that we have seen God's sovereignty and faithfulness each and every day. I hope that you will continue to pray for E and her mother with us...we love them so and pray that they feel the Lord's peace and presence each day.

We have had so many big changes and events in the past five months...Here are just a few we've captured on camera:

Another amazing trip to Haiti

 

(Apparently I'm boring, because I always seem to put kids to sleep there!) :)

We celebrated our 5th anniversary in Haiti. Our team decided to get us a cake to celebrate...so sweet! We decided to reenact our wedding 5 years ago :)

 

I love comparing these pictures...he knew better than to put cake in my face the first time!

Other notable events...Josh took his first job as senior pastor,

lost his beard,

 found his beard :)

We moved. (crazy!)

The Braddy's lost 35lbs. (together, respectively...we're proud of our hard work) :)

This cute little bro of mine graduated from college (yay, Zach!)

 

Babies were born (and Josh actually held one!)

We were excited to welcome baby Callen to our friends Mark and Dara (pictured below)

and baby Isaac to our friends Drew and Mary Allison

 

And the most shocking of all...we got a cat. (We are not cat-lovers, but we are having fun with ole Smokey Joe).

Those are just a few random tidbits from the last few months. We have also joyously welcomed home several beautiful children from Ethiopia to many of our dear friends. It is so incredible to watch their journeys to bring their children home finally come to fruition. We are inspired by their faithfulness and desire to be faithful and bring glory to our Lord as we grow to know and love Him more. We are so thankful that through this adoption we learn more about our Father's heart and His love for us as His children. Thanks for your prayers! Love to you all!
Katie

"I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.^" Psalm 16:7-10

April Numbers

Here they are! We welcomed these lovely numbers to our inbox on the very last day of April!

GIRL:

BOY:

 

SIBLINGS:

BOOM! There you go! We are super excited! Still busy settling in, so we will update more in a bit! Thank you for your prayers! We love you!

"You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety." Psalm 4:7-8

The Big Move

Well, I'm a bit sleep-deprived at this point...my sweet hubby is even more so. Today was our first Sunday with our new faith family and we are completely overwhelmed by how welcoming and precious everyone has been. Since my mind is a bit cloudy (you know, from the sleep deprivation) I will keep this short and sweet. Hopefully you will get a few laughs from our interesting weekend :).
 
Here is what I know:


1. It is never a good idea to move on Friday the 13th.

To keep it brief, our moving company had a little truck trouble, so we finally brought the last box into our new home at about 6am Saturday. But we made it! Yay! Thankful to finally be here!


2. I love the views from our new house!

The views are beautiful! Pictures do not do it justice. Here is another thing I know...I am enjoying these views from INSIDE the house because the mosquitoes are GIANT and EVERYWHERE. I think I finally understand what those little "Off" fans are for, he he! :) It's amazing how the climate changes just a few hours south in MS. We'll just say, I'm currently stocking up on bug spray and hair spray (the frizz wars begin!).

3. Weimaraners (or at least ours) travel best when sedated, enough said.

4. Laundry will now be considered working out :).

 I LOVE older homes, and we LOVE the home we are living in, but sometimes you just have to chuckle at how things are laid out. We have decided you can get a full body workout from doing laundry...BONUS! Lift, turn, squat, lift, turn, squat... No gym dues required!


5. The fun is about to begin!

This picture is worth a thousand words...sigh. Time to get my organize on!

    In all seriousness, we are so excited about this new chapter! We cannot wait to see what the Lord is going to do!!!!

"I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalm 18:1-2

Feels Like Spring

The trees are budding and the pollen is in full swing here in MS! I can hear the sounds of Spring through Josh's sneezing the April showers falling outside of our windows the past few days. It is hard to believe that it is already April! We are watching the signs of new growth in God's creation all around us and also feeling growing pains of our own as God is teaching us so much in this season of life. There is so much to share with you all!
  The newest trend that we have been experiencing in adoption updates is receiving our wait list numbers at the end of the month. There is no specific day that AGCI has assigned for these monthly updates, but lately we seem to be getting our monthly numbers near the last day of the month. Things have been so crazy lately (more on that later) that I neglected to share our February numbers, so here they are:

 #28 on the girl list,

 #20 on the boy list,

 and #7 on the siblings list.

  Always happy to see any sort of movement! Ending February with some good movement and into March with lots of exciting times! Josh and I were so disappointed to have to miss the airport party for two sweet families bringing home their little children from ET, but so happy that sweet Eve and Nathan are home with their families! We have been praying for these sweet little ones for a long time and are so overjoyed that they are home! We missed the airport party because we were in the air ourselves headed to Haiti! (I'll blog some more about that one later).

  March also brought many big decisions in the Braddy household. After much prayer and petition, we are following God's calling for our family to move a few hours south. Josh has accepted a new position as pastor and we are both so excited to see what God has in store! It is so bittersweet for us, as we LOVE where we are planted now, especially with our precious adoption community here. We hope that you will pray for us in this time of transition as we will be moving in the next few weeks. We are already amazed at what the Lord is teaching us through this transition and expectant as He continues to grow us closer to Him.

  March was a wonderful time for me to get away and be refreshed at the Created for Care retreat. I was able to attend this retreat in January 2011 and was just so blessed from every second! Though I was not able to attend in January, the precious ladies who put on this retreat decided to have a second retreat this year in March! Yay! It was such a blessing to be able to room with some fellow AGCI moms and get to know so many other adoptive mamas. The Lord spoke to me in so many ways and it was such a precious time to learn from other seasoned adoptive mothers. Here are a few pictures I snapped over the weekend:

Always love seeing that ET flag! So excited to be in GA!

 

What a precious time to get to meet a bunch of AGCI Mamas! I just love this pic!

 

 

 Watching and marveling at the beautiful Georgia sunrise. Thanks God!

 

And on the ride home...just being reminded of all of the promises of our Heavenly Father. What an end to a beautiful weekend! So thankful we are loved by a Faithful God!

And of course Monday morning enjoying a cup 'o' joe in my 2012 mug :)

 

So, after C4C, the last week of March was pretty much a blur! But we did enjoy finding these little puppies in our inbox...March numbers! 

On the girl list, we are #24

 

On the boy list, we are #18 (woo, out of the 20's!!!)

And #5 on the sibling list! Yipee!!!!

  So...here we are, a few days into April and preparing for some big changes to come! But don't worry, we're soaking up as much fun and relaxation as we can right now :)

  We are loving and trusting our Father and His timing, that no matter the circumstance we find our Joy in Him alone! :) Love you all!

Katie

"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places..." Habakkuk 3:17-19

Deja Vu

  Okay...can you guess what we did today?! Yup! Fingerprints....again! For the fifty billionth time! (Okay, maybe I exaggerate, a bit) :) The great thing is: we're pros at this now! We were in, out, and on our way without those "did I do it right?" nerves. It was quite refreshing, actually! Though, I must admit, I checked 10 times at the FedEx store to make sure everything was accounted for and completed correctly. Ah, adoption paperwork...it's just not something you want to have to re-do, ha ha! Though we would gladly do all of this a billion more times if it means that we are another step closer to bringing home the rest of the Braddy family! (Oh, and I know you all love my giant movie star glasses...I get made fun of for them, but I don't care...they make me feel pretty :) )

  To give you a little update, we are currently in the process of updating our home study, which expires at the end of April. So we are back in paperwork mode. We have been filling out financials, background checks, medical updates, and all that jazz. Hopefully we will be greeting our social worker soon to complete a home visit update.

  All that being said, we are feeling so renewed during this waiting time. We are so thankful for all that God has been teaching us and showing us these past few months...and just resting in His Sovereignty. How awesome is it that He is in control of every single step of this! We are basking in that truth right now and are thankful for the refreshment that He has given us. Praying and trusting that He will continue to strengthen us and reveal Himself to us through this process! Love you all! Happy Tuesday!

Shalom, Katie 

"But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." Psalm 73:28

January Numbers!

  Okay folks! I'm just gonna get right down to it...here are our January numbers:

    (Drumroll, please.....)

 Number 30 on the girl list!

 Number 23 on the boy list!

and number 7 on the sibling list!

  So, for those of you who are confused or don't remember, since we lost our referral for precious "E", we have been returned back to the wait list in the place we were before our referral. We have had a little bit of movement on the list since then, so we are grateful to be a little closer than we were before! Of course, with our parameters being 0-5 years old, it is difficult to give a time frame (as is evident by our last referral). It really has everything to do with this...God's Sovereignty. It is about Him placing the right child or children at the exact right time according to His perfect will! And we are so trusting in that!

  I just want to thank you all so much for the precious outpouring of love that you have given us since the loss of our referral. We continue to pray for sweet "E" and her mother that the Lord will continually bless them and draw them close to Him. We have truly felt surrounded with love and peace and have already seen how God has been glorified through this situation through opportunities and conversations that God has brought about.

  January has been a wild month! I must say that one of the highlights of my month was getting to meet my very first "blog friend" in person! (It sounds a little creepy, but I promise it isn't!) You may remember that last year I attended a conference for adoptive moms called "Created for Care." It was amazing! Well, this year, they are having two retreats in January and March! Yay! I was unable to attend the January retreat because we were scheduled to be in Africa, however, I was able to meet sweet Courtney when she stayed with our neighbor Alison on her way back to Texas from C4C! It was such a sweet time to get to hear her heart and visit with her and Alison and talk about how wonderful our Lord is and how we have seen his faithfulness through this journey of adoption! You should check out Courtney's blog here. I am so thankful for her heart for God and for orphans! What a precious and encouraging friend!

   Shockingly, I am actually out of words at this point. I just want you to know that Josh and I love you all so much. We hope you will continue to pray and praise with us for all that God is doing! He is so good and faithful!

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."  Psalm 16:11

Our Gracious God

   Today we had a scheduled conference call to go through some of our travel plans with one of the caseworkers with our agency. Before our call, we received another call from our personal caseworker, K. Today was the scheduled court date for E's birth mother to relinquish her parental rights. K informed us that E's birth mother has reported a change in her health and circumstances so that she now feels that she will be able to parent E and bring her home. While this is difficult news to hear, and our hearts are hurting, we are praising God! This is glorious news and we are rejoicing with E and her mother!
  Throughout this journey, even before we saw sweet E's face, I have felt such a tender bond in my heart for her birth mother. I have been praying for her probably more than I have prayed for E. I have thought of her all day long, and have even prayed that God would reunite E and her birth mother if there was any possible way and if that be His will. This is such an ideal situation...a family reunited, redeemed, and restored. God is glorified in this! If it is in our hurt and pain, then praise God for He is gracious to us, gracious to E and to her birth mother! In an ideal world, adoption would not exist, because there would be no orphans...so we praise God that E is no longer an orphan and that "F" (her birth mother) is no longer sick and separated from her child. This adoption was never about us or what we would receive from it (though our blessings have already been so many). We are only trying to be obedient to the call that God has placed on our hearts so that HE may be glorified in all things! We believe that He is sovereign and that He is glorified in our pain and in this circumstance.
   Let me just share with you how He is gracious to us even in the smallest things - I was in a conference for work and received a call from K that I could not answer. I was able to listen to my voicemail at the lunch break and received the most perfectly worded and soothing voicemail that prepared me for difficult news. I had a missed call from Josh. I called him, prepared to hear what he had to say. Through his tears he shared with me that E would be reunited with her mother. Through my tears, my heart sang "Thank you, Father." By the time he was able to share the news with me, he was already en route to see me (Thank you, God, for your graciousness). I was able to spend my lunch break with him crying, praying, and rejoicing (Thank you, Lord, for your graciousness). Received a text from Josh at the end of my conference (which I attempted not to cry through) that said he had talked to the airline and our tickets will be good through next January (Thank you, God, for your graciousness). This was the "kicker" for me - He also said "The lady at the airline was so sweet...she was an adoptive mom" (PRAISE YOU, FATHER, for your graciousness in the smallest of things)!!!!
   Our sole desire is for God to be glorified in our lives, and in the lives of E and F. We pray that this is so...Our hearts ache to be with E and F and to tell them how much we love them and how much our Lord loves them, but we trust that they will know these things. We grieve and rejoice - God has given us such peace that truly does surpass all human understanding. We praise Him for this and all things.
   I know that many of you wonder, what's next? God has called us to adopt from Eth*opia, and we are going to continue this journey He has called us to. It is our understanding that we will be returned to the waiting list in the same place we were before we received our referral for our precious E. We will keep you informed of other details as we receive them. We beg that you will continue to pray for E and her birth mother, F. Pray that God will continue to bless them, draw them close to Himself, and glorify Himself through their lives! We ask that you praise Him with us for this incredible gift of the restoration and redemption of a family. There is one less orphan in the world, Praise God!

   I will end by sharing with you what Josh and I read today. It is long, but I ask that you please read it...it is such beautiful TRUTH! Thank you and we love you all so much!

Katie
  
 ^"So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him! That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good."  Romans 8:12-28 (The Message) paraphrase

Turbo Nesting

  Whew! That is the sound of me wiping the sweat from my brow and falling onto the couch in exhaustion! So much to do, so little time! Josh and I have been frantically making packing lists and preparations for our trip...less than 2 weeks...eek!
  Most people do this thing called "nesting" while they are waiting to receive that glorious call (just like people do when they are pregnant)...getting ready to welcome home their precious child. In the adoption journey there can often be a long long time to nest...a little at a time. An outfit here, a bedspread there, a toy in between. Well...not the case in the Braddy house. You see, we have had absolutely NO idea what to expect, so it was nearly impossible to plan and "nest". Would we have one child or 2? Boy or girl? Or boy and girl? Baby? Toddler? 5-year old? 2 boys? 2 girls?....1 girl!!! (The most beautiful one in the world, too!)
  With such a short time between our referral and court date, we have been frantically trying to prepare a few things to help ease the transition for "E". One thing that we will be bringing to her on our trip is a photo album with pictures of her, our home, dogs, the two of us, our church, her room, etc...You get the point. Well, the room that we have planned for sweet "E" has been somewhat of a glorified storage room for us since we moved into our home. It was very important to me that we have a picture of "the bare essentials" in her room so that she will have some small idea what to expect and we could include a picture in her photo album. This means two things to me - a bed, and ...PAINT. I shudder at the word (or should I say Josh shudders at the word). There is nothing more dreaded in the world than having to paint, ugh. So that is what we are doing...turbo nesting - warp speed! Hopefully we will be finished painting tonight, have her bed together tomorrow and voila! Enough for now!
   ...all that junk that got moved to the MIDDLE of the living room will just have to find a home over the next few weeks, ha ha!
  Here is a bit of our progress:

More to come later...back to painting!

Katie

"For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." Psalm 100:5

WE GOT A COURT DATE!!!!

   Hallelujah! Praise to the Almighty, Faithful Lord! We are jumping for joy and slightly freaking out at the Braddy house today! We got the call from K this morning! So the freaking out commenced because we leave for Eth*opia in 2 WEEKS!!! EEEK! I have to go ahead and talk about my husband and his "crazy predictions" or really just plain old optimism. He has told me a million times that we would get a referral before Christmas and I told him he had lost his mind. He was right, I was wrong (He is loving that I am typing this right now). Then he has been telling me that we will travel at the end of January. Once again, I told him he had lost his mind. And...once again: He was right, I was wrong. I, however, am SO SO SO glad he was right! I pray that I would have a little more optimism and less "practical-ism" (I know it's not a word).
  Well it is such a good thing that earlier this week we went to get our travel shots when we had the time. We spent 3.5 lovely hours at the health department with everybody and their uncle. It was grand, ha ha! We didn't care because every step we make is one step closer to "E"! Thank you, Jesus! We took a few pictures we thought we'd share with you:

 Josh was such a trooper! Even with his fake "scared" smile.

And he forgot to take my picture when I got my shots...so here I am completely over-excited with a super cheesy grin.

  We also got such a fun surprise this week from my Mama! A baby doll for "E". I had a similar Madame Alexander doll when I was a little girl, so my Mama couldn't resist sending one for her new granddaughter. She's a cutie too!

   Okay, well, we best be off to getting things ready! Keep praying! We'll keep you updated! God is so good and faithful!

Shalom,
Katie

"This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!" Romans 8:15-17 from The Message (paraphrase) 

Oh, I forgot...the giveaway...oops! Okay...here is the random number...

Here are your random numbers:

1

Timestamp: 2012-01-06 23:35:18 UTC

Congrats to Claire! Email me you address and I'll send you your awesome CD!