Time is FLYING by!

Oh man, it is just crazy busy around here. Gracie is amazing and growing way too fast! 2 teeth and crawling! She is the light of this family. I still wake up and cannot believe she is here. Our summer has flown by. Baseball is all over. Justin's team decided not to play in the state tournament, but Cameron's team did and we spent a weekend in Greeley. His team WON, so they are state champs for 9A! It was awesome and Cameron even got some pitching time. He did great, struck out some too. We had a huge storm here the other day, and our city has been devastated. We have trees in our yard with NO leaves, and we have very large trees. It wiped out all the flowers and gardens, was horrible. Tons of hail damage to our cars...I guess it was time for "fall" cleaning. My sister from TX is here with her 2 kids, so we spent 2 days cleaning up the yard! We had over 65 bags of trash. Not a very fun summer vacation for Lori and her kids, but they were a great help since Mat was at work for 2 days. We are having our church here on Sunday for a pool baptism. It will be so much fun and what a way to start my immersion for a new life!
We also had our pictures taken by a wonderful lady at Contemporary Expressions. She is part of the celebrating adoption photographers and she is AMAZING! Our pictures came out great and can't wait to share them. Here is a sneak peek:



To check out more of Tanja's work you can visit her at www.contemporaryexpressions.net. She will be more than happy to help you out. She LOVES what she does and to her it is truly art!

Next week we are leaving for Wyoming to visit some of my family. We are going to do some white water rafting, visit Yellowstone and see lots of wildlife we hope. It should be a nice break before football is in full swing!
Tyler, Gracie and I are also going on a 4 day trip to visit our dear friends, The Beckings and The Outmans. The Outmans just came home with their twin boys and The Beckings were our travel partners. We cannot wait to be all together again!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and the update. I will post more when I can.

Finally an Update!

Ok, so I never thought adding one more would cause total chaos! Good chaos I mean, but yes, we are busier than ever! Summer is here, camps, swimming, baseball, get together's, etc....whoo. So exhausting, but we are loving every minute. To say the least we love introducing Gracie to everyone. She lights up the room! It is truly amazing. I still wake up in the middle of the night to go peek in on her, and pinch myself! Is that really her? Thank you God for your goodness. Thank you for giving Mat and I the opportunity to be her parents. She has cut her first tooth, she loves to eat. She is a "go with the flow" little girl. We had her ears pierced. She cried briefly, but other than being hungry, she does not cry. She smiles ALL the time. The boys adore her. Tyler is her best friend and will do anything for her. Sometimes he does not like it very much if Gracie wants to love on us! I guess that is just him being 2! Tyler loves to read to her and take baths. We have had her swimming and she loves the water. In Ethiopia she did not like the bath, so this is a real treat considering we have a pool. Ok, now for the best part: PICTURES!

We are home and LOVING Gracie!

Our lives are fully blessed and we completely celebrated with our incredible friends and family yesterday! Gracie Ayantu is wonderful, totally happy and fits in perfectly with our family. Our trip to Ethiopia was fantastic and totally life changing. We are humbled and honored that Ethiopia has allowed us the gift to raise one of their country's children, Ethiopia is an amazing country and we are forever grateful. Thank you to all who have prayed us through this incredible journey. We will fill you in on more details and pictures as we get some more rest and catch up with life.

With much love and blessings,
Mat, Stacey and Gracie (and the 4 boys who cannot get enough of their little sister!)
P.S. Beckings, We are MISSING you guys something terrible! Love you tons! Please kiss Ms. Solie for us.

We arrived and Have our baby girl!

We arrived today and were able to go pick up our baby girl. She is incredible and it was definitely love at first sight! Gracie Ayantu knew who we were right from the start. God is so good and we are truly blessed. She smiles all the time, laughs and giggles and is even rolling over. Addis Ababa is amazing from what we have seen. The orphanage is a very well run and clean place. You can tell the children are very well taken care of.

We will try to update and post some pictures when the internet is running.

Love and Hugs to all,

Mat, Stacey and Gracie.

Leaving on a jet plane!

This is incredible; in less than 12 hours we will be heading to Addis Ababa to go get our beautiful daughter, Gracie Ayantu! This entire journey has been lead by God and we are thrilled to be following His plan for our family. Please pray for safe travels and health along the way. We cannot wait for Gracie to come home and meet her entire FAMILY!!!! Thank you all again for the love and support.
With lots of love,
Mat and Stacey

Test

This is a TEST to see how this can work from Ethiopia!

Our time has come!

Oh dear ones, it has been awhile since I have posted because SO much has been happening! We passed court last Thursday! Thank you Jesus and thank you to all who covered us in prayer. Now, today, we got "the call" embassy date has been assigned and it is May 6th!!!! Oh my word, we were not expecting it so soon, but are grateful and blessed beyond belief to bring Gracie home! We made our plane reservations today and are leaving next Friday, May 1st. Mat and I will spend our anniversary in Dubai! (Saturday May 2nd) and then be in Addis Ababa, Sunday morning, May 3rd. We will be holding our beautiful daughter in just 12 short days! We are truly praising God for his goodness and this journey He has brought us on. There has been nothing we have ever done in our lives that has been this meaningful and joyous. (Well, the boys are pretty incredible too! LOL!) Please continue to pray over our travel and the travels of the other 2 families who are going at the same time. We are also asking you to pray for Gracie and that our faces will be put into her mind to let her know that we are on our way!