Friday, August 15, 2008

Meant to be...


When we started talking seriously about adoption last fall, Drew and I browsed hundreds of pictures of waiting children in all parts of the world. We knew we wanted to adopt an older child and we learned quickly that the situation in Liberia was desperate for hundreds of thousands of orphans there. When we came across Amos and Kalee on the Addy's Hope Adoption Agency webpage, we kept going back for another look, then another. Eventually, we felt as though God had put these boys in front of us and that they were meant to be our sons. In December, we signed all the paperwork and committed to the boys. We hurriedly started work on our dossier, met with the social worker to complete our home study, sent off the INS documents and waited for a finger print appointment.

Our Christmas was completely different last year than in all others. I didn't bake a single cookie...I hardly wrapped gifts and didn't deliver sugar cakes to the neighbors for their Christmas breakfasts. Who had time for festivities?? We were doing every thing possible to get our dossier to Liberia to beat governmental changes that were rumored to go into effect after the first of the year.

One afternoon, right after Christmas and after we'd mailed off the last of the many adoption documents, Brant came downstairs from where he'd been reading. He'd already volunteered to give up his bedroom for the new boys, but I wasn't at all prepared for what he was about to tell me and Drew. While doing some research on Liberia, Brant discovered that the small quilt hanging on his bedroom door---one that I'd bought for his room while we were living in Dallas in the 90's---was not, in fact, a folksy version of the Texas or early American flags. It was actually the flag of Liberia...and it had been flying proudly from Brant's door for the last ten years. What are the chances of that?? How could that possibly be?

I'm not a big fan of that saying, "It's a God thing," not because I don't believe it, just because I don't like the saying. No matter, NO ONE can tell me that this wasn't a God thing. Only, only God could have planned and orchestrated the events that led us to Amos and Kalee. God knew before I could even find Liberia on the globe that we would someday commit to bringing these two Liberian boys into our family.

So, no matter how down I get about the adoption delays or how discouraged I am by the lack of progress in the Liberian court system, I am always comforted by looking at the quilt hanging on what is now Amos's and Kalee's bedroom door. That Liberian flag reminds me that God knows what's meant to be...and that He has always and will continue always to orchestrate the details of my life...and the lives of all my boys...big and small...on both sides of the Atlantic.

4 comments:

love2bmom said...

Oh man, you've got the tears rolling down my face. Time for a tissue! Thanks for sharing about the Liberian flag!! That is so amazing, and for your boy to discover it first, really touched my heart.

Brandi said...

I LOVE this story. I've told a couple of my friends too. What a wonderful story to tell your boys soon.

Love,
Brandi

jena said...

Okay, I must be extra, extra emotional right now. Goosebumps here, tears there... and I already knew the story!

Kyle Luke said...

What a blessing it was for me to read this today. Thanks for pointing me toward it!

sara