Nearing a close...

Hello sweet readers!!!

I have just cut/pasted the entire blog (piece by piece... eek!) into a photo scrapbook online through something called Blurb. It was really one of the main purposes of this blog to begin with! Kate will have a record of our seeking her out, God putting all the pieces together, and her coming home. As I went back through the entries, I realize how completely LONG WINDED I am... sorry about that! You are/were all so sweet to read! Our older two girls each have an old-fashioned scrapbook of my pregnancies with them... so this will sort of be the more technological version of that!!! So this will be sort of the "last entry" in that book...

I'm not sure if I'll keep blogging - I'm thinking so... just probably on a different blog address. I chose the address "I set you apart" from a verse early one morning when I first started the blog. Kate is certainly set apart... God set her apart for great things! We pray she knows Jesus as her Lord and Savior and that her life glorifies Him. Her gender and/or cleft lip/palate set her apart in China... and let her dear parents to courageously leave her on the orphanage steps on the day she was born (it is illegal there to put your child up for adoption, so they were really caring to do that ... they risked being caught in order to leave her in a place they were sure she'd be found as soon as possible). They could have left her in many other places where she would never be found ... we are just so hugely grateful for their act of sacrifice in giving us their baby. I can't imagine the heartache and pain of doing that - and never knowing your little one's future... so that the child would have a better life... wow, it just astonishes me. I was rocking little Kate tonight before bed and I was just overcome with thankfulness to her mom/parents. Wow. We pray for them too. What an odd connection to have to people you will never meet on earth!

Anyway, I got side-tracked (this is why my entires are so LONG! Eek!)... so even though Kate has been "set apart" in so many awesome ways, she is now together with us... she is no longer apart from us. So I feel like we need to start a new blog with a different address! Every time I see this address I grimace a bit - it is just not ringing as true anymore ; ) This is one part of her and our story for sure - but there is another part! God "puts the lonely in families" (Psalm 68:6) and that is what He has done with sweet little Kate. She is still set apart for great things and in neat ways... but she is set TOGETHER with her family now ; )

So when (if?) we start a new blog (I'm dragging my feet until I think of a catchy title!) I will post the address on this blog. It will be exciting in other ways I'm sure... but it will not be quite the crazy adventure of adopting (unless God leads us there again!). It will be more of a "normal" family-ish blog. So you may not want to read it! That is totally fine! I've really enjoyed blogging - just a great way to sort of journal my thoughts! Would be just as cathartic if no one even read it at all! But of course I love all the sweet comments and encouragement too ; ) And the photo book thing has been neat. I may try to blog in the future and keep turning each year into a book or something. So anyway, thank you for reading, praying, and loving us through all these months (and years!). We love you and are so very thankful for the amazing community of family and friends the Lord has blessed us with. So goodbye for now!

Merry Christmas ; )

love, liz (for the whole wessel crew ... ; )

ps. here is our "christmas card" this year... the digital version at least! I've had all sorts of embarrassing technical difficulties with them this year... the biggest being a slight envelope size debacle ... so in case they never get sent, here you go!!! (photo taken by katie cochran, cool zigzags and writing done by someone on etsy recommended by katie cochran... thanks katie!!! i should have had you print and mail them too! it would have certainly gone smoother!! haha ; )

A good verse to close with ...

Isaiah 9:6 -

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.