Oh Happy (Valentines) Day!

  We got the most amazing surprise today! We found out that we have been scheduled for our court date:) We are scheduled to appear March 16th. After many twists and turns over the past few weeks, it was looking like it would be weeks later, so we were completely shocked when we were contacted. Nick called to share this wonderful news, and I was standing in Walmart crying like a baby (and looking like a crazy person I am sure). Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your prayers! We are so very grateful for each and every one of you.


BTW: In the next few hours our baby girls will be seeing our pictures for the very first time! They will be given the photo album, and sock monkeys we sent them, and the laminated family pics that we sent will be posted above their cribs for them to become familiar with our faces. It gives me chills just thinking about their sweet little faces studying our photos :)

Babies Mine...

  I wish there was a way for putting into words the way I feel right now. For every Mommy, that has not physically carried a child in their tummy, I can tell you that carrying a child in your heart is every bit the same. Tonight and every night, I am longing to hold my babies in my arms. I'm longing to lay my eyes on them. I want to sing to them, to read our favorite books to them, to give them great big hugs and butterfly kisses, to tell them that Jesus loves them.. that He's absolutely crazy about them, that Alex and Ave love them, Mommy and Daddy love them... but I can't, not now, not yet. I can't explain the great expectation in my heart, the pulse pumping anticipation that is with me every moment of every day. So until that day...  when I see their precious faces, when I hold them in my arms and sing them sweet lullabies... I will pray, and I will wait, and I will dream of the day that my faith becomes sight... and someday I will look back on this pregnancy with warm fuzzy memories of a Faithful God who never once let us down, who was our portion in every possible way, who loved us so well, so completely that we stand in awe of His love, His absolutely personal, intimate love for us.
- Millie

It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His tender compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.
Lamentations 3: 22-23

Laminated Pics of our fam that will be hanging over our girls cribs in a matter of weeks:)

Gifts that we got to send to our lil angels: 2 Pics, a toddler photo album,
and two sock monkeys that Ave picked out for them.

We've Got TWINS!!!

Today we received our referral for TWIN 2 year old girls!  I can't even begin to tell you how God has worked out every single detail about the adoption for our family so far.  In every direction we have felt as He was leading us He has come through.  I know I shouldn't be amazed, and I should expect it, but I think I'm amazed at His love for us and how He continues to show us in every detail.  Thank you to all who continue to pray for our family and support us as we walk out this journey in our lives. You are all a part of our story, of their story, and we cannot thank you enough.

So, now we wait for our case to be translated and submitted to the court in Ethiopia. Hopefully there won't be any hang ups in the paperwork, and this will happen in the next several weeks!!!

Isaiah 25:1
O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness You have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.


- Nick

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.