And the winner is...

Jim and Connie Taylor!!   Jim and Connie are from Brentwood, Tennessee and they are the proud parents of two awesome boys who have both been a part of my summer acting camp.  This is a great family and I'm thrilled that they won.  Woo hoo.

I just can't say a big enough thank you to all of you who donated to our travel fund - we raised $1900 towards our expenses.  One ticket this trip was $1600 so we paid for one ticket, plus.  Yay.   Praise God from Whom ALL blessings flow.

Ok - here is even bigger news.  We got a call at 6:50 this morning from our friend, Shane Putty.  He said that his wife, Kelly (who's over in Ethiopia right now) was with our kids at that very moment and they wanted to Skype with us!  Oh my word - I jumped out of bed SO fast (have I mentioned that we home school so this was a tad early for us - ha!!).   We looked a mess as we gathered around my computer to talk to our sweet kiddos.  It was amazing.  Kelly said that she was about to leave the orphanage but that they were asking her so many questions about us and she realized she had her computer and the internet thingy majig in the van - so she ran and got it.  They sang, "Jesus Loves Me" to us.  Bennet said, "May I please see my bedroom".  AAAHHHH   I explained that it wasn't quite ready yet and there was stuff all over the place cause we are preparing to paint it - but we carried the computer upstairs and showed her the bunk bed and her closet!!   I had just recently bought some clothes for her on eBay so I washed them yesterday and had a stack of clothes ready to put away today - so I held those up and said, "These clothes are going in the closet for you".   She was so excited.  It was precious.

We showed Kaleb and Kali their bunk beds, too, and when we showed Kaleb his comforter he started giggling.  Priceless.  Then we took a minute to make sure that they were ok with us changing their names just a little bit - cause we were calling them by their new names and all of a sudden I thought, "what if they are thinking, 'who the heck are you talking to?'".  LOL    We first asked Bennet (whose African name is Bemnet) if she liked the name Bennet and if she was ok with it, and she said she does like Bennet.  One down.  Whew.   Then we told Kaleb (whose name is Kalab - so basically just pronounced a little differently) that the way you pronounce his name here is, Kaleb.  We asked if he was ok with that and he shook his head yes.  Two down.   Then we asked Kali (her African name is Kalkidan) if we could call her Kali - she shook her head very dramatically and said, "YES!".  It was adorable.   She and Bennet are very talkative and very animated.  Kaleb appears to be the quiet one, but we shall see.  (:

Then they wanted to sing us another song and they sang a song (in English) of the days of the week and the months of the year.  It was so cute.   They have good pitch.  Whew.  LOL

Oh, at the very beginning of the conversation all they kept saying was, "We love you".  Oh my gosh, ya'll.  It was just unreal.  Honestly, my daughter got off the Skype and said, "Mom, I love them to death....and I mean it".  It's just crazy amazing to see how God has orchestrated this.  I mean, come on!

So, what a way to start the day!!  And then a friend emailed to tell me that they said, "yes", to a referral today and it's a child I've been praying for off the Waiting Children list.   I was going crazy.  It's amazing the bond you develop with other adoptive families.  The friendships are formed fast and strong because of such like-mindedness.  It really is a God thing.  I'm grateful.  Very!

I thank each one of you for supporting us - whether financially or through prayer, or both - or acts of service, like our AMAZING Uncle Jim.  Can I just tell you about him real quick?  This guy is one of the best people I've ever known.  He would do anything for our family.  I wish that everyone had an "Uncle Jim" in their lives.  He has been helping with all the projects at our house.  We can never repay him for the work he has done for us -- all we can do is love him and call him family.  It's an honor.

So, it was a pretty darn amazing day - but just so you don't think I've got it made in the shade (ha!), I did have to get a mammogram today!   Ouch!   LOL    But even that can't bring me down from these clouds.

HOLLA!!!