Hard couple of weeks

The past couple of weeks have been a little difficult. We were so ready to bring Massi home. The not knowing when has been a bit of a journey. Yesterday as I was running on the treadmill I began thinking what are my lessons in this wait and the one thing that kept running through my mind over and over is God has the day marked that we are supposed to bring our little boy home and that day wasn't dec 7th and wasn't dec 21st. It doesn't matter what I do that day is set. Another thing that I realized is I have a wonderful group of friends. You support me, pray for me, encourage me when I am down. Your words have helped so much. The overwhelming response to walking with me in this journey has been priceless. I cannot express how much it means to me. I love each of you so much and can't wait for you to meet the little boy that you have been praying for all this time.
It is Christmas Eve and we decided to come up north early. We are having an awesome time spending time with family. This is my nephews first Christmas. He is so adorable. Alek and Natalie got to open some presents this morning and they were so excited. Even though a member of our family is missing this weekend we know that our Father is loving him and giving all that he needs until his is able to come home to his forever family.
Merry Christmas....

Funny kid stories

I absolutely think 4 and 5 year olds are the funniest people around. The other day I was taking Alek to school and as we pull up to the drop off he says mom "snowball fights at recess are illegal" I said who told you that he says "mom, its the law" and gets out of the car and walks right into school.
I wish I kept a journal for all the funny things that they say throughout the day or maybe even a recording to keep for the days that I am feeling a little gloomy. Those one liner conversations can sure cheer someone up.
The last 2 days have been a little rough. I can't help but think that we should be in Ethiopia going to get our little Massi. It makes me sad that it could be a couple more months. We are really praying the embassy workers are able to get to through our case as soon as possible so that we are invited to come. Please lift these prayers up to support us.

No trip this week

Well the trip that we have been preparing ourselves for, for the past month is now not going to happen. We found out last week that our case along with a couple of others is under investigation at the US embassy. It could take 1 to 2 months or longer. We do not have any answers at this time. We are so sad that our boy will not be here for Christmas. We are sad that it has been a long 7 month journey to bring this little boy home and still we have no end in sight. Thank you for your prayers and we will keep you posted.

Awesome night

Tonight was so awesome. Four of my friends were able to bring their kids home. First our friends Tim and Maria who had their baby over a week ago were able to bring baby Grant home. I am so happy for them. This has been a long journey to baby #4. I am so happy that Grant is doing better.
Next we were able to go to the airport tonight to welcome friends home after this long journey of adoption. Tonight each of them are experiencing their completed family in the peace of their homes. Something that you think about for months and finally it is a reality. I can't explain the joy I felt for each of them as they walked down the hallway to meet their friends and family. Congratulations to you all we are so excited for you.
On our families note we do not have any updates. We are hoping to hear something Monday.
Enjoy the weekend.

Update

We haven't posted in a while mostly because we have been extremely busy preparting to leave on the 15th. This week we found out that know the US embassy in Ethiopia is going to investigate our case along with some others. They are investigating that our agency has been ethical throughout our file. I am in disbelief that we are yet stuck. We have no idea how long this will take and no one will tell us any information. We are in limbo and just expected to sit here and wait. It just makes me so sad that there is a little boy thousands of miles away that we would like to bring home and we don't even have an idea to when this is going to happen. When we recieved our referral he was just over 2 years old and by the time that he comes home he will close to 3. We are so close to being and the end of this paperwork journey but yet things just keep coming up. There is still a glimmer of hope that the embassy will still allow us to come however it is a little glimmer. My heart is heavy that there is a strong chance we will not go next week. We have to move forward still laying our hearts on the line that soon the day will come.
Today, a little joy however was brought over. I got to spend the whole day with my little buddy (nephew Noah). I haven't seen or held him since he was tied up with tubes. That little boy is so special. I just held him and played with him all afternoon. He is just wanted I needed to feel a little at peace today.
Tonight Alek had his school Christmas program. It was the cutest thing. Alek is growing up so much. We can't believe that he is 5 and we are going to school programs.
Tomorrow we get to go to the airport to welcome some friends home from this long journey of adoption. They are bringing their little boy home. We are so happy and excited for them and eager to meet Easton.
hopefully I will be able to post some more updates soon. Thank you for your prayers.

Updates

It has been a long week and a half. Last week I spent most of the week at U of M hospital with my sister and nephew. His surgery went really well and they believe that he will not have to have any other surgeries. We had a little scare when he first came into the ICU. They were trying to push some fluid because he was low and his heart didn't like the method so his heart completely stopped for 3 minutes. My sister and I were in the room when this happened. I have never been so scared in my life. I just kept praying to God to save this little boy. Thankfully our prayer was answered and they were able to get his heart working again. They were 30 seconds from reopening him right there in the room. Since then, he has been doing well. He actually came home yesterday from the hospital. So keep baby Noah in your prayers for a healthy recovery.
On Friday on my way home from the hospital we found out that we passed court. YEA!!!!! Finally we are completed with that step. Mazengia is officially our little boy. We are a family of 5 and now outnumbered. We are planning on leaving on Dec 15th to travel back to Ethiopia to pick him up. We will be back Christmas Eve night. It is going to be an awesome Christmas. I already love Christmas for many reasons and now it is going to be the most special year by far. Now we just wait to hear that they have a new birth certificate and passport for him and we will be all set.
This past weekend all of us except Natalie has had the flu. Boy, was it a nasty one. Ben by far had it the worst. Thankfully we all are in the home stretch of it.
Lastly, I would like to share some stories of families in need of prayers. We have dear friends of ours that just found out that the husband has lymphoma cancer. He is going to be starting chemo on Monday. Please keep them in your prayers as they also have 3 young kids. Please pray that the chemo is effective and that it will kill the cancer completely.
Please pray for friends of ours that have run into a last minute snag with their adoption paperwork. This process is so long anyway and to run into something at the very end when you are so close to bringing your little one home is very hard to understand. Please pray that they can get all of this taken care so that they can travel soon to pick their little one up.
We wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and time with family. We have so much to be grateful and thankful this year.

Surgery day

Today we did not receive any news on our adoption. We believed that we would and the day came and went. This is exactly like being pregnant and being 5 days late and no dialation or indication the baby is coming soon. So that is that.
Tomorrow I will head down to U of M to be with my mom and sister for my little 4 month old nephews open heart surgery. I can't imagine what my sister is feeling like having her baby have this serious surgery at such a young age. We are praying and hoping that the doctors will be able to repair the defect so that Noah's organs can all perform at 100%. His surgery is at 7:30a on Wednesday. He will be in ICU for 24 hours before anyone is allowed to see him. Please pray for strength and peace for my sister and holy divine protection over my little nephew. Also pray for wisdom and gentleness for the surgeons and medical staff that will be taking care of him. My sister has a care page if you would like to follow. It is www.carepages.com/noahlewisriggs

Update

I haven't done an update in a while. This Tuesday our letter was sent back to Ethiopia. We were hoping to hear that they got it today but it looks like Monday we will hear. I can't wait to hear those words that we passed and we now have another little boy to the Wickstrom clan. We did get some good news today. Before we left Ethiopia we asked our friend Abel that if he went to the orphanage if he could show our boy a picture of us so that he wouldn't forget. So this past week Abel was talking to our boy and he pointed to the pic and said who are they and our boy said "man and dad". AWWW.... How cute is that. I was asking God today show me a sign anything that you are still working in this and this brought me the hugest smile. Have a great weekend. Please also lift my friends Luke and Megan up in prayer. They were all set to leave to pick up their girl and they recieved news that they won't be leaving next week. Pray that they can take care of this situation as soon as possible.

Today is a new day.

Today is a new week. I am filled of hope that things will work out this week. My clearance letter is in DC right now. The courier is going to get the neccessary stamps today and I am praying that she can even get it on in the mail today. If she can get it in the mail today, it could be to Ethiopia on Friday. The great news is the judge said that as soon as the letter comes they can take it to court.. So we do not have to wait for another court appointment.
All last week I kept wondering why is this happening to us and 2 things really stuck out. 1. is God wants us to fully trust and believe in Him. It is really hard for me to completely give everything up. I do believe that God will protect us from anything that will not ultimately lead us closer to Him. 2. Is people are always going to fail you but God never will. Instead of first running to other people to fix the issue we should always run to go God first. Unfortunately, I am always learning this lesson.
This week is about grace for me. I have first received a lot of it and now I am going to give it and I am going to give it with a heart full of love and compassion.

The Pity Party is Over

So the last couple of days I have had quite the party. I want to thank of all my dear friends for coming to my party and sitting with me in my anger, frustration, sadness and all other feelings. I truly appreciate you jumping into the situation and getting mad with me. I thank you that you didn't try to offer advice and that you sat in the emotions that I was in. Without all of you, I couldn't reach this peace this soon. I want to say thank you to the police lady for saying sorry, thank you to my social worker for saying sorry and to all my friends who have said sorry and that didn't even have a part in it. I'm sorry I believe is one of the most powerful statements. I'm sorry helps people move forward from frustration to understanding. After all, how could you be mad at someone who says I am sorry with all of their heart. Something in those words does something to your heart. Tonight I have decided to gear up the energy to look forward to passing court whenever that is. It will happen.
One thing that my aunt said to me the other day was: Trust God in the dark, like you trusted Him in the light. That is so true. It is easy to trust God when things are going great or even good. It is so hard to trust Him when you can't see an end and you are in the thick of it. That has been my lesson. For those of you who have prayed for peace. Thank you. I am surrendering and I have peace. Tomorrow is a new day..

Have to redo letter again

Yesterday brought some pretty bad news. The clearance letter that I rushed to get to Ethiopia didn't have the U.S. seal on it so they didn't accept it. I am completely crushed. This error was only supposed to put us back 1 week and instead I am not sure how long it will be. In my mind I just don't understand why we can't get a break in this process. Each step of the way has had an obstacle. To make matters worse I contacted the travel agent to check on availability to fly out for the Dec 23 embassy and they have limited availability and the cost keeps rising. Right now it is over $2000 a ticket. I feel like stuff just keeps piling on. I don't want to keep going back to this is such a silly error and I can't believe that it is going to delay us 2 months but the more that we get pushed back the more it drives me bonkers. So I don't know what is next. I have no idea when our letter will get there. I have no idea when we go to court again. I have no idea when we will even pass court or better yet have no idea when we will go back. All I know is my heart aches that we can't just jump on a plane and go get our little boy. My heart hurts that no one else is connected to this boy in this process like we are.. Why would people rush our case along? They have no emotional ties to our little boy. They have no connection. My only prayer is that they can look at it with new eyes. Maybe look at it as just delivering your baby and before they let you hold your baby they say to you we have to have the birth certificate ready before you can hold your baby but it takes a week to get this birth certificate. During this time you just ache to hold your baby. The staff tries to assure it is only a week, you have the rest of your life to hold your baby, but inside you have been waiting for this day for 9 months, 1 more hour seems like a lifetime. That is how I feel inside. I have an ache in my chest that just won't go away. I pray that this will all be taken care off soon.

Back 1 week

Well we have been back 1 week and it is great. After meeting him we definitely walk around the house wondering what he would be doing, toys he would play or comments that he would make. We can see how Alek and Natalie will be such a great big brother and big sister to him. I knnow it is going to be tough at first but I am so excited for this part of the journey to begin.

They received our paperwork. Thank you to an awesome man named Abel. He stopped by the DHL last week to pick it up. Even though it didn't go anywhere last week at least we know that it is safe in his hands. Tomorrow is our rescheduled court date so we are longing to hear the words you passed and now you are a family of 5.

We have a lot coming up in the next couple of weeks. My nephew is getting open heart surgery in 2 weeks. Please lift up my sister and Noah in your prayers. I can't imagine having to have my baby have such a traumatic surgery.

On another note, my rash that I brought back from Ethiopia is going away finally. I was starting to get a little worried. I took a stronger prescription yesterday and noticed this morning it is already clearing up. We have a busy week ahead of us. May yours be filled with love and peace.

Heart is filled

Great news. I think my body is officially on est time. My heart and mind are still in Ethiopia. I don't ever want to forget the things that I have seen or the feelings that I felt. I am so thankful that Ben and I decided to follow God all the way to Ethiopia. We are both forever changed. I would like to share something that God used for us to jump with both feet into this journey.

It is something from Beth Moore's study Breaking Free.

It goes like this (quote from her study)

Imagine going to heaven and standing by God as He lovingly shows you the calendar of His plan for your earthly life. It begins with the day you are born. Once you received Christ as Savior, every day that follows is outlined in red. You see footprints walking through each day of each week of your life. On many of the days, two sets of footprints appear. You inquire: "Father, are those my footprints on the calendar every day and is the second set of prints when you joined me?"
He answers, "No, My precious child. The consistent footprints on your calendar are Mine. The second set of footprirnts are when you joined Me."
"Where were You going, Father?"
"To the destiny I planned for you, hoping you'd follow."
"But, Father, where are my footprints all those times?"
He answers, "Sometimes you went back to look at old resentments and habits while I was still going forward, hoping you'd join Me. Sometimes, you departed from My path and chose your own calendar instead. Other times, your footprints can even be seen on another person's calendar because you thought you liked their plan better. At other times, you simply stopped because you would not let go of something you could not take to the next day."
"But, Father, we ended up OK even if I didn't walk with You every day, didn't we?"
He holds you close and smiles, "Yes, Child, we ended up OK. But, you see, OK was never what I had in mind for you."
"Father, what are those golden treasure boxes on certain days?"
"Blessings, My child, I had for you along the way. Those that are open are those you received. Those still closed were days you did not walk with Me."

We are so thankful that we have the chance to receive this beautiful blessing from God. May you all receive yours as well.

Thank you to Birtukan and Nesibu

We were fortunate enough to stay with such an amazing family. we are forever thankful and grateful to them. Birtukan and Nesibu

pictures from feeding program

Our last day in Ethiopia saturday

This morning we went to say good-bye to our boy. I must say we have a pretty funny kid. He could not be more perfect for our family. Today I was holding another little girl and swinging her around and he walked up to me grabbed my arm to put her down and do it to him. The funny part is this whole week he hasn't come up to us. It has been us going to him. I was only able to hold him once before this for the whole week. It was pretty amazing. I think that he connects that we are there for him hopefully he knows that we will back for him....
After our good-byes we went to Birtukan and Nesibu's feeding program. It is a program that they run on Saturdays to feed over 1000 children. What an amazing ministry. Birtukan herself was a sponsored child through World Vision. God has placed this program on her heart and brought her a husband that shares the vision. When we were feeding these children I have never felt so much love and kindness. These kids were awesome. Among this God has never felt so close. After the program, we decided to sponsor 3 kids. This sponsorship pays for school fees, yearly checkups, counseling, a meal on Saturday, school supplies and allows them to stay with their families. There are over 600 kids in the ministry that still need sponsors. if you feel that your family could help out in this way it is only $30 a month. What a great life lesson to teach your kids. They can have a friend completely around the world. If you would like to sponsor a child, please let me know and I can get you the contact info. It is only $1 a day. I think that we all can find a $1 a day.... Grace and Peace everyone.....

court day friday

We did not pass court today but I have a peace in my heart that God is in control. He knows what is best for our family. When I doubt and want to take over that control I just have to remind myself that His plan is always better than mine. Even though sometimes I think I have a really great plan. after court we went out to lunch. There were no other families here so it was just Abel, Ben and I. We had an unbelieveable time today. Abel took us to the top of the mountain which was 10000 feet above sea level. We saw the track that the runners go to every morning at 5:30 to train, a church at the top of the mountain, the first palace. All over the hill there were women who walked 4-5 miles up and back down to gather tree branches for fire later that day.. It was simply amazing. The women are so strong. This culture has such hard workers.

Court Day Friday

We leave the guesthouse early in the morning to go meet with the MOWA to figure out what is wrong with our dossier. We meet with the gentleman that is working on our file and sure enough there is white out on my police clearance letter. The lady at the desk accidentally checked the wrong box so she whited it out and initialled it. I just sit there and begin to ball my eyes. I am so sad that we are not going to pass court today. The gentleman reassures us that we just need to redo this paper and we will be fine. I absolutely love their culture in the sense that they view everything as a minor problem. I really wish that I had more of that instead of everything being so major. so we will redo the form and get it sent back as soon as possible. so we leave and head to the courthouse. We walk up the stairs and are led into a room full of people waiting to go before the judge. There are birth families, adopted families all sitting together. Racing through my heart is I wonder which one is my sons birth family. The feelings in my heart are so mixed. I am so happy that we are near the end of the process to bring our little boy home but I am so sad that his mother has to give him up. We are the only ones at court today from our agency so the next moment they call her name to come before the judge. I know who she is. My heart begins to fill with pain. I watch her walk into the room to speak before the judge. Moments later the door opens and they call our names to come in. We pass her in the doorway. She now knows who we are. We are in the room before the judge. My heart is torn in all these different directions. We are done with the judge and we walk out of the door into the waiting room and we are standing in the middle of the room I look at up and in the hallway I lock eyes with his mother. Our eyes are both filled with tears. I can't imagine what she is going through. I wonder if she thinks that I am good enough. I can't look anymore, it is too painful so I turn away. when I look back she is gone. I am so overcome with emotions at this point that I run into the hall with Abel and began to just cry. All of my emotions just come out in this hallway with people standing everywhere.

Thursday Court pre day for us Court day for 3 families

Today we will take the 3 other families to court. They all passed today. Yea!!! Thank you Lord. These families have been on a long journey and what a great thing to have great news before you leave. We were able to go to the orphanage while they were at court today. Today our little one let me pick him up. I walked with him outside in the courtyard looking at all the trees and flowers. I just look at him and have this overflowing fountain of love pouring out of me. I am so thankful that God picked this one out for us. He is so wonderful. Today he was also a little sick. Thankfully the next day he was back to himself. After the orphanage, we went to Bethany to meet with our social worker and get a briefing about court tomorrow. The Bethany staff in Ethiopia are so awesome. I cannot say enough great things about them. They really work hard for us adoptive families. Today was a long and busy day. shortly after we leave Abel got a call from Sisay stating that there is something wrong with one of our forms. Sisay tells us we will go to the MOWA in the morning and try to work it out. I just break down in tears. We have come all this way and now we are going to be delayed. I felt so defeated. I was up in my room crying and Birtukan comes up and asks me what is wrong she then begins to pray in Amharic for me. she has her arms wrapped around me as I am laying my head on her shoulder just weeping and she is praying. She prayed so intensely. I am not sure what she prayed but after 5 minutes I felt and overwhelming sense of peace. It was going to be ok. God is charge.
Tonight we didn't get much sleep.

Wednesday day

After the orphanage visit, Abel took us to a great restaurant for lunch. We got to hang out with the 3 other families that were there and talk about our day with the kids. After lunch, we went to the market to buy some gifts for home. For the 3 other families they were preparing for court. Tonight we will go to a traditional Ethiopian dinner at a restaurant. The food above is what we were served. Ben loved the food. After dinner, we got to see some tradional Ethiopian dancing. it was absolutely amazing. the Ethiopians are such kind, talented, beautiful people. We had a wonderful day today.

Meeting our boy Wednesday

We are standing outside the gate just waiting to go in. My stomach is in absolute knots. within a couple of minutes they are ready and we walk in. The children are eating lunch when we walk in. Ben notices him right away in the corner as I am still looking to find him. I follow Ben as he leads me over. There he is. My heart sinks with nervousness praying that he doesn't cry when he sees us. Ben bends down to say hi and he gives him a high five. I reach out my hand for a high five and he gives me one. i just burst out with joy and laughter and realize that his personality is perfect for our family. This little boy was matched perfectly for us. We get to spend about 3 hours today at the orphanage. The kids are really amazing. They are so kind, polite, joyful and full of energy. Our boy is opening a little to Ben but just watches me from a distance. We just take it slow not wanting to rush him. So I will take the little glances from him. We brought a bag of suckers so all the kids loved them.

Our trip Day 1

We were unable to get on blogspot while we were there so we journaled so we could share our experience. We arrived in Addis Ababa late Tuesday evening. We were greeted by one of the kindest, generous person, Abel. From the airport we went to our guesthouse. Birtukan and Nesibu greeted us warmly and then prepared some really awesome soup. Abel handed us our itinerary and in the morning we will meet our little boy. The first night I (jen) was up most of the night because I was worried that we would over sleep and not get up for the big day. So about every hour I woke Ben up to see what time it was. We ended up getting up around 5am. Tuesday morning we had the chance to meet some amazing friends, Luke and Megan. One of the most beautiful things about this adoption journey is the friends that you will make along the way. They met our little boy the day before and told us how cute he was. After an amazing breakfast which every morning birtukan prepares the freshiest breakfast. The juice is always mixed with fresh banana and another fruit. It was so great. (the picture above is us with our new friends standing right outside the orphanage before we meet our little boy)

Amsterdam

We made it to Amsterdam. We're waiting for our connection now. Not much sleep overnight for Jen or I but all is going well. The only hiccup so far is I converted the euro/dollar incorrectly, but we had a nice 40 dollar breakfast this morning! Jen bought 10 minutes in massage chair so i'm taking the opportunity to catch up. From here, we have about another 9 hour flight with a stop in the Sudan. It doesn't seem like Amsterdam should be less than half way from Detroit, but it puts it in perspective. Alek and Natalie - if you are reading this today we love you and miss you and everything is good. We're having quite the adventure. We love you all and will post again when we arrive in Addis.

at the airport

we made the first step of our trip. all of our four bags were under fifty lbs we had three at forty nine and one at twenty eight. guess which one was bens. the kids were so excited to see their cousins. please keep them in your prayers for complete peace and joy the entire week. we are so excited about this next step. we leave for amsterm at five thirty we will be in ethiopia tomrrow around two thirty pm michigan time. hope to post again when we get there.

at

We are off to Ethiopia.

Things have been quite busy around here. Tomorrow morning we leave for our trip to Ethiopia.We are so thankful to our family and friends for praying for us through this journey so far. Today we had a wonderful lunch with friends Kurt, Juli, Tim and Maria. We are so grateful for their committment to walk with us in this process. Tonight my aunt Steph, cousins Cole, Cara and Amanda and Grandma Grace arrived to watch Alek and Natalie for the week that we are gone. We cannot express how much this means to us. We are forever thankful that we will be able to fully intake this amazing experience that is ahead with peace knowing our kids are being well taken care of. We ask that you send many prayers for my grandma, aunt and all the kids. We will continue to update our journey throughout our trip. We should arrive Tuesday evening, meeting Baby J for the first time on Wednesday. Thank you all again for your continued prayers.

Family Reunion

Last weekend was a great weekend. It was the Riggs Family Reunion. Ben did his annual trip to Wisconsin with his brother, nephew and dad while the kids and I went up north. Alek wanted to go fishing so I was in charge of putting the nightcrawelers on the hooks. (Side note; nightcrawlers have a lot of black poop in them which made me almost vomit). We couldn't take the boat out so we had to fish off this little bridge over a stream. I honestly didn't think that we would catch anything and within 2 minutes of putting our line in we caught a 18" bass. I wish I would have brought the camera because it was so amazing that we caught something. And the look on Alek's face, priceless. What a fun weekend.

Our first post

Finally... we have a blog. I have been wanting to do this for a very long time and then I met a friend named Janine who mentioned that she blogs for a record of her family history. She prints her blogs yearly and has this written record of their family's journey for that year. What a great thing to pass down to your kids, grandkids, great grandkids. So here it is.

Well we sure have been busy this past summer. At the beginning of the summer we received our referral for our little boy in Ethiopia. He is a little over 2 and boy are we excited to go and get in. Currently we are waiting to travel for court. We are waiting for the courts to re-open at the end of September and optimistically hoping that we will still travel in October.

Next on our plate, Natalie had her first dance recital. She did so awesome. Her dance was to "how much is that doggie in the window".

Ben participated in his annual Grand Haven Fishing tournament, which he placed 15th out of 50 boats. Which I thought was awesome.

Shortly after that I became an auntie to my nephew Noah. What an awesome experience. I got to share in the joy of seeing my sister push her first baby into her arms. The little boy was 4 weeks early and weighed 7lbs 6oz.

This summer has been packed with many trips to the beach with friends, blueberry picking, local events, trips to grandmas and lots of fishing. I will say that our little boy loves to fish. Honestly sometimes I think that Ben is encouraging him so that they can go fishing more often. He plays in his dads boat all day long. Actually one of the funniest things is when he had a friend over a couple of weeks ago and I overheard him say "hey, would you like to go watch Michigan Outdoors and read Great lakes Angler?" That cracks me up.

Time is flying by so fast with our kids. School is right around the corner.