Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Thoughts On Gotcha Day

Thoughts from Wesley.......
One year ago today, this precious little girl came into our family. She was confused, scared, sad, and a whole hosts of other emotions. We took her from the only life she had ever known and to her, we were strangers. Within 24 hours, the walls she had built around her came crashing down and we were given the opportunity to see the spunky, brave, opinionated, joy filled gift that was now a part of our family. People constantly say, "she is so lucky to have you guys," but the fact of the matter is, she has done far more to bless our family than we could ever do for her. We are the lucky ones. Have our last 365 days been perfect?  Absolutely not. Would we change things?  Not a chance. For that and so many other reasons, we are so thankful that God's story is immeasurably more than we could ever write for ourselves. We are forever changed because the Lord saw fit for our family to grow through adoption. We are also forever changed because of the picture of the gospel that adoption paints. It is not about the orphan "out there," but the orphan in all of us in need of a Savior.  We are all adopted into His family if we choose because of the undeserved grace offered to us. That's what it's all about, yall!  
Happy Gotcha Day, Emma Kyle Nelson. I'm overwhelmed with gratitude on this day when you became ours and we became yours....forever!  You are loved so deeply!


Thoughts from J......
It was a Tuesday morning when I first saw her picture. She didn't have very much hair and she hadn't found her smile yet, but there she was. There was a face to go with the name. This was Emma. 

"And they all lived happily ever after."  This is how the story ends, but this is not the end of the story. Our story picks up in Wuhan, China in a stale government building where there was no pomp and circumstance to Emma's arrival. There were no balloons.  There was no party. She simply walked through the doors with two ladies from her orphanage, we signed a few papers and then she left with us. She was scared and tired and to be honest, we were too...or at least I was. 

Then Wesley said it.  I'm not sure she even realizes that she said it, but she did. She was holding this beautiful little girl with tears running down her face and those big, dark eyes were staring back at her and she said, "it's ok. Mommy's gotcha."  And with those words, Emma drifted off to sleep. 

Happy Gotcha Day, Emma. Daddy loves you!


From then....December 15, 2014
To now....December 15, 2015

What a difference a year makes!!! 

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