Leaving In 3 Days!!!

Hello all...Its official...we leave in 3 days to pick up Lila Grace! We got a "surprise" phone call yesterday that literally brought me to my knees that we can pick up our daughter Dec. 3rd! We are frantically getting things in order to leave for Africa this Sunday! Thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes! It’s truly a "Thanksgiving Miracle!" I have so many things to be Thankful For! I will post one more time before we leave. Also, an update on our non-profit organization Lila's Hope, we did collect enough money to purchase the refrigerator! Yippee! All extra funds collected this month will go to stocking the pantry at El Olam orphanage! Thank you for all of your generous donations!

Love and Hugs~Holley

Happy Halloween!

Hello All!! Happy Halloween! We had a great Halloween weekend. Ethan decided that he was going to be Peter Pan for Halloween and looked so adorable! His best friend Grace was Wendy and Meredith was supposed to be Tinker Bell but she refused to wear her costume! Stinker! :) The kids had a blast, we took them to the church carnival and then out Trick-or-Treating. They got loads of candy and had a blast running door to door.

Andrew and I also enjoyed ourselves and we attended my "Mossman" staff Halloween party on Friday night. I was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Andrew was Super Mario Brother! What a hoot and tons of fun! Teachers really know how to have a good time!

Adoption update....we are planning on leaving for Africa on Nov. 24th if all goes as planned! We are counting down the seconds!!! We miss our girl!!!!

XO~ Holley

Lila's Slide Show

Hello All! We are so excited that we passed court today! We are now a family of four and can not wait to journey back to Africa to pick up our little angel. Now that we can show photos of our little love, we wanted to post a slide show that we made when we returned from Africa this summer. Enjoy.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

WE PASSED COURT!!!

We "oficially" welcomed Lila Grace Brown to our family today! WE PASSED COURT IN AFRICA and she is now our little girl. We will be leaving a few days after Thanksgiving to pick her up becasue it takes about 5 weeks for her visa, birth certificate and passport! Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers! We feel so blessed! God is Good! As of today we are a family of FOUR!

Love, Tha Browns

Waiting and Praying

We are still waiting to hear news from the court....I will post as soon as we hear something. Waiting and Praying.

XO~The Browns

Court Date...October 22nd!

Hello all...We got word at 2:30 this morning that our court date is officially this Thursday, Oct 22nd! We are waiting and praying! We also want to say a huge Congratulations to the 4 CCI (Celebrate Children International) families that passed court on Monday! God is good!

God Bless,Holley

Court Date?

We think we have good news to share.... but... we are still a little uneasy. Our agency let us know that we "possibly" have a court date for the 21st. Its not 100% confirmed, but I am holding onto the words "possibly." Please pray that our case is heard and we pass. Its been exactly 4 months and 1 day since we last saw our baby girl. The days are creeping by and the wait seems so long. We are holding onto the hope that Lila will be home for Christmas.

The 1st Annual Mother & Daughter Road Trip!

Last weekend my mother and I ventured out on our 1st annual Mother and Daughter Birthday weekend! My mothers birthday was October 3rd and we decided to take a GIRLS ONLY road trip. We packed our bags, loaded up the car and headed up I-45 to a small Texas town known as Canton. For those of you who don't know about Canton...is is a shoppers paradise. There are hundreds of "booths" filled with anything you could possibly ever want or need. They have a huge collection of housewares, food, clothing, shoes, jewelry, furniture,antiques and even pets! We had the best time filling up our canton "push carts" with more things than you could ever imagine. My two favorite buys were...#1...these adorable bows that I bought for Lila that are so huge, you probably won't even be able to see her head when she wears them!#2....this totally cute sign to hang above Lila's bed that says, "The Lord's Princess." Yes....right now I am obsessed with buying little girl stuff! Poor Ethan...he got a bag of honey roasted sugar nuts...but they are his new favorite snack! Throughout the weekend we shopped till we dropped! It was also a very rainy weekend, but we were not fair weather customers...we bought matching leopard print rain boots and kept on going!

We stayed at a wonderful Bed and Breakfast called the Red Bird Retreat! The owner Peggy is amazing! She is so accommodating, the rooms are amazing and the breakfast is to die for yummy! I highly recommend the Red Bird Retreat!

As our weekend came to an end we headed back to Houston!My SUV could not hold one more thing....it was packed to the brim with all of our stuff! We were ready to get home to the boys and I was making tracks! About 100 miles down the road I saw flashing lights in the rear view!!Yes, I Holley Brown was pulled over! I guess Officer "Nice Guy" had pity on us and let us go with a warning!! Praise God! THANK YOU OFFICER NICE GUY! My mother also thought it was funny for the remainder of the ride home to wave the warning ticket out the window to every other cop on I-45...she would then chant, "Come Back Tomorrow Copper....We Already Got One!!!" Its totally amazing that I tuned out normal!!!

We made it back, unloaded the car and have already booked our room at the Red Bird Retreat for next years 2nd Annual Mother Daughter Birthday Weekend!

Side note....The photos are from my favortie store in Canton...The Rhinestone Cowgirl!

XO~Holley

AS for adoption news....we are still waiting in the courts to give us another court date. We are Waiting and Praying.

I wish I had good news to share

I wish I had good news to share. This morning around 2:30 am I recieved an email that the courts did not open today becasue the judges are making their schedules. I honestly dont know what this means for us. I am very sad and trying to rely on faith...although, in times like these sometimes its very hard. As you can imagine, we are very sad but I am trying to be a "big girl." I just feel like curling up in the middle of the bathroom floor and crying all day. But, I have an 8-year-old and and 20 third graders that are counting on me being "me" today. Pray I can pull it off.

Much Love, Holley

Lila's Day Is Here!

Yes Folks......In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia it is officially October the 12th! This is our big day.....this is Lila's big day! This is the day that Lila will "officially" become a member of the Brown family. Please pray for us to pass court today. Hopefully we will receive a phone call in the wee hours of morning. My stomach is in a knot, I cannot focus on anything but the clock, and I want to jump out of my skin! But......I know God is in control.

To be continued............

Our New Video!

Hello All! We wanted to let yall know that we recieved a new video of Lila this week. Our directors husband went to Addis last month and as kind enough to video our our little love. We were so happy to see her smiling face. She was running, playing catch and kicking a ball. She was also singing and dancing with one of her freinds... it was so cute! She is also getting so tall, her little legs are getting so long.

We are counting down the days until our court date....4 days to go! PLEASE pray we pass the 1st time.

God Bless~The Browns

We Got A New Court Date! October 12th!

Hello All! We have great news to share....Our agency contacted us this morning and we have a new court date on October 12th!!! We are so excited! This means that we will be one step closer to bringing our daughter home. Andrew and I will not be traveling to attend our court hearing, we have someone from our agency that represents us in Africa. After we pass court, we will travel in 3 to 5 weeks to pick up our daughter. What a blessing it would be if Lila was home for Thanksgiving. God is good. Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers.

God Bless,
Holley and Andrew

Our Prayer Request
1.) We pass court on October 12th!
2.) Lila is doing well and that she is enjoying her last few weeks in Africa.

I also wanted to let yall know that Ethan is finally over the Swine Flu and is going back to school tomorrow.

Sad News~ Ethiopian Courts don't open until October 12th

Hello all, today we are sad in the Brown household. Today we learned that the courts will not open until October 12th and our court date was scheduled for the 7th. This does not mean we will be heard on the 12th, this means we will find out our new court date on the 12th. Our spirits are down and we know our little girl is missing us so much. We understand that Gods timing is always perfect but sometimes when it effects your child its hard to bear. We will keep you posted on any further developments.

Our prayer requests:
1.) We get a new court date ASAP and be able to bring Lila home by Thanksgiving.
2.) Please pray for Ethan, he has had swine flu since Sunday and is still trying to get better and go back to school.

God Bless,
Holley

Lila's Hope~ Feeding Orphans In Africa

Hello All, I hope everyone is having a great week. I know that most of you got the email that I sent out about our non-profit organization that we have started called Lila's Hope. Our purpose is to feed orphans in Africa. We have created a website for the organization and you can go there for details. We are starting with feeding Lila's Orphanage called El Olam Orphanage and then would like to branch out to others in Ethiopia. Our first goal is to buy El Olam a refrigerator so we can keep fresh food products cold since they are way more cost efficient than non-perishables. The average cost of one is approximately $600.00. After we gather the funds for a refrigerator we will begin a weekly grocery purchase. God Bless and give what you can, no amount is too little. Please see the website more more information and details.

Lila's Hope Website Link
http://lilashope.blogspot.com/

We will also always have the link on the top right side of our blog.

God Bless,
Holley and Andrew

Welcome To the Brown Family Blog

Hello All! This is the Brown family blog! Andrew, Ethan and I are doing great and have some exciting news! We are adopting a beautiful 4 -year-old little girl from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We are so excited and can hardly wait for her to be home with us in Texas! We accepted her into our family on June 14th and then left for Africa the next week to meet her. We have named her Lila Grace and and had an amazing stay in Africa getting to know our little girl. It looks like we will be able to travel back to Africa and bring her home around the 1st week in November. Our court date in Addis Ababa is set for October 7th, so please pray that we pass court the first time. Ethan is so excited about being a big brother and is counting down the days until her arrival.

Ethan is now in 3rd grade at Mossman Elementary and loves his new school. He currently enjoys piano and tennis lessons and is currently quite a little fisherman....he is teaching us a thing or two with the rod and reel! :)

Andrew is keeping busy with his business and still flying as a Captain for Atlantic Southeast Airlines. He got his 737 type rating and is hoping Southwest Airlines will start hiring soon. He still loves landscaping the yard and tries to find time to go mountian biking with the guys.

I am currently teaching a 3rd grade class until our little one arrives in November. I love teaching at my new school and have a great class. Ethan, Andrew and the three dogs are keeping me very busy.

We are all so excited about Lila's arrival. We cant wait for her to get here and are getting things ready for her journey to Texas. I will keep you posted on our family news and be posting at least once a week.

God Bless,
The Browns

Our Prayer Requests:
1.) Pray that Lila has a sense of peace in her heart that her mommy and daddy are coming soon.
2.) Please pray taht we pass court in Addis the 1st time on October 7th.

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows- this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families to love them.

Psalms 68:5-6

I also wanted to let you know that at this time we are unable to post pictures of Lila. After we pass court and she is legally "ours" we will post pics so you can see our little love.