Taking the Bad with the Good

Bollinger and Guenther Girls

I love babies. (this is Billy) Little girls are my greatest weakness. I can’t wait to have kids. I’m not shy about it, either, and it usually surprises people. Much like most little girls, when I was a little boy I thought about what my family would be like when I was a husband and a Dad. Having a family was my biggest dream. Sure, I dreamed about sports, writing the next Harry Potter, and other exotic life paths, but I was pretty realistic, and mostly dreamed about any job that gave me the ability to support my wife and kids. I even had a name for my first son set in stone in 7^th grade. I wrote it down, and Jess and I plan for our first baby boy to have that name. So, yes, I can’t wait to have kids (biologically and through adoption), and after falling in love with Jessica so that I now have a person to experience kids with - my desire for growing a family has risen exponentially. I’m 23. Jess and I started “not trying not to get pregnant” while I was still 22. In our culture this is young and that is what surprises people. They tell us we need to live life – that we need to experience things – that there’s so much we haven’t seen, and maybe I understand where they’re coming from, but seriously, my idea of “living life” is sharing that life with little sponges that I get to show, and teach, and love. I want to experience family more than anything else I can think of. I want to travel, experience new things, and see new places, and get to share that with my wife and babies. When I talk like this around most people my age it weirds them out. Our friends that know us well understand. We finished college fast, got married young, bought a house young, and want kids now. That’s just how it is. There’s many, many reasons Jess and I are soul mates, and this desire for children is just one of them – it actually freaks me out HOW MANY things we have exactly the same thoughts about. So, long story short, Jess and I have been trying to get pregnant. I like when it’s said like that because I like the idea that I get pregnant, too. It’s funny.

Wheelock Babies

Elliana Rose

Back in May, Jessica came down stairs and showed me a positive pregnancy test. You can’t imagine my joy. We agreed not to go crazy telling people because we know the risks in the beginning, and didn’t want to potentially have to announce the bad news later. Joy is contagious. We couldn’t NOT tell, and we ended up letting a few people know. Everyone was happy. Some annoying doctor’s visits and bad customer service later it happened. It was a Sunday. Jessica had a miscarriage. I had heard of people having them, but never thought, in any real way, that it would happen to us. Even though we’d never heard a heartbeat, and were barely into it (maybe 4 weeks or so) the sadness I felt was overwhelming.  Our first ever creation together, the thing we had both longed for for so long, just died. And for the first time in my 23 years I understood how hard it is to trust that the will of God is perfect, and that He will work all things for good. We have worked through it. We’re not sad anymore, but it doesn’t mean we’ll ever understand. We just trust. That’s what faith is. After a while I felt selfish. I was so worked up about this miscarriage because it was MINE, and it made me realize that my heart doesn’t hurt enough for the rest of the pain in the world – the kids starving, abused, dying everyday, and every other consequence of sin’s stain on the earth. Thankfully, it was as early as it was. Thankfully, we were less attached than we could have been. Thankfully, the whole process of it for Jess was actually as easy as it could possibly be. We can use these things to ease our pain, maybe try to sugar coat it, but when you get down to it, it can never be a GOOD thing. We’ll always have the memory. There is no perfect way to handle it, but it’s a chance for us to lean a little harder in to God. We get to walk in the “perfect understanding isn’t a prerequisite for faith in God” posture. We have a different perspective. When thinking about “living life and experiencing new things” that people long for, maybe they forget that you have to take the bad with the good. In times of pain Job would probably have the best wisdom, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10) We’ve experienced more now in our life together. We’ll never be entirely ready for what is to come, but God is teaching us, and we’re trying our best to follow Him. 

+Billy

A flower Jess got from Camille the day she found out she was pregnant.

One

Our First Picture

How do I start a blog? It seems like so much weighs on the first post on a new blog. Billy & I wanted to find a way to allow our friends and family to keep in touch with the “goings on” of our life. We believe God has called us to make San Marcos our home for now. It’s been over 6 years since I have lived in Burleson, and over 5 for Billy. That’s a long time for people to begin to feel disconnected and maybe even to feel like they don’t know us anymore. Thankfully, facebook and my compulsive picture-taking habit fill that void a bit...but pictures are usually only of the happy moments.

Wedding Day 5.17.08

Billy: 15 Jessica: 17

 

 

Two Became One

A lot has happened since we were driving the 8 minute route between our parents’ houses to see one another as fast and as often as possible. I went to college a year before Billy since he was still a baby senior at BHS. We knew we wanted to be married, but our families preferred that we finished college first. I graduated in May 2008 with my bachelor’s in exercise sports science and Billy graduated in August 2008 with his bachelor’s in economics from Texas State University. Eat ‘em up ‘cats! We became one on May 17, 2008 in Buda, TX with many of our closest family & friends at that time. It’s always so perplexing to look back now and think how different our guest list would look if we had it to do over. It’s probably a good thing, though, since we would have just added many more guests to it!  The week after our honeymoon in Riviera Maya, Mexico, I began Physical Therapy school at Texas State. The next 2 years were a blur. All I know is Billy cooked and cleaned a lot to keep me sane and able to memorize muscles, nerves, diagnoses, and red flags. Needless to say, I graduated this past May 14^th with my doctorate in physical therapy. 

Jumping in the San Marcos River After Graduation

A Kiss for the Graduate

PT school aside, Billy and I fell absolutely in love with a church that we began spending our time with the year before we got married. A couple that we now refer to as friends/mentors (The Bollingers) took us into their family, and began apprenticing us in marriage, family, and life in general. River Stone Community Church (meaning the people) are the reason we are in San Marcos for the long run. Our eyes were opened by the Holy Spirit as we heard teaching from scripture in Galatians about freedom in Christ. Jason preached straight through books of the bible to ensure that we understood the context of the scripture; something we had not experienced in our past church endeavors. This teaching along with prodding from the Holy Spirit, led Billy to a place of independent longing for knowledge of the Word. He has since preached 4 or 5 times himself this year! If you had asked me in high school if my curly haired, punk boy sweetheart would preach to large groups, I would have laughed! This goes to show that it was the work of a higher power...aka JESUS.  HUGE side note: Billy was offered a position serving River Stone as Director of Finance & Communication. Saying YES was one of the best decisions of our life.

Reppin' RS at an Org Fair

Our Wedding

Let’s bring the two together, shall we? River Stone Community Church & my interest/pursuit of a professional degree in Physical Therapy. I guess it would also be important to note that Jason is on the board for a missions organization called Links International. Billy is now the office manager for Links USA.  For more info on Links’ work for the Kingdom, go here Links International.  Long story VERY short, Jason heard at a Links board meeting that an organization called ICC (International China Concern) had a need for physical therapists to work at orphanages for children with disabilities in China. For some reason, God used me to organize the trip. So, our team of 15 (3 PT students, 1 PT, 1 nurse, and others wishing to love on kids with Christ’s love) traveled across the globe to love on Chinese orphans for 2 weeks. Billy preached his first sermon about our time in China. If you are interested, listen to his podcast here (China & The Suffering). While in China, Billy & I realized we could adopt a child with special needs. If there weren’t an age requirement of 30, we would have adopted two 7 year olds with cerebral palsy. I’m realizing that my calling to PT may be way beyond taking care of knees and hips.  And our call as a family to adopt was heard loud and clear.

The little girl we support monthly in China

So, I am now a licensed physical therapist. I interviewed with ONE company (thinking it would be for practice) and ended up taking my first job offer! I prayed and prayed for God to be VERY up front with me in choosing my place of work...because I would not see it as just a place of work. The clinic is in San Marcos, one of my top priorities, and serves children and their families with speech, occupational, and physical therapy. I am working alongside some wonderful therapists and learning so much. I don’t know why I ever doubted if it was the place for me. Not to mention, the new owners of the company send their employees to provide therapy to the nations. I was able to speak with the president of Cole (that ONE company) last Thursday regarding my contacts in China, Haiti & Mexico. Praise Jesus.

In our framed house

Ours is the brown one.

That brings us to now. We are just chilling in our little cottage with our various roommates (friends who randomly need a temporary place to stay) and living life! We love spending most days of the week with our Wolf Revolution friends eating at local San Marcos restaurants, floating the San Marcos River, dancing on the square and meeting tons of new people!  We moved into our house in July 2009...after painting EVERY room a different color to match my BiBi’s paintings. We love exercising, watching movies on Netflix, eating ice cream and playing with our gassy Boxer, Marley Leon Tate Wells.

Our Family So Far

Enjoy the novel!

Jessica Wells