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One year ago tonight, my life changed forever…
Last fall we had one of regular update calls with our adoption agency. They gave us the same grim news we had been getting for some time: adoptions in Colombia were moving more slowly and we could expect to wait until at least early 2012 before even getting a referral for one - and only one - child (they said you could only be on one list, and we w...ere not on the siblings list). It was discouraging, but after three years of wanting this to move faster and being worried about how we were going to start a second adoption after this first one was finally complete, we realized that we had to trust God's timing over our own desires.
Since we knew we still had a very long wait before we could have children, we decided to plan another international trip. This time we decided we wanted to visit Ireland during Ginny's spring break from teaching in April of 2011. The Master Travel Agent (aka Ginny) started determining all the details of what cities we would see, how we would get there, where we would stay, etc. All that we had to do was buy the expensive and non-refundable plane tickets. We went online to do that, but Ginny found a tip that said you should always buy plane tickets on a Tuesday because they are cheaper (still not sure if that is true, but that is what we believed at the time), so we decided we would wait until the following Tuesday to actually submit the order. That Tuesday - November 2, 2010 - was the day we would go back to the United Airlines website to place the order. However, the day got busy. We both had to go to work. It was election day, so we spent time going to the polls after work. Then Ginny had her teens that night (she leads a small group of teenage girls at our church). The whole time we kept saying, "Let's not forget to order the tickets tonight!" Finally, at around 9:00 that night, Ginny was on her way home and I had the computer all fired up so we could order the tickets together when she got back (I needed her input since she had all the dates and destinations).
Then my phone rang. It was a Missouri area code so I almost did not pick it up, but I decided to answer anyway. It was our adoption agency. They told me that there were two little girls who, because of the circumstances, may be a good fit to be placed with us. They said the odds that Colombia would give them to us were 50/50 at best (seeing as how we weren't high up on the single child list or on the list for siblings at all), but they needed to know whether or not to even tell them if we were interested. When Ginny got home and wanted to order the plane tickets, I told her there may be a slight change in plans for what country we would be visiting! We of course told the agency that we would be willing to take the girls if Colombia would allow us the opportunity. We decided to not order any Ireland plane tickets for the time being. Over a month went by before we heard back. We did not tell anyone. We just kept hoping and waiting and praying. Then we got the good news that we were approved, and the rest is history.
I'm just continually amazed when I see the hand of God working in our lives. We were literally minutes away from ordering those plane tickets. We had finally gotten to a point where we accepted our wait. And then out of nowhere, God said, "You've waited long enough." I am so humbled when I think of the opportunity and responsibility he gave us to raise these two beautiful little girls. Little did I know that when my phone rang with that out-of-town number a year ago tonight that we would be blessed with such an amazing gift.
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