Hi!

There is an organization in Ghana called "The Mercy Project" that is working to free children in slavery. They have asked 100 bloggers to post the post below today, on Labor Day, as part of their mission to make people aware of child trafficking, slavery, and other injustices facing children worldwide. What a great organization. So here goes... a post from "The Mercy Project" ...

Mercy Project Post

There’s an estimated 7,000 children who work in the Ghana fishing industry. Some of these children are as young as 5 and 6 years old. All of these children are slaves.
–Mercy Project


Today many in our country will take a day off from our jobs to celebrate the social and economic achievements of American workers. No matter if we’re celebrating at home or at the beach, we’re entering into a tradition that has largely been shaped by Labor Unions - organizations that are dedicated to protecting workers’ interests and improving their wages, hours, and working conditions. Today as we lounge around or hang out with friends and family, we’re not only celebrating hard work, we’re honoring fair, ethical working practices and the laws that prevent discrimination, abuse, and child labor in our country. Without these laws in place (and enforced), the most vulnerable members of society suffer. Who are the most vulnerable? Children.


Today as we’re celebrating the systems in our own country that strive to prevent injustices like child trafficking and child labor, we’re mindful of the many child slaves around the world who are unprotected and the organizations, like Mercy Project, who are working to free them.


As a mother, it’s difficult for me to imagine my children working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. I’m unable to wrap my brain around the thought of my children engaged in long, hard days of physical labor, eating one meal a day, and then falling asleep at night on a dirt floor filled with other slave children. Yet this is the daily reality for kids who have been trafficked into the fishing industry in Ghana, Africa. As with much of Africa, there is a great deal of poverty in Ghana. Unfortunately, this leaves many mothers in an unimaginable position: sell their children to someone who can take better care of them or watch them starve to death. Most of the mothers are told their children will be given food, housing, and an education. Instead, the kids are often taken to Lake Volta where they become child slaves and their mothers never see them again. Thankfully, Mercy Project is working to break the cycles of trafficking around Lake Volta by providing alternate, more efficient, sustainable, fishing methods for villagers – ultimately eliminating the need for child slaves. Because of the work Mercy Project is doing in Ghana, the first group of children will be freed this month from Lake Volta.

VIDEO

We invite you to watch this moving, 10 minute documentary about the issues surrounding child labor and trafficking in Ghana and most importantly the hope Mercy Project is bringing to children and entire communities in Africa. Mercy Project is the only NGO working on Lake Volta addressing the injustice of child labor and child trafficking at its root - by strengthening the Ghanaian economy and eliminating the structures that cause the demand for trafficked children.

Whether these ideas of child labor, child trafficking, and modern-day slavery are new to you or you’re aware of these injustices, but need to hear some good news every once in awhile, we invite you to become a part of what Mercy Project is doing in Ghana. When Mercy Project frees their first group of children this month, we can all celebrate together.



Learn more and get involved by –


• Watching Mercy Project’s short documentary. [link provided below]

• Following Mercy Project on Facebook. [link provided below]

• Connecting with Mercy Project via Twitter. [link provided below]

• Spending some time on Mercy Project’s website. [link provided below]

• Sharing about Mercy Project’s work in Ghana with your friends. [link provided below]


Although child trafficking, child labor, and the unstable economies that result in these injustices are a tragedy, we’re grateful for what Mercy Project is doing to protect the vulnerable and for allowing us to be a part of this story. While we’re commemorating labor laws and ethical work in our own country today, we invite you to follow along on this journey with Mercy Project to protect and free children in Ghana.

Links You May Need

Link to Mercy Project’s Website: http://mercyproject.net/

Link to the documentary - http://youtu.be/b4Dwv5KbMYI


Embed code for the documentary –
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Mercy Project’s Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/mercyproject
Mercy Project on Twitter - https://twitter.com/mercyproject

Updates and God things ; )

It's been a few weeks since I updated! There have been some cool happenings ... I have a lot of small stories and links for you of neat things that God has put in our path. I just need to get these all in writing ... and hopefully they will bless you as well!


I'm going to Cullman today to meet my friend "Sarah" who is adopting from our same orphanage. She's in town for the weekend from Seattle. I can't wait to meet her! It will be so special for Kate to be able to keep in touch with Sarah's little one. And another cool thing... I've shared before that I'm in a yahoo chat group of parents who have adopted from our orphanage (that's how I met Sarah). Well, I recently posted again in the group and asked some travel questions... and ANOTHER mom (let's call her Mary) wrote back that she is adopting currently a little boy from the orphanage! They are hoping to travel this fall as well! I sent her to my blog right away because there is a little boy in some of the pictures we've been sent. Sure enough, HE IS HER SON!!!! I mean, how COOL is that?!?!? Here he is:

And there are more pictures of him from Kate's birthday pictures in one of our previous blogs. Just so cool! So now Kate will be able to grow up knowing at least TWO children that she started life with. I just think that is so neat. This little boy is going to grow up in Kansas - we will have to make a few trips that way to visit! Kate's gonna have some really special pen pals for sure ; ) God just does so many neat things!

On the "progress" front: We submitted our I-800 the day after we received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China. The I-800 goes to the USCIS (US Immigration) where an officer looks it over and approves it. This process is supposed to take 2-3 weeks. Sometimes, however, you get an officer who is out of town, has a lot of work, etc. We mailed ours in August 8, got the receipt that it had arrived on August 20, and found out it was approved August 28. The way you find out it's approved is you call multiple times per day, wait on hold for 20 minutes, and ask people ; ) So then it goes to the NVC (National Visa Center) where they do some sort of approving and then send it to China. Ours isn't at the NVC yet. We are running a tad slow on this process (according to estimates - NOT, of course, according to God's plan on this ; ) He has a perfect plan and knows JUST when He wants us to travel. Our other friends in the process, Sarah and Mary, however, have progressed through this step quicker than we have - so it is possible that they will travel before us. But again, God's timing is perfect. So though I've been a bit disappointed, we wait on Him! Just working on patience and trust ; )

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" -Psalm 139:16

So even though it's so hard to not go get Kate RIGHT now, it's comforting to know that God ordained each and EVERY one of her days - He knows just how long till we get her - and He planned each of those days for a purpose. I'm trying to rest in that!

On the "bethany" front (we told you how God just affirms over and over and over and over and OVER that Kate's first name is Bethany...), we have continued to have lots of Bethany incidents in life. Almost daily STILL God brings the name into our lives in one way or another. It's just becoming funny at this point!!!! So crazy how God works ; )

A friend gave us a precious children's CD and this song was on it... PRECIOUS!

http://slugsandbugsandlullabies.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/im-adopted/

And here is a great blog on adoption. This gal is hilarious!

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2012/08/21/the-truth-about-adoption-one-year-later

A few more links if you're still with me... here is a Mark Schultz song and the story behind the song. Another friend sent this. I didn't know he was adopted. And the story behind the song is so cool - I never thought about birth moms this way and it's just a really neat thought:

story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z61zdZJ9uZc&feature=share

song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPYaRJOWznk&feature=fvwrel

We are helping to plan an adoption/foster info night at our church. It's really coming together! We have lots of attendees and a great group of "table hosts" that have adopted, are adopting, are fostering, etc. The table hosts will share their stories with their table at the beginning of the evening and then we'll hear from some awesome speakers! A tax accountant (who happens to have been adopted) will share on affording adoption, a social worker from our adoption agency will speak about the domestic and international adoption processes, a representative from DHR will talk about fostering, and an adoptive dad with teenage girls will share his thoughts with us. Should be an awesome night! Here's a link to the flyer if you are interested. You don't have to feel called to foster or adopt to come - there are lots of other ways to serve the orphans of the world - we'll try to hit on those ways too. Just a neat way to come together as a community and look at ways we can serve the children of God. Hope you can come!!! Here's a link to the Facebook event page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/452585308120259/

And here's the flyer:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/15Vy4zn7eBPJrWbMBCuVKAZavrrKfKxAFv5FUhMW7ZVtKRGD6C4FrwwgICvBK/edit

There is a national holiday in China that has something to do with moon cakes. So we used our favorite overseas package-sender, Ann at www.redthreadchina.com again to send a package to Kate's orphanage. We sent moon cakes and a camera. Here's the picture of the package (Ann sent us a pic before she mailed it):

Just a side note, I knew about this holiday months ago, and you know how God give you little encouraging things throughout the weeks... you see Chinese adopted kids everywhere, perfect verses, etc. At Cracker Barrel, they had the moon cakes displayed ; ) Here's a pic:

Just a little "you're on the right track" boost from God ; ) So cool!

Travel update: Looks like we'll likely travel right at the beginning of November. There is a SLIGHT chance we could travel the third or fourth week of October, but with this last step taking a bit longer than predicted, we may be aiming for that November 1 departure date. We'll see what God's plans are though! We've prayerfully decided that James and I are both going to get Kate! Super exciting! We'll leave our girls here with friends and family - they will be FINE and they will undoubtedly have a blast ; ) It will be sweet to have some special time with James and Kate just the three of us - we won't get that chance again for a long time most likely! I've been collecting the things we'll need for the trip - every medicine you can imagine, baby things, food, etc.It's a lot to pack! I am putting together a packing list (the ones online that I find are YEARS old) so for those of you adopting, here is the rough draft.  I have copied/pasted items from these older lists and added some other items. I'll update it once we actually pack and then when we come home, I'll try to take off the things we didn't need. I couldn't get it into columns on Google docs like it had been in Word, sorry - it's like 10 pages long. But here it is just in case it helps anyone:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oGHs1sqCnbr96fDyCYvXGxiapDGl8vm7aXqOQ9Rz8rI/edit

So that's the news! We've been cleaning like crazy, re-organizing rooms, closets, etc. Nesting for sure! So exciting to think that we will head to get her in about 2 months. Anne has started back to school and she LOVES it. Anne is such a sweet little thing and so helpful. We love her kind spirit and her songs, games, and sayings!!! Molly has been loving to change her clothes LOTS of times throughout the day! It's a hoot - and a lot of laundry ; ) They have both started ballet (James did the "mommy and me" with Molly yesterday and I was KICKING myself that I forgot my camera. He's gonna have to do it again for sheer camera purposes - it was HILARIOUS. I will post pics for sure. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Unlike most of her fellow classmates, Molly does NOTHING the teacher tells her to do - it's much funnier watching from the window than being the "mommy" in there with her... hehe... anyway, that's another story). Molly has been showing her true "TWO" year-old-ness lately - and I have been loving this book "Making the 'Terrible' Twos Terrific" by John Rosemond. It is a God-send for sure. But Molly is such a little love and snuggler and we just love her. We love these little girls and can't wait to bring Kate home to this ballet-loving, outfit-changing, drama-filled, giggle-filled little house of ours! Here are some recent verses from my quiet times. So good:

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage" -Psalm 84:5

"When you release loved ones to Me, you are free to cling to my hand" -Jesus Calling

"So let God work His will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and He'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet." - James 4:7-10 (message)

New Pictures and Questions Answered!

This morning we woke up and had a GREAT email!!!! We received three new pictures of Kate! And we received the answers to some questions we had asked back in June. Here are the answers and the pictures. What fun!!!

1，She did lip surgery on May 15th, 2012. It went well. She was doing very well after surgery and she looks very well too. We would like she has her palate surgery later in US when she is older.

2, She had hard time to eat before surgery. After surgery, she can eat many soft food, such as noodle, rice soup and steam egg.

3, Her version and hearing are both well.

4, She loves steamed egg very much. She likes music and toys with sound.

5, She is not a picky eater. She eats everything if she can. She sleeps well and takes an 2 hours nap after lunch, goes to bed around 7:30pm and gets up around 6:30am in the morning.

6, She can sit well. She doesn't want to crawl much. She can stand up by holding. Can't walk yet.

7, She has been in the orphanage. She likes to visit our office in her walker.

8, She is 69cm, 45cm head, 46cm chest, 8kg, 11cm foot, 5 teeth.

9, She has been very healthy and hardly get sick.

 So exciting! Also, I have been loving these verses:

Luke 15:3-7

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."

My New Friend

Just a quick post to talk about a really neat way God has woven together a friendship with a gal on the other side of the country...

When we were matched with Kate, I searched the internet for clues about her town, her orphanage, her life. I came across a Yahoo chat group composed of moms and dads who had all adopted (or were in the process of adopting) children from Kate's very same orphanage! It was amazing to find this group! Like a gold mine! There were pictures of the orphanage, lots of people to ask questions to, and tons of clues about Kate's history. A total blessing straight from God for sure!

What is even cooler is that I met a friend in the group named Sarah (actually, this isn't her name. I've changed her name for privacy reasons!). Sarah was matched with a little girl just 1 month younger than Kate - a little girl in the same orphanage as Kate. They are likely little playmates! Sarah now lives in Seattle with her husband - but she is from Cullman, Alabama - just down the road from Huntsville! We have some mutual friends. We now have daughters that are friends! My sister lives in Seattle (and someday we will visit, Kathleen! I promise!!!); Sarah's family is in Cullman (and they visit often) - so our little girls will be able to know each other as they grow up. Now, if that's not a totally amazing gift, I don't know what is!!!!

Another "God" thing to throw in the mix... Sarah and her husband received their "Letter of Acceptance" (LOA) from China on the SAME DAY that we did! SAME DAY. Which makes it HUGELY likely that the Wessels and the Sarahs will travel together to pick up these precious girls!!! WOW!!!! Just so many things lining up with them - just neat. I wanted to share!!!!

We got our LOA!!!!!

HOORAY!!! BIG NEWS!!!!

We received our "Letter of Acceptance" (LOA) from China!!! We are one GIANT step closer to picking up little Kate!!! WOOOO-HOOOO!!!!

The adoption process goes about like this:

-home study (usual 3-4 months, ours took a bit longer - about 7 months)
-I-800a application submitted
-Immigration approval received
-Dossier authenticated and sent to China
-Log-in date received from China
-Letter of Acceptance received (THIS IS WHAT WE JUST GOT!)

still left to do:
-800 paperwork submitted
-visa obtained (we actually have our visas)
-article 5 letter received
-travel approval received
-apply for & receive Consulate appointment
-TRAVEL!!!!

There are lots of other aspects to the adoption timeline (medical reports, fingerprints, random forms, etc) but these are the main steps. So, basically, we have 3-4 months left to go. We'll likely travel November/December. We received our LOA really fast - so that has sped things up a tad! YIPEE!!!!! Such awesome, awesome news.

Yesterday some sweet friends of ours who are also adopting asked if I could take some adoption pictures of their family. Since we were at it and had the balloons, signs, etc... we posed for a few ourselves!

 LOVE kate's little backpack!!!

 When I take pics, James has lots of funny poses he likes to do... ; )

 sweet Anne

Thank you, Lord, for sweet Kate!!! Thank you that we received our LOA so quickly. We can't WAIT to meet her!!! Thank you, friends and family, for all your support along the way!

Visas and a sweet gift!

Hello friends!

Just wanted to give a brief update. No news yet! Still waiting for our Letter of Acceptance to arrive. Should come in the next month or two!

Last week, our amazing adoption agency got wind that the Visa application process was about to become more difficult. They found this out and notified all the parents immediately - we all needed to try to get our Visa applications in right away in order to slide in under the old rules. It made for a mighty crazy day of gathering signatures, passport photos, and filling out Chinese forms ; ) But it all came together, we overnighted the application out, and we're good to go! You send in your ACTUAL passports, which is a tad unnerving... but oh well!!!

Something else I wanted to report... a sweet artist friend of ours, Alex Parsley, after seeing James' blog post about the rose (http://isetyouapart.blogspot.com/2012/06/you-have-filled-my-heart-with-greater.html), painted us a BEAUTIFUL picture!!!!

Isn't it amazing? What a special gift! Here is Alex's blog if you want to see more of her work! http://www.thespiritorchard.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Alex!

While we wait...

Our purposes in this blog were mainly to journal this awesome story of adoption, to keep our family and friends up-to-date, and also to have a record for Kate of this whole journey! I hear you can turn your blog into a photo book, so that's what I want to do when it is "finished"! So I want to be sure and include some of the things that happen while we wait for Kate...

 date night!

 Our awesome adoption agency, Lifeline, got a new Huntsville office! Yea!!! We went to the ribbon cutting ceremony and it was really special. Such a great organization committed to helping children find their "forever families" ; )

 A bible study that I was in (ummm ... "in" may be too strong of a word ... I attended ONCE this summer - but at least kept up with the homework mostly ; ) But anyway, the amazing girls in the study brought items to send in a care package to Kate's orphanage! Here we are packing the box - it ended up being super full of amazing gifts, clothes, toys, and shoes for these precious children! Thank you, ladies!!!

Last but not least, we are attempting try #2 at potty training our sweet little Molly ; ) Here are the girls at Target after picking out some new Hello Kitty undies and a prize (princess Little People! Ak! So cute). We've also moved Molly to a big girl bed (aka - crib mattress on the floor...) so she's had quite a crazy few weeks of transition! Sweet girls ; ) Anne has been very helpful and encouraging to Molly in all this. Molly has been quite upset about the changes! But she likes the toys and undies... ; )

So that's that! Just living life and praying for little Kate. Hoping that LOA comes soon!