Homecoming and Playdate Pics

God has blessed us with the SWEETEST family who bagan their adoption journey to China the same time we began our adoption journey to China. They prayerfully changed over to the "waiting child" list and were eventually referred a BEAUTIFUL 3 1/2 year old little girl, Bella. We were recently able to welome this family home and meet the newest member!

Check out this homecoming!

Here are the big brothers waiting!! Here is our wild bunch of kiddos who were soo excited as well!!

Momma and her baby girl!!!

Friends GOD has blessed me with.

Emy, Me, Lola Joy, Bella, Heather G., and Amy

At last, Garland...family of five...complete...for now! lol!!!!

God is sooo good!!!

So, what have we been up to?

We went to King's Island the day before school started trying to squeeze in one last hoorah!

Lola rode the Grand Carousel for the first time!Sweet boys!
I love these faces!!!!!

Woo hoo!

We visited the Aquatic Center with great friends!

Here's the whole crew!

Lola catching up on her beauty sleep while everyone else had a big time!


Cannonball!!!!!

The "pencil".

Goggle faces!

Isn't this the cutest pic?

Here we are at the Reds game! They actually won!

On the rainy days, the boys rode in the mud! Fun stuff!

I love my little men!

Lola gettin' lovin's from Zoey!
Tummy time!

She plays with her hands and feet!

Sweet smile!
Bryson on Big Blue!

Bren on Big Red!

It was an amazing end to our summer!

Missing the boys, but enjoying my time at home with Lola Joy!

Blessings!!

Lots to catch up on...one day at a time!

Sorry it has taken me sooo long to update! This Mom has been busy bonding and trying to party like a rockstar with her boys before they had to go back to school! I am going to post starting from now and go backwards. I will try to post more regularly now that the boys are back in school. I wanted to take every moment to make the end of their summer special and fun.

Here's Lola Joy, STILL the BEST little baby!!! She is rolling over both ways now and is doing amazingly well! She rolled like a rolly polly all the way across the floor yesterday. We just sit around and laugh at her! Her new favorite is the "jumparoo". I will show footage of that soon. The boys are back in school! This makes me GRIEVE every year! I am not kidding, it really throws me into a funk. These little guys are my BEST friends! We had a WONDERFUL time this summer. I hate to see them back into the routine of school and am missing them TERRIBLY. Thankfully, they have wonderful teachers.

Here is Bryson and Mrs. Barker. She's so much fun!

Here is Brennan with Mrs. Drysdale. She, too, made Bren's first day fun! Thank you, God for WONDERFUL teachers! Take good care of my babies!!!!

Thanks for your support and prayers during our trip to Ethiopia. We couldn't have made it without all of you!

Blessings!

HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family of 5!!!!!

They are HOME!!! Julie is loving on the most beautiful baby girl in the world, so she asked me (Emy) to update for her. Lola Joy is home forever!! Enjoy the pictures from the amazing homecoming!

The boys and the grandparents waiting to greet them first.

The rest of the family and friends waited above. They are here!!!They've got Lola Joy Joy Joy down in their hearts!
So many people were there to witness this miracle!

Thanks for sharing your journey with all of us!

Last full day in Addis

Missing our boys in this pic!Daddys sweet little angel.

All smiles!

She loves her sling. She gets so relaxed and vegges immediately! Thanks, Momaw Donna!

Today was our last full day here. We took some pics around our hotel. Later we decided we wanted to go into town for one last shopping adventure. We visited the Markato which is largest open market in Africa. WOW! We couldn't believe our eyes! There were people EVERYWHERE! I must say, we were quite overwhelmed, but glad we experienced it. We've had a wonderful time here vistiting Ethiopia, but we are sooo exhausted and ready to come home. Although we know the next 30 hours will be even more exhausting, we will be able to unite with our boys, families and friends, and develop our new "normal". Looking soo forward to that. We would like to ask for special prayers for our travels in the upcoming days. We check out of our hotel by noon tomorrow. We'll head to the airport around 10 til 5. And we leave for Dubai at 7:35. We then have a 13 hour and 45 min. flight to New York. Shew...please pray! We have a five hour layover there, and leave JFK at 1:30 which should put us at CVG at 3:58 p.m. Looking forward to seeing friends and family at the airport, then head home to catch up with our boys and bond as a family of 5! Wow! Thanks in advance for your prayers. We will try to post in the morning, but if not, see you at home on the 4th!