A bit more about Kate!

"You hem Kate in, behind and before;

you have laid your hand upon her...

You knit her together in her mother's womb.

I praise you because she is fearfully and

wonderfully made...

All the days ordained for her

were written in your book

before one of them came to be."

Psalm 139:5, 13-14, 16 

Sweet little Kate!

This is Liz blogging again ; ) But if you haven't read James' post below - definitely read it! He's a great writer and conveyed this journey so well. I can't sleep - wow, so many emotions and so much excitement!!! It's no wonder! So I thought I'd blog a bit more about this little one! I'll try to answer some of the questions I've heard most often ; )

She is from a rural area and was left on the steps of the orphanage on the day she was born. It is very likely that her dear mama gave birth to her and, due to the cleft lip and palate, had no way to feed her. From what I'm learning, cleft babies need special bottles and a young mom with no resources wouldn't be able to obtain these nor the formula to fill them with. She probably is very poor considering the area, and knew she would never be able to afford the corrective surgeries needed for Kate. She knew this little one would have such a better chance at getting the help she needed if she gave her up for adoption. I've heard that many babies are left in the woods or in secluded places so those leaving the child are not discovered. Kate's mama, however, left her right where she knew she would be found the quickest - right on those steps. Not only that, but she left a note pinned to Kate!!! The note had Kate's birthday on it - which is such a special treasure!!! Most of these children never know their actual birthday - they are assigned a birthday based on their medical exam and a rough estimate by the doctor. This is so special to have her real birthday!!! We are so grateful for Kate's mama (and family) who so carefully left her there for us ; )

Kate has cleft lip and palate - but clearly she is eating just fine!!! Look at those cheeks! The rest of her medical history looks great. We've had a couple doctors look over it and all have given it the "thumbs up" and say that she looks totally fine other than the cleft issues. Thankfully our pediatrician's office is open on weekends (that's when we got our referral) so we went right in and showed the doc Kate's referral. She already felt like "ours" and we knew we wanted to adopt her - we just wanted to run it by the doctor since it seemed like the wise thing to do! Here are some pics from the office visit. Anne and Molly are in their "little girl big dreams" shirts from their Coco. Meme met us a the office to help watch the girls. Such a fun visit!!!

 we're getting a new sister!!

 Anne is concentrating hard on her "reading"

 "Molly, you've got to see this!"

 Running with a lollipop... and this is after Molly semi-choked on hers while the doc was in the room. Eek! Kate, we promise to get in gear and limit dangerous activities - don't be nervous!!!

 "Let's go sis! We've got the green light!!! Fast, we can get to China on foot if need be!"

Thanks for your help, Meme! You are officially hired as full-time nanny! Your room is all ready... ; )

Kate's birth weight is the same as my birth weight when I was born! I just realized that when I converted it to pounds. How cool! We're just beginning to learn about cleft babies, but I'll try to outline what I know so far about future care for her. She will have a surgery on her lip either in China in the next few months or once we get her home. We will request that they wait on that surgery till she gets home - but they may have already completed it. We have heard that they usually do an amazing job on the surgery in China - so we are just trusting God with that. We'd rather her be here so we can choose the doctor and be there to comfort her ... but it if is done there, that will be ok too. Once she gets home, she will have one or two surgeries to close her palate. Then she'll have speech therapy. She'll be a bit behind since she hasn't heard English yet - and since she has no palate, she hasn't had practice talking. Then in her teens these little ones often have another surgery on their lip since their faces grow. And then lots of braces and orthodontists are likely to be in her future ; ) But really, it's a mild special need and totally correctible. We are so thankful to have such great doctors and resources here to help her on this journey!!!

Kate is 10 months old and we will probably pick her up in December (she'll be 16 months old then). She is 14 months younger than Molly and just over 3 years younger than Anne. We had just prayed for a child younger than Molly - but Kate is much younger - which is GREAT!!! We were prepared for Molly and Kate to be just a few months apart in age. Having the year between them in school will be great!! Her medical report says she is very playful, likes to be held, will motion for a hug (ah!), likes to ring bells, and can catch a ball (wow!! maybe they mean a ball rolled to her? hmmm ; ). She likes to play with other children and be outdoors. The referrals tend to be pretty honest about the child's personality. She sounds very outgoing and spunky! We are thankful for a strong little one who is eating well and engaging with others well.

We can request additional pictures three more times before we pick her up. We'll post them when we get them!!! We can send care packages (we may use this girl Ann at http://redthreadchina.com/). Ann sends the package for you from China and will request additional updates and photos of your little one. I can't decide which package to send so I may just send them all! Ha!!! James, are you reading this??? ; ) I have found a great yahoo chat group of other families who have adopted from this same orphanage. It has been fun to talk with them! Some of the families have recently matched - so maybe we'll get to keep in touch with some of her little friends! We are trying to put our trust in the Lord - He is taking care of Kate! While we wish we could pick her up right now, we know His timing is perfect. 

Bethany means "house of figs" and "daughter of the Lord." It's all over the bible as I've learned this year! As James said in his post, we feel like God has given us this name for her. James first pointed this out last summer when we started the process. He was seeing the name "Bethany" everywhere. Since I have had a running list of child name options that I started when I was maybe 12 years old (ha!!) I wasn't sure about this. Though it's a beautiful name, it wasn't on my list! But I started praying and paying attention. I kid you not, the name "Bethany" has come up almost every day in my life ever since then. It's just crazy and fairly laughable really! It's in my bible, then in my devotion, then the bible again, then someone asks if I know "Bethany," then someone talks about Bethany Adoption Agency, then I get a Facebook message from a friend Bethany, and on and on it goes. So that's how we settled on Bethany - God chose that part!!! And Kate means "pure." We have been blessed with lots of amazing people in our lives that this name reminds us of: my sister Kathleen, multiple Katies, a Catie, and Katherine/Catherine/Kathryns. And we just love that sweet little name Kate! Yesterday we found out that some dear friends have a Bethany Kate too! We had always known of course that this friend was "Bethany" - but what a fun surprise that she is Bethany Kate! That Bethany Kate's mama says she always told her Bethany Kate that Bethany was one of Jesus' favorite places to go. How sweet is that?!?!? We would be so proud if our Bethany Kate grew up into a woman as amazing as that Bethany and of course her other Kate namesakes! So there you have it... thanks for following!!! We'll keep posting as we get new information on little Kate ; )

The day we matched, this picture below was the promise that I got in my email (I get one of these everyday, from www.365promises.com - they are so great). You can sign up to get them - free, encouraging, always a gorgeous picture! And God uses them so much - they are often just RIGHT on for whatever is happening in life! Thank you, Lord, that your love is everlasting and that your faithfulness extends to all generations - we are excited to add to our family and this next generation!!!