Covered and Loved

There is lots to do around the house (and two little girls who need some attention!) so I'm giving myself 30 minutes to write this blog ; ) So please excuse typos and such! It won't be proof read ; ) I've been so busy packing and planning that Anne and Molly have watched a zillion videos and played tons by themselves - so I really want to love on them a lot today!

However, I have been REALLY wanting to write a blog about how completely LOVED we have felt. Really through the entire adoption process, but it's just so strong right now!!! SO MANY of you are praying for us, texting, calling, emailing, dropping by, bringing meals and cookies and gifts and flowers... I mean, we feel SO LOVED!!!! We have precious baby sitters changing up their schedules to help watch the kids while we are away, James' sister volunteering to take and pick Anne up from school, Meme volunteering for all sorts of things, Carol and Charlotte on grocery store duty, various neighbors (Lauren and Ginger) on park playdate duty, Katie C. and Mary signing up to come over to have playdates with the girls when we are gone, tons of you signing up to bring meals, the Taylors offering to take the girls to church, the McCoys signing up to take the girls on a Saturday while we're gone, etc, etc. I know I've leaving out lots of things... but just to name a few ... and below I have some pictures - Lisa made us these adoption countdown calendars when we matched with Kate - there is one for each month and they are precious! My dad brought flowers ; ) Connie brought stationary with my name on it! I love stationary ; ) Joy brought cookies, crafts, and this precious little "He makes all things beautiful" soft baby toy make up kit for Kate on the plane ride home! So sweet! We would have had nothing for her on the plane ride home. I had totally forgotten about that!!!

My sweet prayer group gave me the awesome bag below, Charlotte my sis-in-law brought over the most precious magnet toys that occupied the girls for hours (she is really an amazing gift-giver! AND she called while I was writing this and offered to come get the girls today and do fun fall activities! WOW! Cool Aunt Award!!! Thank you, thank you!!!!), my mom sent darling stationary (like 10 boxes ; ) of the little clothesline with the three dresses (AHHHH! I will somehow plagiarize this design for Kate's birth announcement!), Kate (via James ; ) sent me roses, Becca got me some much-needed formula for Kate from Babies 'r Us (not pictured ; )...

My sister mailed 33 separate postcards (each with a reason that she loves me!!!!) in the mail to me for my birthday! Now COME ON!!! Who even does that? So kind! My mom (who sends numerous fabulous packages and I'm just hitting SOME of the awesome things she has sent) sent a Halloween goody for each child in Anne's class and something for her teacher, my prayer group gave me this sweet prayer door hanger with prayers for Kate's bedroom door (it is photographed sideways - it is just beautiful!), Lauren and Whitney and Suzie have brought meals to fill my freezer...

Mary has organized meal sign ups for when we're gone and when we get back, Carol may be up to something also ; ), Katie Taylor organized a prayer sign-up that literally makes me cry when I open it ... here's her email because I love it!

"Hi Friends of the Wessels,

As you all know, James and Liz are about to embark on an exciting adventure as they travel to China to pick up Kate and bring her home to Huntsville.  Please join us in lifting them up in prayer during this journey that God is leading them on from October 25th-November 8th (and beyond)!  Let's be intentional about COVERING James, Liz and Kate (as well as Molly and Anne who will be at home) in prayer the entire time they are in China!  Of course, you can pray outside of your time too as the Spirit leads :), but we want to cover them every day of this journey.  I have included a calendar that has details of what they will be doing each day while there, so you can keep that in mind as you pray.  China is 12 hours ahead of us, so you can pray for good, restorative sleep too!  

Please pray for their health, that Liz and James can focus on Christ and share their faith in China.  For Kate, please pray for an easy transition, for safe travels and no food issues (for any of them).  Please also pray for Molly and Anne back at home, that they are happy, and that the babysitters have patience and wisdom during this time.  Pray for a smooth transition and homecoming and however else the spirit leads you.  

Please feel free to pass on and share with others.

Here is the link to the google doc:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArrqHnMdaKe5dDM2T0RraEx5bVoyM0llZGlRTVhKMXc#gid=0

Liz and James, we are excited to welcome Kate home and to see the beautiful story of her adoption into your family continue to unfold. 

"And anyone who welcomes a little child like this is welcoming me." Matthew 18:5

"The prayer of a righteous man in powerful and effective." James 5:16

Love,

Katie & Will Taylor"

and Katie Cochran is organizing an airport party - I love her email too!!!! I want all these emails and pictures in Kate's book (when I turn this blog into a book) so sorry to post so many. But they are precious and such a great part of Kate's journey! This blog post is more of a "universal thank you note" and "journal-ish record" than a usualy blog entry ; ) Back to Katie... the subject of her email was "Party @ Baggage Claim" which just cracks me up for some reason ; ) You are all invited!

"Hello all!!

Wow- I know Liz & James so appreciate everyone's prayers and encouraging words throughout this whole process and we are so excited that Kate will be home soon!!  What better way to welcome them home than at baggage claim, right?!!!  SO- their plane is set to land in Huntsville on Thursday, November 8 at 8:26 a.m. from Atlanta.  It is a work day/school day so no worries at all if you cannot be there!!  If you are available, plan to meet at baggage claim at 8:30- I plan on being total paparrazi, so we can snap some pictures if the plane isn't there yet!  We can touch base with Liz when they leave Atlanta so we will know if they are "on schedule" and I will email if anything is different!!  It will be so fun to welcome home the Wessel's, family of five!!  Feel free to make and bring signs to hold up or really anything you think might be fun;)  I think the plan is to take Anne and Molly up the escalator to greet Kate first, and then they will all come down the escalator together to our group.  

Obviously, they will have been traveling forever, totally exhausted- it will probably be overwhelming for everyone, especially Kate, so we won't stay long or try to ask a million questions (I promise I will try Liz!! haha) ... but just to show support for them coming home (maybe get a group picture) and let them head home!!  Also, this is not an exclusive email- it's basically several email lists put together (so I apologize if you get 2 or 3 of these!)- I think they feel like "the more the merrier", so if someone didn't get this email, they are still welcome!"

and another Katy (so many Katy/Kathleen/Katie's involved here for baby Kate!) Side note, but we named Kate after all these (and other) amazing Kat-folks! So another Katy sent this insightful and wise email out to help our friends and family understand some of this next step:

"A couple of you have asked, “how can we help”.  I thought I would share what some of our friends did for us when we adopted our Ella Grace a year ago that was especially helpful:

1.        We drove ourselves to the airport, so one of my very best friends came and took our car home (so we wouldn’t have 3 weeks of parking fees).  There was also a group of about 30 people who met us at the airport when we returned.  They also brought our car out to us so we could drive straight home in our own car.  We need to run this by Liz, but I LOVED seeing a crowd of familiar, smiling, crying faces!  Maybe (if she likes that idea) one of you could shoot out an email with their arrival date and time. If we do meet them at the airport, don’t plan a big long gathering… They will be exhausted!!  And, Liz it is ok if you DON’T want this!!
2.       Also, Kate’s ride from the airport to home will probably be her first ride in a car seat.  They don’t use them in China!  (At least they didn’t a year ago).  A nice gift may be some car seat toys or mirror.  Our Ella cried the whole ride home.
3.       Also, the jetlag after returning home is HORRIBLE.  It literally took us six days to get back to normal.  Several of our church friends brought food over, and stocked our pantry and fridge with fresh, healthy AMERICAN food before we got there.  That was wonderful.  They will not be ready for company for a while, so be patient!!  We could not drink the milk or water in China, and they did not have the “Diet Coke” that we know.  These were a few items we CRAVED!!  Also, a good old AMERICAN hamburger, and Southern BBQ!
4.       Some of our friends also brought small surprises for our biological son, Jack so he did not feel left out.  That was wonderful!
5.       Another very important thing to know is that James and Liz (and Molly and Anne) must bond with Kate.  This takes several weeks (sometimes months).  PLEASE DO NOT ASK TO HOLD KATE.  This will be very confusing to her.  She has no idea what a Mommy or Daddy is (or sister).  Even if she reaches for you, do not reach back.  Kate is accustomed to being passed from caregiver to caregiver, so it will take a long time for her to realize that she has ONE Mommy and ONE Daddy, and two sisters that are different from everyone else. 

Also, as Katie Taylor has said PRAY!!!      PRAY PRAY PRAY!!      Adoption is an incredible blessing to everyone involved!    I’m so thrilled that they are sharing this wonderful journey with us!       

God Bless the Wessels!"

And boy, do we feel blessed!!! We've just felt covered by your love and prayers! My Tuesday night prayer group surprised me with a baby sprinkle this week too!!!! So precious! And it was great timing b/c I hadn't done my bible reading ; ) How cute are they! Thanks Paula, Kelley, Katie, and Garrett!!! Our husbands meet together on Tuesdays as well and have also blessed James with such encouragement and love ; )

And then... there's God. Who continues to meet us every day and hold us in His hands. We got some new information about Kate that sort of worried us. The doctors are looking into it. I won't go into details. I'm SURE Kate is completely fine! However, we were a bit taken aback by the thought that there may be other challenges (besides the cleft lip/palate). It took me a couple days to wrestle with this and reaffirm that she is our child no matter what! You technically have 24 hours once you receive your baby in China to "give her back." Had I not found out about these possibilities until we got to China, that would have been a very scary and confusing 24 hours! It would have been hard to research from far away and talk to doctors and see past the constant crying and homesickness that Kate will likely feel - that is totally normal and not indicative of anything weird - but it would have freaked us out if we had been surprised. But from this side of the pond, we can pray, talk with specialists, pray some more, research, and listen for God's voice. Which we both hear as being "she is your child" ... God has affirmed us countless times in this process. And really, none of us ever knows what the future holds ... except God! And we just have to trust Him and rest in His perfect plan. But that doesn't mean I haven't shed my fair share of tears these past couple days (some of which were observed by an innocent and unsuspecting neighbor as I cried on my way to the mailbox while he pulled up and tried chatting with me. awkward! poor guy!). Anyway, God has been so good. The verses He keeps bringing before me are about being "under His wings"and "in His shadow" which is just where I feel!!! Both the pics of these verses below came this week!

And the picture below of the yellow iPhone note is from over a year ago (must have been updated by a child more recently and added to ; ) but before we began the adoption process, when we were just praying about it, Anne had my phone. When I got it from her, it said what you see "YuyuyEvery child deserves a chancebxxmxkddngxieq" which at the time, really spoke to me! Not sure if she pasted it from somewhere else or how it got there... but it certainly was God encouraging us on our adoption path!!! Also below is a book from joy that was in a set of books. I've blogged before about the verse about the lost sheep ... when James and I were trying to decide if just he or if both of us were going to go to China to get Kate, God led me to the passage about the lost sheep - and how the shepherd would leave the group to find the one... which spoke to me about it being ok to leave Anne and Molly and go to get Kate... that He would protect Anne and Molly ... and we could go get our little "lost sheep" ... so those verses have been special to me during all this. Well I pull out the books from Joy and the first one is about the lost sheep!!! Such a "God thing" ; )

There have been / still are SO many things to get done before we leave - flu shots, prescriptions, forms to fill out, packing, organizing childcare while we're away, appointments when we get back, contacting teachers/neighbors/friends, etc... and something will come to my mind "I need to do xyz!" and I never seem to have anything to write with at the time... so I just pray to God that He will remind me at the right time... and He keeps doing it! Bringing back those little things one by one at perfect times to do them - they just fit right in. I don't have to stress (not saying that I don't stress!) but I don't have to - if I just rest in God, He will see to it that all that needs to get done comes to my (or James') attention and gets done! It's a great feeling that He is over it and won't let our feet slip!

And the little onesie below I got yesterday at Gymboree for Kate. I was still sort of praying through the whole "what if she has other issues" stuff and really wanting to affirm to myself and God that I was deciding to not believe lies that satan may toss my way (that's too much to handle/ you can't do that/this is all so scary and uncertain) and CHOOSE to believe the gospel - Christ died for me, I am part of His bigger plan, He is in and over and through all things, He is holding me and loving me and caring for me, He hears my prayers and answers them... etc. So what better way to affirm a promise from God than shopping? I realize this is uncustomary and it wasn't my plan - I was just needing another long sleeved outfit to take to China... but when I say it and it said "Mommy's snuggle bunny"I just knew right away that it was a shirt for Kate - from me - her Mama ; ) Who will love her UNCONDITIONALLY because I am loved by God (and all of you!) unconditionally... "we love because He first loved us" ... not to say we are called to adopt every child we see no matter what the need or circumstance... but in THIS case, right now, that's what we're hearing about sweet Kate. We just love that little girl!!!

Ok, that's all for now. So thankful for all of you and for Jesus ; ) ps. this may have to suffice as a giant thank you note for those of you I've mentioned! Thank you notes will certainly be delayed... if they even ever do get sent!!! Hehe. Take care everyone!