Birth certificate!

Exactly 2 weeks after our court date we recieved Tessa's birth certificate! It is one more step, one more process completed that brings us closer to travel! yeh! I hope in the next couple weeks to hear that her passport has been issued and that she has had her medical clearance....then we will be assigned a travel date! yahoo! We are getting so close now.

Tessa is almost 7 months old....I can not get to her soon enough. I am always thinking about what that meeting will be like. I know I will feel so overwhelmed with emotions. I wonder what she will feel. Probably a little confused. Maybe even scared by a stranger. To think we will be strangers meeting....also mother and child meeting. Wow. This really is an amazing process.

More to come soon!

Tessa Amarech Rikkers

At last, we have given Tessa her full and beautiful name. It was no small task for Andy and I. Naming seems like it should be such fun and easy process, but for some reason it never has been very fun or easy for us. I suppose it is because we both tend to be strong willed and one of us is right brained while the other is left. Whatever it is, it is a wonder that our children have names at all! My style of naming is very open to new and different names, but especially names with a special meaning or relation to someone. Andy too likes to have a special connection, but also thinks much more conservatively. Anyway, it was not an easy process, but alas we have named our daughter!

Giving our sweet girl her first name was fairly clear because it is derived from her Ethiopian name Tesfanesh, which literally means "you are hope". I love that, but also love that we made it our own name as well in calling her Tessa, which also means fourth child (pure coincidence!). The middle name is where we have been hung up. At first I thought "Hope" would be a beautiful middle name, also from her Ethiopian name, but Andy wasn't feeling that one. Then we went through a slew of family names (people we love) and really none seemed to sound quite right. Then I became certain of another middle name for Tessa, one that would connect her to Ethiopia and honor a very special person in her life. It just took a while for Andy to agree with this instead of a more traditional middle name (Ann).

For me it became crystal clear that Tessa's middle name should be in honor of a very special woman from her home country, Amarech. The woman in Ethiopia that discovered her, took her in to care for her for a week, named her Tesfanesh and ultimately made the decision to give Tessa a different life. Last night, Andy and I named our daughter Tessa Amarech Rikkers.

Perhaps we will meet Amarech when we travel to Ethiopia and will be able to express our gratitude. Perhaps not. If we are not able to meet Amarech then we send her name with our daughter as a important part of her history and her connection to her home land and the person that choose a different life for her.

I hope that Tessa Amarech Rikkers will carry her name proudly and know it was given to her from a place of honor and love.

The Third Time Is the Charm!!!!

Tessa -5 months Tessa's referral photo at 10 weeks

Thank goodness....big sigh...we passed court! The third time was the charm. I am so relieved. Tessa, has been our daughter since the moment we saw her sweet face. But now it is official...it is legal! And we are one step closer to Tessa being in our arms!!!

And now, at last, I can share photos of our sweet girl.

Holidays for all....

We had a very happy holiday. It was full of excitement of Santa's arrival with all of us in full "Believe" mode! So much fun! Since Andy was not 0n-call this Christmas, so we hit the road for Christmas in Minnesota at Nana and Pops' house. This took a small village to accomplish! You should have seen our car. There were visits with the entire MN family and later visits with the entire Rikkers family. We made a stop at Dells for a day of waterpark fun with their Rikkers from Boston cousins! That was fun...I made sure to stop in at the spa. Boy, it is quite a shocker to go from a spa to the waterpark. But I did enjoy some quiet time.

Our Sweet girlsTessa's absence was definitely felt. It did help to have the social report to share with all of our family and friends though. I wondered if they were celebrating Christmas there when we were or not. I wondered if she ripped open a present or not. Last Christmas I said to myself, she will be here next year...next year came and went, now I can say with certainty that next Christmas we will be together with our family complete!

Here are some photos for you of our holiday.....wishing you a blessed new year ahead!