Busy, busy, busy!

I have been wanting to blog but we have been soooo busy! So I am going to "back blog" a little, ok a lot.

March 14th - STATE WRESTLING TOURNAMENT!
Austin did AWESOME!!! We are so proud of him. He won his 1st match 11-0, 2nd match he lost by 1 point in overtime (should have won that one!), 3rd match won by pin, 4th match won by pin, 5th match lost by in points!!! Wow what a day. He had a huge crowd of family cheering him on. It was such and intense and long day. I just love watching him wrestle. By that 5th match he was exhausted. He was so close to making it to the finals which would have landed him at least 3rd place. Nick and I were so excited to see how well he did. This is only his first year wrestling. What an accomplishment. Of course Austin was upset after that last match but after explaining to him how awesome he did and how cool it was he even made it to State his first year he finally starting perking up. By his last match it was only him and the coaches son left out of our entire team. How cool is that! The coaches son ended up placing first in his weight class. I will post a match or 2 on the blog soon.



BASEBALL is in full swing!
It seems we are now at the ball field every single night. Olivia did great at her first game. She got a great hit and did well playing short stop. She stopped a ground ball and held the runners at one point. She did just as well as the boys on her team. She was always "baseball ready" while the others were busy kicking dirt. I am wondering if she will do a little better hitting with her glasses on. I honestly don't care if they are broken. They are insured and I really want to get her a new pair to match her spring outfits. :) I got the cutest pictures of her.

Look at that awesome swing!



Yes, that is as far as it went...



Austin's team has now had 3 games. Poor boys, they try so hard and just can't get a win under their belt. They lost the last game by one stinkin point. They are really starting to play as a team now and I think they will win the next game. They are such a great group of boys! Even when they lose big they are still smiling and having a good time, that is what it is all about. They deserve a win though... Austin is playing great and getting good hits. He has made a couple goofy errors, not sure what he was thinking at one point, but I think his girlfriend was a mental distraction at the last game.





Yes, I said girlfriend! Little Isabelle is cute as can be. Her and Austin met at the baseball field last year, Austin was not even playing he was watching his uncle play. Since then they have been boyfriend/girlfriend even through the long time frames of not seeing each other. I have never seen 2 kids their age act like they do together. They will walk around the baseball field for hours just talking, what about I have no clue. It is sweet though.

ADOPTION UPDATE
We are getting close! Only 6 weeks left until our court date on May 8th. As of now our tentative travel dates have actually moved up one week, we are currently scheduled to leave May 24th and return home June 3rd. We won't know for sure though until May 8th. There is a chance that our travel dates could get pushed back to the second week of June. Even further if we don't pass court on May 8th. All of the families recently have been passing court the first time so that is very encouraging that hopefully we will have a successful court date and will be bringing Nathen home very soon. Wow, I really have a lot to do to get ready. The past few days they have been without power in in Ethiopia. I did get an email from our social worker a couple days ago saying that Nathen is doing well, no actual updated info or pics though. I have a wonderful family traveling next week, to bring home their 2 little girls, that are going to take pics of Nathen for us. I can't wait to see how much he has grown and changed! I really hope she will be able to hold him and play with him to give me more info about his personality and development.

We really want to have a good amount of supplies to take to the orphanage and our agencies transition home. Here is a list of supplies needed if any friends/family would like to donate items for the orphanage:

Childrens Tylenol/Advil
Infant Tylenol/Advil
Childrens Benadryl
Infant Bendaryl
Vitamins-Chewable or Liquid Drops
Ambesol
Lice shampoo
Anti-itch creams
Cloth Diapers
Onesies
Blankets
Socks

NEW COURT DATE!!! AHHHHHH!!! YAY!!!

YAY!!! We are so excited!!! We just found out our court date in Ethiopia has been MOVED UP! It is now scheduled for May 8th! I know that is only 4 days but it can make a difference on when we travel. We should know if our Visa appt and travel dates will change in the next few days. Even if we don't travel sooner at least he will officially be our baby sooner. :) I don't know why we were rescheduled but I am not complaining that's for sure. Several families were rescheduled for May 8th. Court dates had been getting delayed due to one judge being out on maternity leave, and now that she is back I think they are trying to push families through court quicker. Now we have less than 2 months until our court date! GOD IS GOOD!!!

We have hooked up with 2 wonderful families with the same court date, we are all trying to get on the same flights. One family is here in GA also, which is really cool. Plus our babies are all about the same age. It is going to be so much fun!!! I can't wait...

I am currently working travel arrangements. Plane ticket prices are insane but we are working with a wonderful travel agent who got us a great price. We have tickets on hold right now pending travel date changes. We are trying to decide on a guest house. We figured staying at the House of Hope will be difficult so we are going to book a guest house just in case.

So, what's going on?

Austin has been so sick!!!! He is going on almost a week now. It started with throwing up and now the "other end". He is so weak and pale. I can't get him to eat or drink anything. He missed wrestling practice all week and I am worried about the State tournaments coming up next weekend. Of course he also missed school most of the week. I have heard from other parents there is a bad stomach virus going around lasting 10-14 days! I don't know what to do. There is no way he will be able to compete in the tournament if he does not get better soon. His little body will take some time to recoup after being so sick. This is actually a bad picture from our trip last fall to Callaway Gardens but this is about what he looks like only a few shades whiter.



Olivia is also playing baseball! She is on the T-Ball Giants. I went today and bought her pink/black cleats, pink/black glove, and pink/black batting gloves. It is so cute. I never thought I would let my prissy little girl play baseball. She is so excited though. She did really well at practice and I was surprised at how well she hit the ball off the tee. The coaches were impressed she knew how to run the bases and in the right direction. :) She has another little girl on her team, which I was really glad about. Now she just needs a pink bat, bag, and pink helmet.

COURT DATE!!!!! :)

We have a court date!!! I am so excited!!! May 12th is THE DATE!!! This is all coming together now and it is like "wow this is really happening". We have an estimated Visa/Embassy appt date of June 5th so we should be traveling May 31st to June 8th. I hope our court date goes well and is finalized on May 12th or they will reschedule it pushing back our court and travel dates usually about a month or more. Nathen, we are coming... :)

Austin's Dog Crunch Cereal Commercial

Dog Crunch Cereal

Snow Day Pics

Snow Day

We never get snow. The news has been saying for several days we would get a few inches today and I really figured they would be wrong as usual. It was 70 degrees here yesterday! Well, I was busy cleaning house this morning and realize it is snowing! It quickly starting snowing harder and harder and sticking to the ground. I still needed to go shopping, we were out of everything. Olivia and I loaded up and headed to the store, Nick and Austin were at a wrestling camp, and I was surprised at how bad the roads already were. Kroger was a mad house. Everyone acts like we will be snowed in for a week, in reality this will all be gone tomorrow. If people would just get what they need and get out it would make things so much smoother. The lines to check out were insane. I had 7 buggies in front of mine. It is really pretty, here is the view from my desk I am looking at now.



Austin had to do a cereal commercial for a school project. I thought it would be so cute to have Olivia eating the "cereal" in her pj's. Well she would not cooperate, as usual. It was pretty funny though to get her bad mood on video. I tried to get Austin to coax her but it just made her even more grumpy. Enjoy! :)