July 5th, 2010

Howdy!
Since we just passed the 4th..we can't forget to say God Bless America!
We have been too busy that I apologize for not posting sooner. Just a few days after my surgery I went to Las Vegas, girls only trip with 7 other Texas Ladies..plenty of fun and silliness between the 8 of us! From Vegas I flew straight to San Antonio and was able to visit friends and family we haven't seen in months. We ate plenty of good food, traveled all over TX visiting, and my family and friends even threw us an adoption party to celebrate our boys and shower them with nice gifts. Wow it was wonderful! The best gift was a video...one of my best girlfriends videoed each of the guests at the party introducing themselves to Taft and Zeke. We are thrilled to show the boys their friends and family before they have the opportunity to meet them in person. We cant wait for them to start recognizing faces and putting names with them. From Tx we drove back to AZ with Mom int he back seat as well. We returned a family of 3! Mom and I have worked to get everything ready for Taft and Zeke and explore AZ..last few times with out 2 little ones, so trying to make the most of family time. We were given word that we should know something about court soon. We were told first families should know something this week and they are still hopeful to squeeze us in before Aug 9th. We are trying to make plans for the next few months of our life and need to have a court date in order to do so. We looked at the calendar and if we make it by Aug then the boys will be max of 8 months when they are home, or a max of 9.5 if we miss the Aug deadline. We believe our God is in control and we have given our lives to Him. Now we just wait to see the plan he has for us. We are hopeful for making it in before Aug 9th. We assumed by now we would have been to Ethiopia and back. But these new laws are throwing us for a loop. Now instead of preparing for our 2nd trip to Africa, we are still waiting to hear about our 1st trip there. Normally we are very calm and have truck loads of patience, but knowing our boys are in an orphanage growing up with out us is heart breaking. We just got new pictures and info on the boys as well. Zeke weighs in a 11 pounds, and Taft at 13. And.....drum roll please......Taft can roll over! Bittersweet..we are missing milestones, but developmentally he is surely holding his own! If you would like our new photos shoot us an email at tylerandnikki@cox.net. In all the hustle and bustle we forget who has and who has not seen them. Thursday we leave for a family reunion in Ruidoso, so things will be a little wild, but if we get word about court...like we should...we will find time to post!

Prayer request...the health of our boys and a court date between now and August 9th!