INTRODUCING OUR DAUGHTER...

On JUNE 28, 2016 God answered our prayers and Tigest Sophia Hope Blaszak officially became our daughter!!!!! We are ELATED and beyond thankful that we get to be her forever family and that God has brought us to this point. We are also thrilled to be able to finally share her name and her beautiful face with the WORLD!!! We chose to keep the name she was given at birth, Tigest, which means "Patience" (I always say that I used to pray for patience, then God literally gave her to me, and then made me be patient while I waited for her!) as her first name and we have given her the name Sophia Hope. Today, I wanted to share photos we have taken over the years for you to see without the heart covering her her bright, beautiful, smile that lights up a room and warms your heart!

Ethiopia Trip #1 JUNE 2012

The first photo I took of Tigest

That smile!

She crawled up in my lap...

and my heart was forever hers.

Ethiopia Trip #2 July 2014

Holding her in my arms for the first time in 2 years

Group hug after such a long separation

Napping on Daddy after she stayed up ALL night from being so excited

This girl loves cuddling her Daddy

Her laugh is the BEST

Teaching her the "I Love You" sign

All tucked in and ready for bed

Painting her nails

Ethiopia Trip #3 June 2016

The first hug after another 2 years...this time,
knowing she would soon officially be our daughter

"I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you."  John 14:18

IN THE AIR

As I write, this very minute, Tom is flying over the Atlantic Ocean..or possibly over Western Africa by now, on his way to officially become Hope's daddy. My heart may burst!

So much has happened over the last 10 days as we have been making final preparations for this trip...

We went shopping for donations for the care center,

To buying thank you gifts and writing letters for some special Ethiopian friends, 

To pausing to celebrate Sydney's 6th birthday with family and fun at the pool with friends, 

A surprise daddy daughter date to a Princess Ball on her birthday 

And celebrating this amazing man on Father's Day..

(And these awesome Dads too!!)

To packing (which literally took us days),

To final goodbyes

And then dropping Tom at the airport this morning..

It wasn't until I got back in the van to pull away from the airport that it all finally hit me...

Tom is on his way to adopt our daughter. Once we pass court, she's ours. All these moments we spend together as a family, she will soon be here to experience with us. The 4 years of labor pains will finally be gone and she will be in our arms...FOREVER! 

My cup runneth over.

He should land around midnight EST..please continue to be in prayer for his travels and for the details of the adoption to go smoothly. If you would like to join with us in a tangible way to donate toward a gift for hope when she comes home that will help us offset the cost of travel and in-country fees, see the previous post, "Covered in Love" to find out how.