Thirty-ONE...

We leave for Ethiopia in THIRTY-ONE days:) SO exciting! This past week, we received the sweetest video of our sweet little girl. She is SO very serious when strangers are around and just very observant. She really is a beautiful little girl with the most amazing eyes.
I'm home today with two sick little boys... and a pinched nerve:/ but OH what a great sick day we are having. We've played games and just enjoyed each other this morning. Piper is SO stinking adorable. She's really into playing "let's go to school". She puts on a back pack and LOVES to get all her stuffed animals in their little stroller and push them to the "school room";). I pray so much that little Joleigh bonds quickly with her sister. I really believe Piper is going to be an amazing big sister to her.
Andrew and Park have been doing great! Andrew got a Bible for Christmas and he is reading all the sections and little "did you know?" things on each page... which honestly is quite a bit of reading. He is now in John. He is SO proud of himself. He literally has spent HOURS and HOURS reading it. Parker is just a breath of joy! He is really a sweet little boy. Sometimes a little rowdy but he has such a tender heart.

Please be in prayer for our family as we near the end of waiting but as we begin the real journey to adoption. God has grown us in so many ways over the past year.

Such an incredible journey...

Ugghhh! This roller coaster of ups and downs and ups and downs sometimes leaves me an emotional mess. When we first got our referral we were told Joleigh was 17 pounds @ 15 months old. They told us they would do another weight check b/c they wanted to see if she had grown that first week of being in the transition home. Well, long story short... we've waited for almost two months and still don't have that weight check. We did get word that she "shrunk" but they attribute that to how they measure and discrepancies, etc. To be honest, it has weighed heavy on my heart. I know it's all in God's hands but as a mom, I just want to get there and make sure she's okay.
I have two friends there right now who have made this SO much better for me. One sent me a txt @ 1:30 in the morning to tell me she was outside watching Joleigh play with others and she looked healthy. They both have taken video and pictures. Leah even got some footage of Joleigh in an outfit I sent her:) I don't have the videos yet but it's SO wonderful knowing friends are there loving on her. AND when I say friends, of course I'm talking about folks I've never met but have an incredible bond with.
This is Sabrina's blog... please take a second to read about her Gotcha day with their sweet baby girl AND about the birth family meeting. UGgghhh... I dare ya to not cry!

$.50 a vote:)

If you have a facebook... go to this link and type "vote jw" and $.50 gets donated toward our adoption.. Now seriously, could it get any easier than that?! ;)

CLICK HERE AND TYPE "VOTE JW"

Coupon 101

A good friend and I are having a coupon 101 class tomorrow (Friday) night. If you live in the central Arkansas area and are interested in learning about how to save a bunch of money... message me @ jennyglover0302@yahoo.com. The class is from 7:00-8:00 and cost $10. All money goes toward our adoption:)

Not Yo Momma's Date Night;0)

I have a FUN husband:) We have the best time together. Cam and I have the same sense of humor and we LAUGH and LAUGH all the time. This past weekend for our date night, we decided to borrow some of the boy's masks and scare some of our friends. Our youth pastor was having a men's night and so we went and TRIED to spook them but they kinda weren't really scared. So we went to Marvin and Pearlie's. We snuck into their backyard... I know.. not very smart but we were counting on the fact that we knew them well enough to hope they weren't packing heat ;0). We got close to the backdoor and there was a doggy door. I thought "jackpot.. I'm gonna stick my head through the doggy door". THEN I see little Cujo come to the door and show some teeth at me. We changed our plans and decided to go to their front door and ring the doorbell. We both turned around and put our hoods on so our backs were facing the door. We heard Marvin tell Pearlie, "I don't know who it is but they got their backs turned". Pearlie said, "don't you open that door". Oh, I ruin everything. I couldn't contain my laughter so Marvin saw my shoulders bouncing up and down and knew it had to be someone he knew. So we turned around screamed and yelled... "Give us all your tea cakes" :) ... it's his speciality. We then had an impromptu visit with the Williams. SO fun:)
Here's some cell phone pics of the masks and tea cake! Can't wait until next date night!!

She needs a sister...

Piper constantly talks about "my sister". It's SO sweet. She said yesterday... "when my sister is here, I'm going to ask her to sleep in my bed with me". Piper keeps us laughing constantly. She is an absolute joy! She is our little song bird. She sings ALL of the time and her favorite song is Jingle Bells. She was so excited about the snow b/c she said, "when I go play in the snow, I'm going to sing ... dashing through the snow, in a one horse...." :)
She loves her brothers but OH how she aches for a sister. We are SOOOO excited for her to get this gift.
This is Piper in her new bedroom, in her new bed, beside her new tree:)

I never know who...

reads my blog soooo just in case you are in need of an excellent travel agent, I've got the girl for you! God has brought a kindred spirit into my life for such a time as this! She and her family are about to bring home their second adopted child. We were HOPING our court dates would match so we could travel together but she'll probably be a couple of weeks behind me... BUT that means I get to take pictures of her BEAUTIFUL four year old... who I kinda matched with her fam;0)
Anyway, if you are in need of a great travel agent... especially if you are adopting and needing some help getting your flights booked you can email Erica @ erica.shubin@mkigrouptravel.com. If you need her phone number just leave a comment and I'll send it to you!

Thank you Erica for helping us get to our daughter! We can't wait to love on your little girl:)

Leaving on a jet plane...

WoooHOOOOOO! Today we got THE call for our court date. We will go to court in Ethiopia March 7th to become Joleigh's family. We are OVER the moon excited!!! We will probably leave on Friday, the 4th, and fly back home late the night of the 7th. We'll only be there for a few days... just long enough to meet our little girl, meet her family and go to court. We will then come back home and wait a month or so and then travel back to bring her HOME!! We are so excited!! After 3rd period today as I walked back into my classroom from my Teaming class, I prayed "Please Lord let there be a message on my phone". Sure enough.. I open my drawer, check my phone and I had a message from our social worker. I literally floated throughout the rest of the day!

Favorite shirt and some pics:)

So if you've seen me over the past two weeks, chances are you've seen me wearing this.....


YEP, my new FAV shirt:) One of my dear friends (okay so I've never physically met her but still a dear friend who I look up to:) is planning an adoption conference for mommies!! OH I wish I could go but I knew it would be too close to when we would be leaving for our court trip to Ethiopia so I didn't sign up. BUT the proceeds from the sell of the shirts go to help other mommies come to the conference. This is a HUGE blessing for moms. Not only are you surrounded by other sisters in Christ who share your heart for the orphan but there are several sessions designed to equip you to take care of your little and meet their special needs. I've not experienced it yet but I know parenting an adoptive child is entirely different than parenting a biological one. This conference will be a blessing to many. If you'd like to order a t-shirt to help with the cost... go over here and do so:) and then you can have a new FAV shirt!!! Oh and they run small... I ordered a Medium.

So I took pics at a wedding this weekend. I pretty much begged the lady to use someone else b/c I've NEVER done that before but she insisted so I obliged. It went really well. The only prob was the lighting in the sanctuary was not great so my camera wouldn't take quickly enough for my liking but I did get to capture some fun memories for the couple.




... and the happy couple:)

Did you hear that scream????

That was ME checking my email... seeing 13 new pictures of my baby girl. MY baby girl!!! The more I see her seriously the more and more I fall in love with her. Thank you Sweet Lord Jesus for the most amazing New Years Eve ever!! She is absolutely adorable. Her nose is so, so sweet. Small little button nose. Her lips are ridiculous!! BUT those eyes are captivating! Those eyes are actually haunting.... they pierce my heart and beckon me to grab her little frame up and hold her!! We've yet to see her smile. I long to see her smile!

Just when I was OVERwhelmed with all of the photos... I go back to my email and see THREE videos! OH goodness... really it might have been too much for my little heart. I screamed and screamed and screamed! Seeing her body in movement is like nothing I can describe. Watching her walk, hold a toy, follow her nanny, fall down and get back up. There are no words for that! BUT the thing that gets me is when she makes her fish face in the 24 second video... at about the 4th second. OH MY! I've rewound it over and over to see that little fish face. No words!

Here's a pic of our sweet little girl. We are unable to post her image really on the internet but here's just a glimpse of what is taking our breath away at the Wallace house lately. While Piper was watching the video over and over she said, "I want to go to Joleigh's house". Those two are going to be such a gift to one another!
Look at that little sweat shirt... Hug Me! Court date come soon!!!! Please!