GOTCHA!

  
    Three years ago on November 9, a family of three packed their bags and flew 26 hours to the other side of the world to meet family member number 4, thus completing their family.  It is hard to believe all that has happened in three very short, sometimes very long years.  "Gotcha Day" is officially November 12, the day Addilyn Grace WenZhi bounded into our lives.  This is the day that we became a Forever Family.  Addi says that her Gotcha Day is WAY more important to her than her birthday (which happens to be December 28, 2000).  She says, and with her typical Addi-tude, "After all, Gotcha Day was the day I was "birthed" (air quotes included) into my family!"  She became an American citizen on November 21st and we began our journey home on November 22.  Her little feet touched American soil first in Detroit, Michigan then in Springfield, Missouri on November 23...Thanksgiving Day!  So much to be thankful for....then and now!

Addi sees life and extracts everything possible from it, sometimes to the point of exasperation of those around her.  We have never laughed so much in our entire lives.  She is witty and inquisitive.  She is "scary smart" as her Grande' calls her and she is an incredible book worm like her Po-Po.  She can be sweet as honey one minute and madder than a hornet the next, and you are never quite sure what makes her turn on that dime of emotion.  The biggest blessing that Addi has brought us is joy unspeakable.  She exudes it from every pore of her little body and she demands it from every moment that she lives.   We are quite sure she will rise to the occasion of her life...she already has success in this area!  Her future looks promising.  We are quite sure that she will be a Supreme Court Justice because her skill in closing arguments continues to exhaust and astound us.  Of course, Addi has her sights set much higher, and that being on the stars.  She wants to be an astronaut..."I want to see Earth from God's point of view!" This being said, her heart is full of Jesus.  She accepted the LORD as her Savior a mere 11 months to the day of coming home.  And the LORD is going to use her in a mighty way.  He already has so many times in our lives.  However, she also wants to travel back to China to tell her teachers and her Nai-Nai (foster grandmother) about Jesus.  "Mom, they don't know Jesus!!  They don't get that Buddah is dead and Jesus is Alive!  Someone needs to tell them!  Why not me!?!"   Simple faith, incredible love.

Addi has forever changed our lives.  She has brought many challenges and lessons, but she has also brought much joy and many blessings.  She has added a dimension and dynamic to our family that we never knew could exist. I personally, now have a lot more gray hair.  This child has literally given me a run for my money!!  However, Addi has also evoked in me the need to be absolutely silly and have more fun in public places by singing show tunes at the top of my lungs...something that has Ashlyn disowning me in pure mortification.  David now has two girls that wrap him around their little fingers.  Both make him one proud papa, but they do it in entirely different ways.  Ashlyn with her quiet, gentle spirit and Addi with her zeal for life that evokes the crazies in a person (hence the above mentioned show tunes...yes, she has David singing them too!) 

As for Ashlyn, Addi has made her a sister in every sense of the word.  They are either huggin' each others necks or they are at each others throats!  My Addi's quest for knowledge, attention, and life in general is often a bit much for my reserved, quiet, thinker Ashlyn.  I tell everyone that the two of them will make a great traveling side show...Ashlyn can hoist the curtain and Addi is THE SHOW!!  I am truly, one balanced momma!

 

  We have been asked MANY times about our decision to adopt Addi. "What were you thinking?" is a question we get asked frequently and quite frankly, we have even asked it of ourselves in moments of frustration.  God in his Infinite Wisdom one day gave David the perfect answer to that question.  "We were NOT thinking.  We were OBEYING!"  I wonder sometimes if God does not ask Himself the same question when He looks at us.  Do you think He looks at Jesus and the Spirit and says, "What were WE thinking?"   Do you think He looks at Jesus knowing the price He paid and asks of us, "What are YOU thinking?"   I think not.  God's ways are Higher.  

     Through adopting Addi, through the love we have for her, through the love she has given to us, we have all learned a most important lesson.  God has shown us through this earthly adoption of Addilyn that He has given us a perfect example of His plan for us all to be adopted into His Forever Family through His Son, Jesus.  We were all once wandering without love, without hope, without a Forever Family.  Then, through Jesus, God adopts us, loves us, and gives us more than we could ever hope or imagine.  He loves us when we make Him laugh. He loves us when we make Him proud. He loves us when we frustrate Him.  He love us when we exasperate Him. Most of all, He loves us for no other reason than the sake of our being, and that is a love that is undeserving, unfathomable, unchangeable.  It is a love that says, "I'm your Forever Family! I'm here to love you! I'm all you'll ever need!"  "Gotcha!"