Happy 4 Years!

Today the hubby and I are celebrating our 4 year wedding anniversary!  So much has happened in the 4 years since we got married: we got a dog, bought our first house, remodeled our first house, traveled on some AWESOME vacations (on a cruise, numerous beach trips, California, and Israel), and started the process to bring our little boy home from Ethiopia.  I can't wait to see what this next year of wedded bliss holds!

{Photo by Michael Howard Photography}

Last year I did a detailed post with lots of wedding pics, so I won't bore you with those again. But here they are in case you missed them.

We celebrated a little early last night with dinner at one of our new favorite restaurants, Germantown Cafe.  If you live in the Nashville area, you MUST try it out.  We highly recommend the pork medallions and the filet.  They were delicious! 

To my hubby:
I am so blessed to have you iny life.  Thank you for your constant love, encouragement, and support.  I am so excited about the changes that will be coming to our lives this year.  You're going to make a great dad and I can't wait!!!  Hayes and I are lucky to have you!  Happy Anniversary!

Submitted to Court!!!

I was overjoyed this morning when I checked my email (at 5:45 while still in bed! Yes, adoption makes you a crazy, compulsive email checker!) to read these words....

"Your case has been submitted to court."

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I excitedly woke the hubby to tell him.  He later asked me if that had been a dream or if it had really happened.  He was pretty out of it!  This was definitely great news as last night I totally came apart.  I basically cried myself to sleep telling my hubby that my heart couldn't take this anymore.  My poor hubby just tried to console me the best that he could.  Adoption is definitely hard y'all. One of my sweet friends told me "adoption is not for sissies."  I couldn't agree more!  I don't feel too strong sometimes, though!

So what's next?  Well, within a month we should hear of our travel dates.  We should travel a month or so after this.  Praying that this news comes sooner rather than later. 

Please Pray...

Please pray that we hear news of our court submission this week.  We were supposed to be submitted last Thursday.  Then we were told we'd be submitted Monday and haven't heard anything since.  That's the bad news.  The good news is we haven't heard that we WEREN'T submitted.  I've been a little down in the dumps, so I'm choosing to look on the bright side right now.

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I've been praying for patience and for God's perfect timing.  I know there's a plan.  I'm just really impatient right now.  Thank you for all of your prayers and enouragement.  We appreciate it so much!

Friday Finds

Today I'm here to let you in on a little secret for some cute and affordable pillows (or maybe it's not a secret to you!).  Did y'all know that PB Teen had such cute pillows?!  Where have I been?

Here are a few of my favorites:

Check out the Ikat Crewel Multi Pillow Cover.  This bold, colorful pattern would be sure to make a statement.

Here's the Tropical Garden Crewel Pillow Cover.  I'm loving the big, bright flowers.

This one might be my favorite!  It's the Ikat Dot Pillow Cover

Loving the Alphabet Needlepoint Pillow as well!

They also have super cute sheet sets as well.  You know I have a love of stripes!  Check out the Cottage Stripe Sheet Set.

I also love the Simple Stripe Favorite Tee Sheet Set.

Once again, the ikat might be my favorite.  Loving the deep blue of the Ikat Dot Organic Sheet Set.

How fun is the Mini Dot Sheet Set?

So did my Wayman Family Nesters already know about these awesome finds?  Happy Friday all! 

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!