You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!"
Psalm 30: 11-12
"Good news from far away is like cold water to the thirsty."
Proverbs 25:25
A little over a week ago, on June 19th, a little after 10 o'clock in the morning, we received one of the most important and life-changing calls of our lives. Our adoption agency called with happy news with our referral! They called while Isaiah was in karate. The class had just started and I heard the first few notes of the song "Hosanna" coming from my phone. This totally surprised me, since I had asked our agency the day before if they could let me know the number they would be calling from, so I could change the ringtone on my phone. I was tired of jumping at each and every call. Little did I know that they would call the very next day!!
I jumped up, ran out of Isaiah's class and practically shouted, "Hello!"...crying, laughing and shaking all at the same time. Then I heard the words I will never forget...
"Missy, did your phone ring with your new ringtone? (laughing on both ends), we have happy news for you! We have a referral for you and Benji....she's a beautiful 4 year old little girl...."
At this point, I'm sure she said a lot of other things, but I was crying and laughing and shaking, and praising God for his amazing blessings, that I just can't put all the other details into words.
One of the many amazing things about this is just that morning, 2 hours earlier, I was reading Proverbs 25, and when I came to verse 25, "Good news from far away is like cold water to the thirsty." That struck me as being really significant, so I read it out loud to Benji and we talked about how we were longing to hear that good news from far away.
Well, needless to say, after hanging up with our agency, I called Benji right away and we both couldn't believe it and were crying and laughing. He said he would drive over to karate right then and there, so we could read over her information together. The email with her information and her pictures hadn't come through on my phone yet.
Meanwhile, our dear friend, Nikki Starr (who had received their referral just 5 weeks earlier), came walking up and saw me from a distance waving my phone and jumping around like a crazy woman. She quickly put two and two together, screamed, and came running over. What a sweet blessing to be able to share that special moment with a dear friend who knew exactly how much it meant to us and how it felt.
About 15-20 agonizing minutes later, the email finally came through on my phone. With trembling hands I opened it and for the very first time, looked into my precious new daughter's beautiful face. I couldn't believe how beautiful she was, how healthy she looked...and how she was even smiling. God alone can take a terribly painful, heartbreaking situation and make something beautiful come out of it. He has certainly shown that to be true time and time again in our own lives.
Throughout this past week, I've reflected on how God, in his infinite wisdom, has brought our family together.
4 1/2 years ago, we started praying for and hoping for another child.
4 years ago our daughter was born, a world away.
2 2/3 years ago, we decided against not pursuing any more help with our unexplained fertility problems. We would leave it completely in God's hands.
2 1/2 years ago, tragedy struck our precious daughter's world.
2 1/2 years ago, God lead us to start the adoption process. He kept leading us to Ethiopia in our decision-making process. We couldn't fully explain why, except that we knew our daughter was there.
2 years ago we applied to the Ethiopian program.
17 1/2 months ago our dossier was submitted to Ethiopia.
2 1/2 months ago I couldn't sleep and was prompted by God to pray hard for our daughter. I did, but it wasn't enough, so I woke up Benji and we prayed fervently for our daughter.
2 1/2 months ago, our daughter was relinquished into an orphanage.
3 weeks ago I was prompted to pray again for our precious girl.
3 weeks ago our daughter went through a huge transition in her sweet, short life, transferring to a different orphanage.
A little over 1 week ago we saw our daughter's sweet face for the first time.
4 days ago, our formal match paperwork was submitted and Ethiopia was told that our daughter has a loving family.
4 days ago, our daughter was told she has a family. I can only imagine what she must be going through right now and my mama's heart aches for her and I can't wait to hold her in my arms.
Through 4 1/2 years of waiting on the Lord, we had many dark days and times of wondering what God was doing through our times of struggle. Now we know. Even just writing this down I can see God's goodness through the pain and I am crying tears of joy. I am truly humbled and in awe of our great God who can span the globe and in his perfect love, bring a family together.
"God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy." Psalm 68:6a
"Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will gather your children from the east and gather you from the west."
Isaiah 43:5
I cling to our faithful God, who keeps his promises today and in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.
