Prayers for direction have been continuing throughout the days and nights - I usually wake up around 2:30am and pray for about an hour or so, or until I fall back to sleep...and no, I don't fall back to sleep in 5 minutes! Our adoption dialogue has been flowing..."have you heard from HIM yet?" That's usually the first thing out of my mouth at 5:30am. We laugh and Will gently reminds me that God's watch and Kristin's watch have two different times and that His watch trumps mine. Oh so true, SO TRUE!!! I love my husband. He's awesome first because he loves the Lord so much and that he has a way of keeping me focused.
We were talking more and more about domestic and International adoption. We said we would follow God where He led and we had no idea it would be like a yo yo. We talked and wondered is God testing our faith? Did he close the door to International and open the door to domestic to see if we would follow? Both of our hearts desire was to adopt from Ethiopia, but if that wasn't God's plan, our prayer was that we will be obedient and follow God to adopt domestically and we prayed that we would fall in love with domestic the way we had fallen in love with Ethiopia.
We were talking on Saturday morning, Will was getting ready to go the final meeting of his yearly work conference. Last Friday night was the awards banquet and I am so proud of my husband - #3 in sales for 2009! I am so proud of you! So as he's getting ready, I had gone to fix E some breakfast and while I was getting things ready I felt this beating in my chest...I went to Will right away and I said I have to tell you this RIGHT NOW...my heart is pounding - we have to go and talk to your boss as a family and talk candidly about our adoption and be very open and transparent with him. You know me - I was ready to hop in the car and go! Will said ok - if you are getting that, then I will make arrangements with Travis to meet. Ok, I said. Should we meet you after your meeting this morning? I said all big-eyed. He smiled at me, kissed me and said - No. I will let you know when. Ok...well I can pray more about it then. After Will gets home he says we can meet with Travis next week. So we pray together the next few days. The main thing we are praying for is to not lose any pay for time off. If Will can work late, make it up some how - whatever is fair and just to not miss any pay, then please Lord, let Travis be open to hearing our concern and be gentle in spirit and helpful in helping us carry out the will of God.
So we end up meeting the boss at his house yesterday late afternoon. We are talking with him and telling him that we wanted to discuss more about our adoption plan with him and some concerns that we have. We explained the "yo yo" and also talked about the fact that our hearts are really in Africa, but we are following God's will for our lives. We said that there are new regulations with regards to travel and that families are now required to make two trips to Ethiopia - once for the court hearing and the second to be permanently united with our child and leave Ethiopia as a family. This was a concern for us because of the vacation time that Will has and having to make two trips would mean we would be out of vacation time and then we would be losing some income.
Will talked more about this and was asking if there was a way that he could work out a way to possible borrow future time - etc...he said he works really hard, travels on days and times when others are off the clock, and Travis completely agrees with Will and recognizes him for his hard work and dedication. We talk about the travel and we talk about airline miles - Travis asks us if we have any and we said we have enough miles for us to make one trip. Travis says to Will, "if you guys are going to adopt from Ethiopia and have to make two trips, you will not miss a paycheck. You have paid time off to adopt this child." We thank him, hugs and kisses - and then Travis goes on from there...he said he will transfer miles and ask others in the company to join him in transferring miles to us so that we can cover the second trip in air miles. PLUS he is going to give us travel money. WOW!!! God just showed up and
had an encounter with Will!
The last things Will talks about to Travis is that everyone is called to help orphans and widows. Some are called to adopt, some are called to pray for them and some are called to help people who are called to adopt. We thanked Travis again and hugged him again! Travis said he's happy he can help and told us whatever we need to please come to him and he will help any way he can. That was God at work.
We talked more when we got home - and cried tears of thanksgiving to God - the only one who could have done what just happened. We had our answer. We have our clear direction. We know which adoption road we are to take.
God encountered with us in different and unique ways - in ways that he knew we would understand Him and know it was Him. God is faithful - He loves His children and He gives us gifts...though we don't deserve them - He gives us His gifts.
No comments:
Post a Comment