Half a year already???

Liddy, I can not believe 6 months have gone by since we brought you home from the hospital! You are doing great and have been such a joy to us. We can't take you anywhere without you drawing a crowd with your gummy smile. You are the spitting image of your daddy and everyone loves the blue eyes that you share with him.
You are sleeping 12 hrs at night and take a 2-3 hr morning nap and a 1.5-2hr afternoon nap. Sometimes you even take a cat nap in the evening! You have been eating 3 "meals" a day since you were 4 months and taking 4 bottles too!
You are actually trying to crawl but right now you are doing a great job at belly scooting to get your toys. Like your sister, you love Cruz. When he comes in every morning you giggle at him while I feed you your breakfast. You come to the YMCA with me and do a really good job, with the exception of one day. Your dad wants me to stop turning on the noise machine but I still think you need it with your noisy 3 yr old sister:) You love Bethany and get so excited when she focuses her attention on you. Today you were giggling at her while she threw a fit in the car!!
We are enjoying every moment with you, Liddy. I savor each day b/c I know I can never get these precious months back. We love you!

So happy on her half-birthday!

Her gummy grin that we love so much. Who wouldn't stop and babble with her?

Her sitting-up trick...

REFERRAL!!! And other life changing news...

We are busting at the seams with all sorts of wonderful news! First and foremost we want to announce that we have FINALLY been matched with our Ethiopian son! It's a journey that started 2 1/2 yrs ago and seemed like it would never end but here we are in the final stages of bringing him home. He is a beautiful and healthy 15 month old. He is in a small orphanage right now that has almost as many nannies as children. So that is wonderful news. We will give him Joey's name, Joseph Pearson, and call him J.P. Our family has been praying specifically for certain things in the life of this child that we were yet to know and God was faithful to those prayers. We prayed that he would have attention and love while not in our care and he been loved in his 15 months of life. Unfortunately we are unable to post pictures or too many details about him until our adoption is finalized and we bring him home. I really believe we were blessed with this referral after an act of obedience in another area of our life.

Two weeks ago we decided that we needed to move where God was calling us to and it's not here in Greenwood. In the same week that Joey started working for Ware Shoals Family Practice we also put in our notice to leave on Jan. 31, 2011. In 6 months we will be moving to Memphis, TN to work with a ministry called Christ Community Clinics. They have 5 clinics in the inner city areas of Memphis and move into these under served communities and work and start churches in neighborhoods. We did a rotation last May and loved it but when it came down to deciding to stay or leave this summer we did the most easy and comfortable thing. God worked on our hearts and we realized that we made a mistake and it wasn't too late to right this wrong. We will probably we traveling to Ethiopia to bring home JP around the same time that we move. It should make for an interesting year of changes and blessings. Pray with us as we move into this next phase of life and leave the comfort of the known and move into the unknown. I'm anticipating the things that God has in store for us!