7/11

Today's date, 7/11, carries a lot of weight in my home. It's so much more than a day to get a free slushie (actually, I think they aren't doing that this year for COVID reasons). It's a day to remember that God is faithful, that He does indeed finish what He has started. A day to remember that we may make our plans, but God orders our steps--perhaps in a direction we never intended or wanted to go. 

And it represents a long journey from the mountain, to the valley, and back--including so many life lessons along the way. On that trek through the dark, lonely valley, here are a few of the things I learned:

• How to grieve and why allowing ourselves to grieve is so important
• God's plan and timing is perfect, even when it hurts like hell
• Patience
• Trust
• Flexibility
• Self-sacrifice
• Surrender
• Tedious time management skills
• Compassion
• Our need to pray, often and without ceasing
• Our need to develop spiritual endurance
• We are not in control
• God sees a bigger picture than we do
• God loves me intimately
• God sees me
• God hears me
• God provides for me, in measures more abundant than I can even imagine
• God goes to battle for me
• God is my strength when I have none
• God loves and cares for the orphan, often through us
• The global body of Christ is an international family, meaning as a Christian, I can find family almost anywhere I go
• God's economy works far beyond our imagination
• To love the orphan is never in vain
• There is purpose in pain
• When God speaks, we have no choice but to listen and obey
• Nothing can thwart God's plan
• Keep your shoes on, ready to go when God says go
• An untold story won't heal--our story has a purpose
• God comforts us in our trials so that we can pass that comfort on to someone else

I could go on, and on, and on. If you haven't read my books, I encourage you to do so to see just how much God can bring from what we can only see as a tragedy. There's actually even a third book still needing to be written, filled with more intimate love from God than I ever experienced in my life. Perhaps someday I will write the rest of that story down. 

So basically, the gist of today's post is this:

I met a 10 year old boy (and his 6 year old sister) on July 20th, 2008.

After a grueling adoption process that left us feeling completely misinterpreted, misunderstood, and helpless, I said goodbye to the boy who already assumed me to be his forever mom on November 6th, 2009--on his 12th birthday. 

They said once denied, always denied--there'd never be another chance. They cut off all communication between us, for his sake, so he'd be open to attaching to another family in the future.

But God.

Through three summer trips to Colombia, God expanded our territory, grew our "family" through Christian connections, and redeemed our story.

On July 11th, 2013, we finally signed the adoption decree for the son they told us we could no longer try to adopt. With God's divine intervention, we cleared our name and proved our love for our son, less than 4 months from his 16th birthday.

This verse, though a bit out of context, stood out to me today, especially because of it's reference (7:11).

2 Corinthians 7:11

Good News Translation

See what God did with this sadness of yours: how earnest it has made you, how eager to prove your innocence! Such indignation, such alarm, such feelings, such devotion, such readiness to punish wrongdoing! You have shown yourselves to be without fault in the whole matter.

So here we are today, 7 years later. 

Truthfully, I thought I'd have about four or five years with him before sending him off to college or launching him out into the world. We tried the college thing--and are still working our way back to some form of higher education with him, and we're currently working on life skills he just didn't have the maturity to take on yet when they presented themselves earlier. He's taking baby steps toward independence, and I'm proud of him for how far he's come in seven years. There are days I get frustrated and think he should be so much further along, and then days like today remind me that he's much further than many others who walked his shoes would be. 

Days like today remind me that God has a much bigger plan for my son than I can even imagine.