Around the world and back again! 🌎 Continuing our story……
So now we are about 11 years into our marriage and I was thoroughly enjoying my time as a stay-at-home mom. But when Callie was two and Ben entered school at WCA, I began work at our church preschool to help out with expenses. What a blessing that was! I fell in love with all those sweet students and my coworkers. Callie was in preschool with me and Ben was in 1st grade. It really seemed as though things were smoothly moving along. But as a couple of years went by, Matt’s company was struggling to keep the doors open and we knew he needed to find work. We put our house up for sale, Matt began searching, and within 3 weeks our house sold and Matt began a new job. Wow! Things don’t usually work that quickly for us! Lol! Matt’s new job would take him to Lakeland, FL, for about a year and then from there we didn’t know where it would lead. There again, we found ourselves at a crossroads of what God would have us to do. We made plans to stay put here in Wilmington and see Matt on the weekends but after flying down there to help him find an apartment, things became a little unsettled. I boarded the plane home from Florida and cried the entire flight. I know the man beside me was ready to get off that plane and away from this lady who snubbed and snotted the entire flight to ILM. I called Matt when I landed, both of us crying, because God made it clear that we should not live apart for those long months. So, when God speaks, we listen and obey! I loaded up Ben and Callie when school was out in May and headed to Lakeland, FL, into a 650 square foot, one-bedroom apartment and began homeschooling. Oh mylanta! That was not in the plans just a few months before.
That was an intense but beautiful time for us as a family. Ben and Callie had their own little beds and shared the one bedroom. Matt and I would blow up an air mattress every night, roll the couch out of the way, and sleep on the living room floor. Because of our cramped quarters, me early morning quiet time had to be taken in the bathroom. Thank God he met me there! But when you need alone time with Him, you'll find a way! 😬 It wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was home because we were all under one roof. Just as God intended! One of the perks of living in Lakeland, FL, was our close proximity to Orlando. We had season tickets to Disney World and got to visit quite often. We loved that! It was a huge help being away from all our family and friends. We found a great church that just so happened to be in an old mall. It was actually called First Baptist Church at the Mall. I had told Matt many times that you could worship and praise God at the mall, well here was proof! Lol! The first Sunday we visited they sang one of my favorite songs, the preaching was straight from the Word, and as we met the pastor, we knew we had found our place to worship and plug in during this interim.
So, there we were in a one-bedroom apartment enjoying life as a family of four and then God began to move…..again….
It was during that time that God began working on our hearts about adoption. Nothing about that made sense at the time. It was expensive, we were comfortable with our two children, and we didn’t even know where we would end up after Florida. Matt wasn't on board. So I just committed it to prayer and let God handle the rest. And He sure did!
When God calls you to something, He will see you through it. God had already begun putting the details together and this was a true test of our faith and trust in him. Matt’s job moved us back to Wilmington in December of 2005. The kids and I arrived a few weeks before Matt and got the house set up. When Matt arrived on December 21, he tossed the adoption paperwork across the bed and said he filled out his part now it was my turn. So as we pushed send on the computer to submit the initial application, we looked at each other scared to death and wondered what we were getting ourselves in to. Lol! But the adoption process began! We were in and trusting God BIG!
I was able to go back to work at the preschool in January and we were enjoying the total dependence on God through it all. The next year and a half we were deep into our "paper pregnancy". I think I gained more weight during this paper pregnancy than the other two biological pregnancies. Mountain upon mountain of paperwork, fingerprints, home studies, and all manner of international adoption details with a hefty price tag. But God put a love in our hearts for a child we didn’t even know yet and it was clear we had to move forward to bring our child home. We took a huge step of faith in obedience to God and He put all the details in place!
(I will not go into all the details of our adoption here, but stay tuned in May for our adoption journey as we celebrate Caleb being home for 10 years!)
We boarded a big jet plane, all four of us, on May 3, 2007 and were China bound! All the way around the world in the town of Guangzhou, China, we welcomed our precious Caleb into our hearts on May 9, 2007! It was absolutely beautiful and God continues to amaze us with his love and grace today through that experience! Our little family of four wasn't quite complete without our Caleb. Our lives were changed forever! God was continuing to write our story and we all know that He is the Great Author! God is so good and faithful and we give Him all praise and glory!
Tomorrow I'll conclude our story and share how God has, yet again, taken us through more giant steps of faith this last year. We've reached many milestones in our family over this year and we remain completely surrendered to God and His will! That doesn't guarantee a comfortable life. Sometimes it is downright hard. But it does guarantee a life of growing and drawing closer to His heart. It means realizing the blessings through the hard and seeing God chisel away the rough edges in order to display His masterpiece. A masterpiece that He adores and will be used to further His Kingdom's work. That's where we want to be! He is worth it!!
So join me tomorrow as we wrap it up! Thanks for following along! ❤
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
“I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will [continue to] perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of His return].”
PHILIPPIANS 1:6 (AMP)
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