April 29, 2008

So we are 4 days away from the BIG MOVE! Although we are so very sad to leave our families, friends and church behind. We are so very excited to see what the Lord has in store for us at Mooseheart. If this is new news to you let me share with you about our new adventure...

I would say this journey really began 19 months ago, or so. When Randy & I started dating the Lord directed us to First Church of the Nazarene in Indianapolis. I believe the Lord started His work on us the day we stepped foot in those church doors, February of 2006. Since then the Lord has been pouring His love on us by bringing a community of believers to our side in friendship at First Church.

The Lord started molding our hearts to be more ministry related in our free time. We got involved in the mentorship program with our youth, chaplain program with our church's soccer program, playing a support roll in our Saturday Night Worship Service and helping in any other areas in between. After about 6 months of marriage we both felt the Lord wanted to push us farther then Indianapolis ministry. We started a vast search online and separately both came across a ministry opportunity at Mooseheart Child City & School Inc. in Moosehear, IL.

We entered an extensive interview process there with the hopes to be hired on as "Family Teachers" were we would then live with 10 children and teach them every day life skills and behaviors. We were offered the job at the end of March and have seen the Lord continue to confirm that we are doing what He wants of us day after day after day. We have started this blog to keep all family, friends and our church up to date on our journey as well as communicate areas in which we could use support in prayer.

Some of you may be asking some questions so I'm going to do my best to answer the most frequently asked questions of us.

1) No we can't take our dog Winston with us. Very very very sad! We have found a home for him in Colorado with my brother, sister-in-law, nephews and niece which we are very happy about.

2) No we haven't sold our house, we are fortunate enough to hold onto it until we finish a few home improvements to put it in position to sell when the time comes.

3) Randy & I do get vacation days, personal days, sick days and 2 consecutive days off a week (more then likely not weekend days)

4) Yes we are encouraged to share our faith with these students. This is a lot of why we felt Mooseheart was the right fit for us.

5) Where exactly is Mooseheart, IL? Mooseheart is about 35miles west of downtown Chicago, just North of Aurora just about the center of Batavia.

This is the house we'll be living in, "Oregon House". There are 30 resident home's named after different states within the United States.

340 S. Fellowship Lane Mooseheart, IL 60539
www.mooseheart.org

May 18th, 2007

Our wedding was May 18th, 2007 at 7:30 in the evening in Indianapolis. After the ceremony Randy surpised me with a Limo that would escort us to The Garrision at For Benjamine Harrison for our reception. There we danced the night away in celebration with our friends & families.

The next morning we flew out of Indianapolis for our honeymoon in Jamica, Negril at the Riu Resort. There we shared a memorable 7 days and 7 nights; we had the time of our lives.

December 4th, 2007

It was a Saturday night, and I had come down with the horrible sinus cold. Randy had wanted for us to go downtown to see the monument circle all lit up for Christmas. Well, Mother Nature wouldn’t allow it. We had horrible winds Friday which blew the lights down and out. They wouldn’t be able to repair it till Tuesday of the following week. So we went about our business on Saturday. Randy’s funeral homes have a Christmas Memorial Candle Light Service every Christmas. So after he went into work Saturday morning (really he was meeting with my dad asking for my hand in marriage) we got ready to go attend these services. After that we went to New Castles Christmas Home Tour. Toured these beautiful homes all decorated for Christmas and then finished the evening with dinner and a stop at the store for more cold medicine for sick-o Hannah. We made it back to his house and I went to the restroom so could put Vaseline on my nose that had become so raw from blowing it all week long. I came out of the restroom and Randy comes walking to me still dressed in his suit, so handsome! I held my hands up and told him, “I’m just warning you, I just put Vaseline on my nose and I look pretty nasty!” He pulls me in to hug me and tells me, “You could never look nasty, you’re always beautiful. (Pause) You know all those homes we saw tonight were beautiful and I know my house doesn’t look like those, but I like my house. It’s just missing one thing…” I said, “YEAH, it’s missing me!” He chuckled and said, “Yes, it is missing you. Maybe I should do something about that.” Then Randy whispered in my ear, “Hannah will you marry me?” I replied with, “Yes, of course I’ll marry you… you know I’ll marry you.” At this point not realizing he’s serious. Until he pulls out of the hug and starts reaching into his pocket, I backed up and started flailing my arms screaming in my very horse voice, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” He shows me the ring and I started crying… at this point I have mascara streaming down my face along with snot and Vaseline from my nose.” Pretty picture, right? Hahaha… and that’s our story. We got married May 18th @ Castle View Baptist and I am so excited to be Mrs. Hannah Riggs!

Colts vs. Bengals; 2005

We met November 20th of 2005. It was the Colts vs. Bengals game and one of my girlfriends was dating one of Randy's friends. So I met up with this group who got together every Colts game & there was Randy. He kindly introduced himself to me and he struggled to keep my attention as I was distracted visiting with my girlfriend. A couple weeks went by and we met up again for another Colts game. There was Randy... he shouted out to me, "Hey Hannah". I leaned over to my girlfriend and asked her what his name was b/c I couldn't remember but was impressed with the fact that he remembered mine. He asked for my number that night and as I left I was sure we wouldn't have anything in common and our phone conversation wouldn’t exceed a couple minutes. Well, I was wrong. We were on the phone a couple hours the following night and everything he said made me smile. The thing that truly captured me was these words, “I’m not looking for a relationship”. We had just both gotten out of long term relationships so all I was looking for was a friend & thankfully so was he. Well the Lord had something else in mind. From that night on I couldn’t get him out of my mind. So we talked & texted on the phone that whole week and met up with each other again to watch a movie with some friends. He was just as good looking as I had remembered and now I knew what he was about which made him all the more attractive. I couldn’t fight it… as badly as I thought I didn’t want to start another relationship I knew in my heart this was worth it b/c I had just met the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with. The rest is history… we never had a “define this relationship talk”, or a “where is this going” it just happened naturally as the Lord intended it to be for Randy & I. Now everyday I thank the Lord for bringing us together as he did.