Out of the Mouths of Emma and Avery

There is not really any new news from Uganda.  But LifeLine adoption agency posted this update today.  It just kind of clarifies what I posted the other day.  Hopefully, tomorrow the first visas will be issued to start bringing these kiddos home.  In care you are wondering, visa appointments are only handles on Mondays and Wednesdays.  Monday was the first day back in the office after a couple of weeks off for the person in charge of these visas, so none were issued in guardianship cases that day.

We still have no idea on a timeline for us.  We are waiting to see what kind of backlog there will be in the courts and embassy.  We're just trying to be patient... some days we do better than others.  Last night at dinner, Cody prayed for our food and also prayed for Mercy.  At the end, Avery chimed in and very forcefully added, "God just bring her to us tomorrow!!"  I wish!

A couple of other cute moments... Sunday in children's church the kids were asked something that's happened in their lives that is extraordinary.  Emma said, "Well my family is adopting a black baby!"  The teacher quickly added, "Yes, a baby from Africa."  I just laughed.  I've tried to teach my girls that there is nothing wrong or strange about the color of our skin.  It's just a fact of life.  I never want them to say "the black kid" in a whispered tone.  I guess though in some situations that comes out sounding a bit funny. =)

Today I picked up some pictures from Walgreens.  Believe it or not I actually took the time to print a few pictures.  I'm notorious for letting them sit on the computer forever... and don't even ask me about a scrapbook.  So, Avery was flipping through them and saw one of Mercy.  She immediately kissed it and said, "My Mercy Dercy.  I decided that's going to be her nickname."  Way before Avery ever existed, Cody and I were discussing baby names and he told me he liked the name "Avery".  We then discussed middle names that would go with this name for a boy.  In our silliness, we somehow winded up with "Davery" after my dad, David   So when our Avery arrived, we jokingly started calling her Avery Davery from time to time.  I guess that's how she picked Mercy Dercy.  Ok, way more information that you probably wanted.  All of that to say, Emma and Avery are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of Mercy.

In other randomness... if any of you have more SkyMiles than you know what to do with, you could share them with us.  =)  I've been investigating our plane ticket options.  It seems our best bet is going to be with Delta/KLM.  They offer a small discount and no change fees for adoptions.  But they also told me that people could donate SkyMiles to us to pay for at least one of the tickets.  So, I'm just throwing it out there.  It would take at least 80,000 miles for one ticket.  Let me know if you have some to give away... or you could use them to come with us.  What fun!