Only a Year Ago

Only a year ago.  That's what has been running through my mind over the last couple of days. You see, the year 2011 has brought about some HUGE changes for the Wiginton family.  As I sit here and recollect what the last year has been for our family I am overwhelmed by God's grace in our lives and how He continues to bless us by His faithfulness (even when I haven't been so faithful sometimes).

 This very time last year I had no intentions of adopting.  We had two wonderful kids, Alex and Avery. In my heart I felt that we were a complete family, but I was completely unaware that God had some new and wonderful things in store for us just around the corner.  A little history to our story ... we were married young, had two children and were told that it wouldn't be a good idea for us to have anymore children naturally.  Well I, Nick, was completely content with this, I mean we had two perfectly healthy, absolutely awesome children. What else did we need?  Years pass, six to be exact, and while Millie had felt that our family just wasn't complete for some time I just never had a peace about adding to our family. I knew that if we were supposed to, God was going to have to change my whole viewpoint and heart on the matter.  Well to say the least He did!  Only a short few weeks from the beginning of 2011 He began to tug and pull on my heart so that it would be aligned to His will for our lives.  I was overwhelmed by these new feelings I was having and didn't really know what to do about it.  As we began to talk and pray about what He was showing us it became abundantly clear that adoption was in the near future for our lives.  So over the last twelve months I have sat back and watched God move in ways that I could not have even imagined.  Doors have been opened that were shut, ways have been made crystal clear when it looked as though I didn't know what our next step might look like. He has been right in front of us clearing the path as we walk down this new journey in our lives.  The way that He has put together all the pieces and how they have fit so perfectly together is nothing short of incredible and nothing in a million years that me, Millie, or anyone else could have ever orchestrated.  I am overwhelmed at how He allows and wants us to be part of this journey with Him in caring for those who need us, and sometimes I feel as though I need them worse than they need me. 

So as we embark on 2012 our family will grow from 4 to 5 to 6 to however many God wants us to be...and that's just fine with us.  Actually it's better than fine, it's WONDERFUL and we can't wait for it to happen!

Well our journey isn't over yet, maybe halfway...hopefully.  But that's ok with us, we will persevere and it will all come together in His perfect timing.  That doesn't mean I always like His timing but it is always best, so much better than when I try to do things on my own.  So I will sit and wait and be grateful for all He has taught me on this journey so far. I could use a good dose of patience anyway.  This has got to be the lesson of my life for 2011, "learn to let God move you, no matter how far fetched it may seem at first". 

Thank you to all who have followed our journey through 2011, who have encouraged us and prayed for us along the way.  It means the world to us and we don't want to know what it would be like to walk this out without all your love and support.

Nick

Paperwork Complete!!!

WOW!  Some days I thought we'd never get all the paperwork for our dossier complete, but we have!  Yesterday we were able to travel to Montgomery to have the Secretary of State authenticate our final two documents, which completed our dossier.  Now Monday morning we will be sending it to Washington D.C. to have the Department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy authenicate it as well so that it can be sent to Ethiopia.  Whew, what a relief to finally have it all done.  Now I'm sure the hardest part....the WAITING...is about to really begin but that's ok, we are getting closer with each step and that feels really good!  Hopefully we will be able to have it processed fairly quickly so that we can get on to the referral process and then the Ethiopian court date.  

Guess what we got today!!!

                                                           Do you know what this is?

     We got our USCIS approval today! Woop! Woop! We are ecstatic. This is what we have been waiting for since having our fingerprints done in November. We are heading to Montgomery in the morning to meet with the Secretary of State so that she can authenticate our power of attorney and affidavit of dossier.We then send it to D.C. to our "stork"who will personally take it to the US Department of State for their Seal and then on to the Embassy of Ethiopia for authentication. This is a HUGE milestone!
    So thankful for my Savior, not just that He came to this earth, took on flesh, and ultimately died to save me, to save us from our sins (although that would be plenty enough), but because He is absolutely in every single detail of our lives. He weaves every little strand, every moment so masterfully that it absolutely amazes me. Thank you so much for all you love and support, and more than anything for your prayers on our behalf. Big hugs to all of you, we love you more than you know.

Making major progress:)

   Last Wednesday, we went and had our fingerprints taken at the USCIS office in Birmingham for our I-171H.  For everyone who doesn't know what that is, it's the approval letter you have to receive from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that lets you move on with the adoption and complete your dossier.  Form I-171H is actually called the "Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition" if that means anything to anyone.  Once we have this letter of approval we will be able to carry our dossier to the Secretary of State and have the state seal of approval placed on it, this signifies that the dossier is complete from our level and ready to be mailed to Washington D.C. and then on to Ethiopia.

  Getting our I-171H back approved will also let us move on into the referral part of our adoption.  So we have already begun to pray that we will know beyond any doubt what children it is that God wants to be part of our family.   And if you want to know how you can best pray for us that would be it, pray that He will make who"our little Wigintons" are abundantly clear to us. We have absolute faith that He will, and we cannot wait for the moment that we see their precious little faces for the first time!

  Well that's about it for now, hopefully we will hear something soon from the USCIS regarding our I-171H and as soon as we do I'm sure we'll be letting everyone know.  Thanks again for all your support and prayers while we walk down this new journey in our lives.

It's been a long time....

Wow, I know I know it's been a long time since we've last updated our blog.  We had every intention of keeping it up better but somehow the running of life just seems to get in the way sometimes. 

Well just a quick update for everyone as to where we are in the adoption process since last time.  We have our home study completed, our I-600A has been sent in, we have our appointment for getting our fingerprints for the I-171H (just another government approval needed to adopt), and we have everything in our dossier completed except for the I-171H.  We have our fingerprint appointment scheduled for November 16 so we will be praying that it goes smoothly and is a fast process time.  Once we receive our I-171H back from USCIS we will be ready to send in our dossier and receive our referral (find out what children we will be able to adopt).  Well I know it was a quick rundown of where we are but there you go, hopefully we can get a more detailed post up soon to better show everyone how God continues to carry us through this adoption.

Thank you to all who continue to pray for us!

Nick and Millie

A Thankful Heart...

   I just wanted to take a minute to update you all on our appointment yesterday. It went great! Our social worker came and looked our house over, interviewed the kiddos, and interviewed Nick and I again. It was our prayer that she would come into our home, and get a feel for what it would be like to be a member of our family. With Alex being his polite, kind, loving, insightful self (saying he couldn't wait to get our babies here so that he could show them love, teach them about Jesus, so they would have everything they need, and so they would be safe), and Ave being her spunky, sweet, silly self (singing karaoke at the top of her lungs up in her bedroom, and dancing around the house like a little dumplin' in her favorite costumes) I believe quite assuredly that she got to see who we are and what we're about. 

  We cannot thank you enough for all your prayers and encouraging words as you support us through this process. We literally felt "cloaked" in your prayers, covered in them. There was a Holy ease leading all the way up to, and then through the home study visit. I find myself continually amazed at the love we are surrounded by, genuinely astounded by the outpouring of it. So, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you. 

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Philippians 1:3

One step closer to our family being complete!!!!

DISCLAIMER: I would like to formally apologize to my high school english teachers, my mom, and anyone else who may be reading this blog that has a propensity towards editing. This is a collection of thoughts, and personal stories characterized by terrible grammar, poor punctuation, and an amazing amount of run-on sentences. So I leave you with my sincerest apologies ;)

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, it's only a day away!

The day we've been waiting for is almost here! Tomorrow we will have our final home study visit. Our case worker is coming here to the big MS to inspect our house, get a feel for who we are as a family, and interview the kids (that should be quite interesting:). So, if you would be so kind, if the Lord so leads, please pray for us. We know that He started this work and He will bring it to completion. We are experiencing such peace, and we know that it is the result of the prayers of faithful friends (some we already know, and some we have never even met). Thank you, thank you, thank you, for lifting us up in prayer, like sweet incense before our God. There are not enough words in the english language to express how humbling, how precious that sacrifice on our behalf is to us.

We are so ready to be on the other side of this appointment at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. So, So, ready to be one step closer to welcoming our sweet babies into our home, into our hearts, into our lives forever.

What a day that will be....

So much life has happened since the last time I blogged that it's hard to know where to start. So, I guess I'll start by sharing with you an answer to a prayer that we have been praying for years. Avery received Christ as her Savior!  She had been asking us a lot of questions for about six months. We would answer her questions, love on her, and reassure her that when the time was right she would absolutely know. So Sunday night after church she ran up to me under such conviction that she was broken. I held her in my arms, and told her that if she still felt that way when we got home she could settle it that night. When we got home she said she was ready! We sat on our bed and asked her some questions, then we listened to her explain the gospel, listened to her talk about why she needed a Savior, and watched tears well up in her eyes as she talked about His ultimate sacrifice. It was absolutely Holy. When she finished sharing her heart with us, she asked if she could pray. There are really no words to explain how I felt, as I listened to her daddy usher her in to the kingdom. What joy! As she finished up her prayer, she was all out happy crying... it was precious. As soon as she said amen, she looked up at us and said, "I'm a Christian." Followed by, "I'm a Christian, I'm saved, I'm saved, I'm saved........" She took off out of our room, and darted up the stairs to tell her brother, shouting all the way. We could hear her from our room downstairs telling Alex, "Wake up Alex! Wake up! I'm a Christian! I'm a Christian." I will never, ever forget that night, and I don't ever want to take for granted the simplicity of the gospel. That out of His great love He sent His Son, His ONLY Son (who knew no sin), to die on the cross for my sin, for YOUR sin, so that if we confess our sins and believe in Him we can be saved! Do you know Him?

Me and My Sister in Christ:)

Blessed: Part ONE

The past few weeks can be summed up in one word, Blessed! That's right blessed! My heart has been so full, bursting with holy moment after holy moment that I've found it hard to even speak of. So now, after a period of silence, I am going to try to relay just a few of those sacred happenings.

Blessing #1: The Barbecue

     One of my very, very dearest friends in the whole entire world planned a barbecue to bless and benefit our adoption. It was here, at our home, and it was one of the most surreal experiences I've ever had in all my life. The weather had been unpredictable at best all week long. With pop up showers blowing in and out day after day leading up to the party, she and I discussed the weather quite often. With people asking what our "backup plan" was, we prayed our hearts out that unless it was contrary to His will, He would grant us the blessing and favor of beautiful weather for this celebration. We wanted His will above all else, but He says in His word to approach His throne with boldness and that is exactly what we did (vowing to accept whatever He chose to do regardless of our desires). Anyhoo, with the chance of rain higher on "party day" than any other day of the week, we felt like we were just supposed to ride it out, have faith, and trust that whatever was supposed to be would be. The band set up, and completed their sound check. We set up the tables and chairs, put the tablecloths on each one, placed the poster I had made on the entry table, and laid out the scrapbook pages that our guests would use to write special messages to our soon to be addition(s), and then we waited. The sky was dark, the wind was blowing, and rain clouds were looming overhead. As the time to begin was drawing near, faces of people we know and love very much began to trickle into our backyard. With each new face, I was profoundly aware of the intense amount of love and support that surrounds our family. The thought of a rain out completely escaped me. We greeted our guests, and ladies were shuffling around like busy little bees getting all the food out and ready to serve. all of the sudden, I realized that what had been a gloomy, blazing hot day had turned into an absolutely perfect evening. I thanked the Lord for blessing us with such beautiful weather and was overwhelmed by His goodness toward me, toward us. As I was soaking it all in a sweet lady I've known all my life walked up and said, "Millie, you are not going to believe this!" "As we turned off of the main road onto your street we looked towards your house at the end of road." "Everywhere we looked there was rain, but right above your house, right above it, there was this big circle of clear sky and sunshine." "Can you believe that?" My response was, "yes, Ma'am, actually I can." I trust God's sovereignty. He is God, and He is good no matter how He chooses to answer my prayers. In moments like these, in those places where He makes it evident that it delights Him to give me, His baby girl, the desires of my heart I have to acknowledge it. I am so thankful for all of you who came to show your love and support as we answer this call on our lives. A big thank you to The Shags who spent so much time preparing to be our musical entertainment, and for providing all the sound equipment needed to perform. Thank you so much for those who cooked food, baked desserts, sowed into this adoption financially, and helped in planning this special night. Thank you more than anything for your prayers as we go through this adoption process. One day soon you will see our family, our completed family, with our sweet babies in tow, and know that you played a part in bringing them out of poverty and giving them hope and a bright future. 




I thank my God on every remembrance of you. Philippians 1:3

Sweet, Sweet Relief!

       Yesterday was a BIG day for us! It was a day that I had been a little apprehensive about to say the least. After answering a bazillion different personal questions in our autobiographies I couldn't possibly understand what else they wanted to know about me, much less imagine it taking "at least 3 hours" to complete. I'm not that interesting, really, what more could we possibly discuss:)? When you couple that with the fact that I would be alone during this process, without Nick by my side, I was not exactly pumped about it. Nick and I have been together for 16 years. We are a team! Like Mickey and Minnie, Ray and Debra, Batman and Robin, Snoopy and Charlie, and PB&J all is right with the world when we are together. The thought of being "interrogated" without him did not thrill me, but it had to happen so that we could get this home study wrapped up. So I went in to my appointment at 10:00 a.m. not knowing what it would hold ,but being "certain of this, that He who started this good work in me would see it through to completion"! I had spent so much time praying for this very moment, asking many people who love us to lift us up during this appointment, and like a mighty wave His peace overcame me. I sat in that chair, looked at Kathy and told her I was nervous. Not a second later than the word nervous proceeded from my mouth I felt calm and at peace. She asked me all of her questions, each one leading to the next. The interview rocked on with a holy ease. Next thing I knew, we were done! Right at an hour and a half, and we had finished. She was shocked that we had gotten through it so quickly, and still gotten all the information she needed. I was not. I had asked for holy ease, and holy ease is what I got. A dear friend sent me this scripture after my interview, and it fit perfectly with what He had been telling me all day long. "Faithful is He who has called you that He will bring it to pass..."1 Thess. 5:24. Great is His faithfulness... all I have needed thy hand hath provided.

     Nick's interview went great that afternoon.  He was able to convey his thoughts easily, which was what we had prayed for . He said it couldn't have gone any better:) I want to personally thank Nick's Sunday School class for the love and prayer support you have shown us. You will never know how much it means to us. We would also like to thank everyone who knows us face to face, and those who are reading this blog from miles away for your prayers as we accept this calling on our lives. His word says that, "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." I had the great joy and privilege of watching this truth in action yesterday. May I never, ever forget the way I felt.... how He delivered, on July 11th, 2011.

We're here! Yay and yikes all at the same time.

Let's take one last pic together just in case one or both of us doesn't survive this ;)

The waiting room a.k.a the twilight zone where seconds feel like minutes and minutes feel like hours.

Knockin' it out!

What a busy week we had this week! As we wade through the paper work that will eventually become our dossier, our hearts become more and more excited about our future Wiginton(s). What began as an indelible unmistakeable word from God, and has since been confirmed over and over and over again is another step closer to becoming a reality. We applied for our passports, got the kids medical releases completed, our medical releases completed, and what seemed to be a million forms notarized! We also got our records from our local police department for the home study completed, and got fingerprinted for our Federal clearances. Oh, and I almost forgot... we finished our autobiographies and mailed them in for our home study! After thirty pages highlighting practically every aspect of my life I was especially excited to have it knocked out. I felt like I had given birth when I finally finished it :) Anywho, our "interrogation" style separate interviews ,which will last a minimum of 3 hours each, are scheduled for this coming Monday (Prayers are appreciated :). While I am a little nervous about what all the interviews will hold, I am so excited that this day is finally almost here. It means that we are one step closer to completing our home study, and one step closer to opening our hearts to all that God has set before us. 

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

- Millie

Nick signing the forms for our local police records.

Our lil angels at the police department.

They are sooo excited:)

Notary Public extraordinaire Miss Sonja Croone

Nick's fingerprints for Federal Clearance at the ABI Office

Where to Begin

Where to begin? That's the question I sit here and ask myself.  It has been so long since I've last updated this blog and so much has happened since I don't know where to start, so I'll start from the beginning and try to catch you up. 

Since we last left off we have had our first homestudy visit with our social worker and have been trying to get all our paperwork completed.  I have to say that we have definitely been a bit overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork that is needed.  While we knew that it would be a great deal, we just didn't realize how much time and effort it would take until we had started on getting it all together.  But we have persevered and are now about complete with all the paperwork, autobiographies, forms, etc. that is needed for the homestudy. 

We still have two visits left with our social worker before we can complete the homestudy but we are planning on having them completed by the end of the month, knock on wood.  We had originally planned for us to have completed the homestudy by now but I had to be out of town for work for six weeks and that kind of threw a kink in our plans, but that's ok we're back on track now.

God continues to blow our minds with the things that He shows us and it's usually when we least expect it.  I guess that's how He likes to work.  We know beyond a shadow of a doubt we are on the right path God has for our family and even though there may be obstacles in our path we will continue to pray that He will remove them or just give us the strength to get through it.  We can't begin to express our deepest thanks to all who have and are praying for our family and have supported us on this journey we walk. 

Hopefully next time it won't be a couple months before I try to update our progress. 

With much love in Christ,
Nick, Millie, Alex, and Avery

Our Journey Officially Begins

April 22, 2011

Well today we finally received the email we have been longing for.  The email from YWAM letting us know that we are no longer on the waiting list to adopt but that we are now officially beginning our process of adopting.  I can't begin to tell you of the excitement around our house right now, well kind of at least because we haven't told our children yet.  That will be in the next day or so.  While we know that the process will take more than a year to complete this is our first step and it always feels good to make that first step even if it is a small one.  Continue to pray for our family as we will be growing from four to who knows how many...

Letting the kids in on our secret

April 23, 2011

Today we felt it was time for the kids to know of our plans to adopt a child/children from Ethiopia.  While we had a whole morning full of activities (birthday parties, shopping for Easter, errands to run, etc.) we knew the the afternoon before I had to leave for work would be set aside for just us four.  Millie had the idea that we would set up a scavenger hunt for the kids and see if they could figure out about the adoption from the clues we left.  After a peaceful lunch together at one of our favorite places (Rice Box) we headed home to begin the scavenger hunt.  As me and the kids headed inside Millie began to hide Easter eggs and clues all over the front yard.  I'm not sure who had the harder job here, her with trying to hide everything or me keeping the kids from looking out the windows while they waited impatiently.  After only a few minutes, or and eternity to them, it was time to begin.  Millie gave the kids their first initial clue and off they went running frantically from one place to another around the yard gathering more and more clues with each egg they found.  Finally they were at the last egg so me and Millie slipped around the side of the house because the clue was for them to locate "the two who loved them the most".  Well they came running and when they found us we were holding the final clue, a basket with a pack of pacifiers and a map with Ethiopia cirlcled on it.  Now the kids had all the clues and began to discuss what all they had in common and it only took a few seconds for them to realize what it all added up to.  To say that they were ecstatic would be an understatement in the worst kind of way, they were screaming and jumping around all over the place.  So after a few minutes of wildness they settled down so we could begin to explain about how the adoption will take place.  It was a wonderful afternoon together, one that won't be forgotten anytime soon.  It marked the moment that we as a family realized God was calling us to part of something bigger than us and that we were no longer a family of four!