I know I’ve told some of you this story before, but I know a lot of you haven’t heard it. So, I’m going to tell it again……
First off, for those of you who are
currently in the process of adopting, I apologize, 9 years ago when we
brought our two kids home from GLA, the process took 10 months from
referral to going home and we thought that was long! I’m sorry that
things aren’t going that fast now. Know that every day I and many
others are praying that the process will speed up.
Now, when we began the process of adopting,
Dixie told us to expect 7 to 9 months. We got our referral in August
of 2003, so that would have put us as coming home in March to May of
2004. Now for a little Haitian trivia question……
What happened between August of 2003 and May of 2004 in Haitian history (think something notable)?
Can’t guess? That’s when Aristide was
ousted in the coup. Breaking down the story into one sentence, for
approximately 6 weeks, the adoption world in Haiti was a great big ? and
nothing moved. Surprise? Nope.
But after 6 weeks, things had somewhat
settled down and adoption paperwork began moving again. In the end all
it did was cause a fair amount of pain and anxiety and delayed things
from a March to May timeframe to a June homecoming.
Now trust me, that extra month seemed really long at the time. But God had a plan.
Our original plan was that our older three
(the vanilla kids) would stay with the grandparents while we went and
got the younger two. But, because of the delay, we ended up traveling
after the older kids were done with school. The volunteer situation
was such that they were able to come down and spend 3 weeks as
volunteers while Cheryl spent time with our chocolate kids and I came to
join them the last week.
So, we ended up waiting 6 weeks longer for
our adoptions to be finalized and because of that, our older kids got to
see GLA. So what’s such a big deal about that?
Jump forward with me about 2 years, we were
coming back from going out for dinner (all 7 of us – so I think it was
some place cheap) and my second oldest chimes up from the back seat, “I
think I know what I want to do.” It’s a Friday night, so I’m
thinking it’s something like going over to a friend’s house, going to
see a movie, something very here and now.
What?
“I want to become a nurse and go back to Haiti full time.”
Gulp.
I’m writing this today because tomorrow, my
2nd oldest, an RN like her mother, leaves to go to Haiti to spend 9 days
working with Lori and Licia and Allison at Real Hope for Haiti. She
is an RN, she’s pursuing her pediatric nurse practitioner degree and has
led numerous teams down to GLA from our church over the last years.
If God’s timing had been our timing, she wouldn’t have gone down to Haiti in 2004.
If God’s timing had been our timing, she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see and love on the kids in Haiti.
If God’s timing had been our timing, she might not have become a nurse.
God has a plan and He is constantly moving and using the events of your life and my life to impact others.
9 years later, we’re seeing that God’s plan
and the delay in our adoptions of our two youngest has had a significant
impact in the life of one of our older kids and the lives of many
others as well.
I know it can really stink when you are
stuck in a delay where your idea for God’s timing is way different than
what it appears His timing is.
God looks at a picture way bigger than the one we do – trust Him and His timing…….
It quite often isn’t easy – but in the end, it’s the only way to do it.
Tom
Tom's blog can be found
here.
