Advice Needed!

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Good Morning Wayman Family Nesters!  First off, I wanted to give you guys a little adoption update.  Right now, we don't have news per se, but we're expecting news later this week.  According to our agency, we should be submitted to court in Ethiopia on Thursday of this week.  So please pray that this happens.

Our agency thinks that once we are submitted, we should hear back about our court date (and when we'd be traveling) in mid to late March.  They think that we'll be headed to court at the end of April or early May. Once we went to court it could be 1-3 months before we're cleared with the Embassy.  This is all all just a guess based on how the wait is looking right now.  It could be longer and it could be shorter.

We are prayerfully condsidering me staying in-country between the 2 trips.  Here's my pros and cons list so far: pros: getting to spend time and bond with our sweet new baby; spending time in the home country of our son.  Cons: the hubby not being able to stay much more than a week or so; expensive.

 I'd love more advice from any of you mamas out there!  We're not sure right now if we could work it out financially or if it's feasible at all, but we're praying about it.  Feel free to shoot me an email at jenwayman@gmail.com if you have advice on the subject.  I'll take all of the advice I can get! 


P.S. Just a reminder that there's a couple of days left to buy some amazing jewelry in our name as the Hannah James Partnering Family!  Check out the details here.

Featured in Docica Magazine!

Guess what?! Our adoption story was just featured in Docica magazine!   I was pretty excited when I was asked about being included in this month's issue (I mean, it's a magazine!), but I was even more excited when the issue published and I got to read it. The article about us and our adoption story was great, but I'm here to tell you about a few more bits of goodnesss. I'd never heard of Docica. Have you? They describe themelves as a  'simple living magazine about real beauty'.  You've got to check them out. They talk about fashion, home decor, recipes, and features on beautiful real women. This month is the adoption issue and there are some great articles. There's even an article about Give1Save1 (the site that we were blessed to be a part of that encourages people to give $1 each week to an adopting family), so check that out! (they're on pg. 57-58)

So head on over to check out our feature (pg. 104-106)! A box will come up that asks you to subscribe, but you can x out of it and the magazine will come up.   Happy Friday, Wayman Family Nesters!

Nursery Chandelier

Disclaimer: If you're tired of reading nursery posts, stop reading now.  And beware there are several more to come in the future. If you're not tired of it, and have missed other nursery posts, click here, here, and here.

A few months ago I e-mailed the fabulous Laurel-Dawn from Abode Love (seriously if you've never seen her blog, you MUST check her out!  SOOO talented!) to see if she could help me make some design decisions for our nursery.  She sweetly agreed and offered to do it at a discounted rate since we are adopting.

Well let me tell you, she has totally captured my vision and helped me with some BIG nursery decisions....like fabric, some wall art, and lighting!  Here is the fabulous chandelier that she picked out.  You can find it here on Overstock.  I originally thought I wanted a gold light fixture to go with the glam feel of the room.  She thought this one would be more substantial and tie in with some of the black accents we have planned.  Also, it just looks more masculine than a gold one!  And I couldn't agree more!

I ordered it from Overstock 2 days and there it was sitting on my front porch when I got home yesterday.  Now that's service!  We haven't unpacked it yet, but I'll be sure to take pictures of it hung in place.  I can't wait to hang this beaut!

What do you think, Wayman Family Nesters?  How did she do on her pick?  So far I'm loving it!

Give Hope Fundraising Lunch Photos

Remember this post when I revealed the total of our fundraising lunch?  I promised I'd be back with pictures, and now I finally am!  My sweet sister Ellen was our photographer for the day and she did a great job capturing everything.

All of our sweet workers getting a pep talk from the 1Seed folks.

Paintings represented all of the families that 1Seed has blessed so far.

The hubby and I with our precious nephews Jack (5) and Knox (2).

 

We sold most of our remaining tshirts (We do have a few left.  Go here if you'd like to order one) and the popular Ugandan magazine bead necklaces.  If you'd like to order a necklace, visit our blog homepage here.

Some of the cutest diners of the day!

Sweet beautiful triplets Molly, Maddie, and Callie,  I can't believe I babysat them when they were born!  Man, I feel old!  So glad you girls could come! 

The place was packed most of the day!

 

Three of my precious former students who are now in high school.  Thank you for all of your hard work girls!  Y'all were rockin' servers!

The hubby and I in front of the Ethiopian flag. We're tired and happy that the lunch is over!

 

We weren't able to get a shot of all of our amazing workers, but here's a picture of our close group of friends.  Love you guys!

 

The hubby and I with the amazing ladies of 1Seed.

Me with my mom and 2 sisters.  Thanks for all of your hard work.  Love you!

So there were a few snapshots of our busy day.  Thank you again to all of you who were involved in making the day a success-either by working it, eating there, or donating when you couldn't make it.  We can't wait to get our sweet boy home and tell him about all of the wonderful people who made it possible.  Thank you and we are so grateful!

"What A Change"

Yesterday morning on our way to church, I realized I had left my phone at home.  I immediately felt panicky (That's sad, isn't it?!  Am I the ONLY one that gets like that?!), but we were just barely going to make it on time, so we didn't have time to turn around. 

Well, fast forward a few hours later...When we got home, I immediately checked my email (adoptive moms, you can relate to checking your email MANY times a day) to find a message from our agency's sweet director with the subject "What a Change." 

The email contained 3 new pictures of our sweet boy.  And let me tell you, what a change indeed!  He is definitely gaining weight on  his high-calorie formula.  He's even more precious than in the first pictures we saw-if that's even possible! 

Sorry that this post is without pictures, but we can't show his face on here until we pass court and he's officiallly ours.  But we'll be glad to brag if you live in the Nashville area and happen to run into us.  The Ethiopian courts have been closed for the last 3 weeks and will reopen on Friday of this week.  Our agency is telling us that we'll be submitted at that time, so we'll see if everything's in order for that to happen.  Once we are submitted, we could know our travel date within a month.  Can't wait!!!!

So Happy Monday Wayman Family Nesters.  Those 3 pictures definitely got my week off to a good start!

Hannah James' Partnering Family

Remember back in December when we were one of Hannah James' partnering families?  In case you wanted to order some FABULOUS jewelry but forgot, you can still do that.  You can purchase from Hannah James {storenvy}.  Be sure to put "Wayman Family Adoption" in your note to the seller.  50% of the profits help us bring our little home.  And 50% help bring her little one home.

It's definitelly a win-win for everyone! Head on over to check out more of her pretty things.

Here's just a few of my favorite things from her shop:

See something you like?  Didn't get what you want for Valentine's Day?  Have a bad day and think you deserve something pretty?  Do you like to support adoption? 

If you said yes to any of those questions, head on over to Hannah James shop now!

Happy Day of L-O-V-E!

Valentine's Day isn't a holiday that the hubby and I go all out for.  In fact, we usually laugh about what a cheesy holiday.  This year I decided to do some nice things for both him and my students.  Before I left school yesterday, I decorated my room in a sea of pink and red paper chains and hearts.  I made a note for each student that said "I just wanted you to know that you are special.  Have a Happy Valentine's Day.  Love, Mrs. Wayman"  I have a kiss (a Hershey's kiss!) for each one.  With 85 students, I can't afford to spend much.  I just want them to know they're special!

At the last minute, I also decided to throw together a little party for my study hall class.  I have a couple of silly games planned (Guess the Other Half of Famous Couples and Pin the Heart on One of the Teacher's Faces!) and baked them some treats last night.  I also made a playlist of "love songs" for them to listen to during the party.  Should be a fun time with a bunch of 6th graders!  I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

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For the hubby I kept it pretty simple.  I wrote him a nice card and edited some pictures of Hayes for him using picnik.  I took one of our favorite pictures and added "Happy Valentine's Day Daddy.  I love you.  Love, Hayes" on it.  I also took another picture and put his name, date, height, and weight on it.  I thought that would be a fun way to keep up with his stats each month in pictures.  I'm praying that too many months won't go by before we get to meet him!

What are you doing today for the ones you love?  Do you keep it simple like we do or do you go all out? 

Happy Valentine's Day Wayman Family Nesters!  Hope you're feeling my love for YOU! : )

Give Hope Lunch Total

Happy Monday Wayman Family Nesters!

Yesterday I realized that I hadn't updated you on our fundraiser lunch we had 2 weeks ago.  I hope to have pictures that my sweet sister took later this week (she's a BUSY college girl!), but for now, I'll just share the total....

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Almost $7,000!

Can you believe it?!   I hardly can!  God has truly provided for our adoption along the way.  A BIG thank you to all of our sweet friends and family who helped us put the event on and also those of you who came to eat.  We couldn't have done it without you!  And  a BIG thank you to the wonderful people at 1Seed for making this event possible.  You are truly blessing many families with your work.

If you haven't checked out this amazing organization, do it now!  Thety are doing amazing things for adoptive families!

Referral!!! Oh Happy Day!

WOW!  I feel like I've been waiting so long to write this post!  I've been keeping a little secret from my readers for a little bit.  We have received another referral (if you missed the post of our lost referral, "Baby K," read here) of a precious baby boy.

On Thursday, January 26th I received an email from our agency's director that they had a baby boy for us, but that they didn't have pictures just yet.  Oh that was torture!  The hubby was out of town for work, so I excitedly called him on the phone to tell him the good news.  By the next day we'd received a very grainy picture where we got to see his precious face for the first time.  For now, we'll call him "Baby B."  (until we pass court, we can't share his name or face online right now)

On Wednesday of last week he was moved to our agency's transition house and had his medical tests done. This is great news, as the transition house is run by our agency, so we know he'll get wonderful care.  He shares a nanny with one other baby, so we know he's being loved on!  Thursday we received a bunch more pictures (19 to be exact!).  If you see us in person, feel free to ask to see them because you know we're glad to brag!

He's about a month and a half old and about 6 pounds.  I'm sure the next time we see pictures he'll be putting some weight on.  And probably some hair on his sweet bald head too!

Yesterday we found out that his medical tests came back clear and today we officially accepted the referral!

So, here's our "Major Cutie." (according to his shirt! And we agree!)  Once we pass court, we'll gladly show his sweet face to the blog world!

So, what's next?  Well, we've been told he's "paper ready."  (for those of you not in the adoption world, that means his documents are ready to go to court).  The courts in Ethiopia will be closed for the next 10 days for training, so we're hoping to be submitted soon after that.  Once we're submitted we'll wait for a court date (we're hearing that people wait 4-6 weeks before hearing news of their court date).  We could be given a court date a month or two out.  Ethiopia has a two trip rule now, but we're prayfully considering me staying in-country between the 2 trips (depending on the timing).  If any of you adoptive moms have done this, I'd love for you to e-mail me your advice (jenwayman@gmail.com).

A big thank you to all of you who have asked how we're doing and prayed for us along the way.  He is definitely an answer to our prayers!  Hayes, we love you so much already!

Give Hope Adoption Luncheon

Give Hope Adoption Luncheon

Do you like to eat lunch on Sundays?  Do you live in the Nashville area?  Do you have a heart for adoption?

If you answered YES to those three questions, then we'd love to see you at our adoption fundraising lunch THIS Sunday from 10:30-1:30 at Puffy Muffin in Brentwood.  We'll be selling the remainder of our adoption shirts and Uganda magazine bead necklaces.

Menu:

Adults

Pancakes with Sausage Links

Crunchy Chicken Casserole with Green Beans and Homemade Roll

Children

Silver Dollar Pancakes

Chicken Fingers

Price

$15 for adults

$5 for children

Please consider joining us for lunch as all of the profits go toward our adoption.  Thank you to all of you who have already decided to come.  Feel free to spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, etc.  It's open to any and everyone.  The more the merrier!  We hope to see you there!