Celebrating with FRIENDS!!

I love the feeling of EXCITEMENT.
Especially when it is UNSELFISH.
Especially when it comes deep from within the heart...
I have some MAJOR EXCITEMENT for my friends Lesli and Ryan. They are an incredible couple who we have known since college.
When I first met Ryan, his freshman year, he was dating Lesli. He was completely out of control and inappropriate. Much like my boyfriend at the time...Brandon :)  We met at a Campus Crusade for Christ fall retreat.
Since then, we have stayed friends, but grown closer throughout the last year or so as we have begun our road to adoption, and watched their journey from afar.  Lesli has been an incredible woman to watch as she walks through this journey transparently, with a beautiful grace.   She and Ryan fostered for about a year as they were in the process of adopting.  They fostered an infant and a 16 year old boy.  I can't say much more than that about it....but I know that they made a life long eternal impact on the life of those boys.  When we saw a picture of their family and saw this boy who was almost taller than Ryan....we were SHOCKED to say the least, but we know that they provided an incredible example of LOVE and RESPECT to those children.

Anyway, they went to Ethiopia in December (right before Christmas) to meet their sweet boy, Greer.   They had an incredible time getting to know him, loving on him, and beginning to create a life long bond with him!  They have been longing to return to pick him up, but they have been at the mercy of their Embassy appointment.  The wait for their return has been abnormally long.  We have been in a waiting game together, us for our homestudy and them for their BABY!!  Obviously, I knew that their wait was much HARDER than ours.  Luckily, this week, they got word that they have an appointment!!  Although he was officially their son at the last court appearance, they will finally be bringing their son home VERY soon!! We couldn't be happier to join in this journey with them!! I am absoutely thrilled for them!!

On top of that, Lesli is due with their first biological child in May!!!!  It will be a little girl, so they will have one girl and one boy!  I am so excited to watch their journey unfold!!

This weekend, I was in Kentucky for a very sad, tragic funeral.  A great family friend of ours passed away and it was a huge loss to anyone who knew him or his family.  I was honored to be back in Kentucky to celebrate his life...but it was a very somber time to say goodbye to one of my dad's closest friends.   If I didn't get to see you (everyone except my parents and in laws..), I am so sorry! I had to devote time to my family and the family who lost their dad (husband, brother, etc.). 

When I dropped my rental car off in Louisville to catch my flight back to Georgia, I was able to meet up with Lesli and Ryan as they got out of church!! It was a perfect little meeting...just enough time to laugh and talk...and take a couple pictures outside of Starbucks !! It is hard to believe that in just a couple months I can go back and take pictures of them with their TWO BABIES!!

We were laughing really hard in this picture because of the random people that kept coming by and seeing us taking pictures outside of Starbucks! :)