Let's Have A Little Faith...

Faith is sometimes difficult.  For me, very difficult.  I need logical explanations and estimations.  Taking that proverbial “plunge” makes me sick to my stomach at times.  God knows how to get my attention though.  He shows himself so real to me that I can’t what he is calling me to do.

If you haven’t realized it yet, this is Jake stepping into post a little about this wild and crazy ride we call adoption.

Wednesday this week our world was turn upside down a bit.  We received an email from a mom that had adopted from the same place we are adopting Carter from.  We were so excited to learn that the 10 day wait period includes weekends! This is a big deal because our time frame to bring Carter home instantly shrunk!  That is cool.  The sooner we get that love bug home the better. 

Hearing this news meant we were faced with a big decision.  Should we continue with our plans as they were or decide to make the longer stay and save money in airfare costs?  I still have some time available to be away from work, but I didn’t want to cut it too close and have to take more time off.  They have been so accommodating and understanding.

This is where the faith part comes in.  I knew we would incur fees for having to change our flights.  Spending more money.  I hate spending money, and on top of that I hate spending more money.  It would be $350 for us to change our already-booked flights.  Okay God can you work this out?  Sure, and he did.  More on this later on.

Yesterday was the day we had to make a final decision on what we were going to do.  Make 2 more trips or leave Saturday and wait things out and arrive back with our new addition.  If we chose the later of the 2 options that meant that Rachel G. would be making this trip with us as our helper.

I stopped home yesterday for a quick sandwich and to talks things over in detail with Ash.  As we were discussing this decision I got a phone call from a company that was trying to remedy some damage they had made to our house during a recent delivery.  Nothing major that I can’t fix myself, but annoying nonetheless.  The gentleman said “Jake we would like to settle things with you by offering you a check for the damages.  How does $350 dollars sound?”  I told him that would work and thanked him for taking care of things.  I hung up the phone amazed because our changed fee for air fare was………….. yes $350.  Wow, thanks God.  I am feeling better already about making a decision to stay longer than expected.  Back to work I went, we would make our final decision when I got home.

Back from work and I was dreading having to make a final decision.  I have a hard time making decisions.  Do we stay for 3-4 weeks or do I come back and work to bring in some money?  Tough.  I was leaning toward making the 1 trip rather than 2 more trips but I just needed a little nudge.  Ash had her mind made up, and I was just holding things up.  She said “Let’s just have some faith.”  Struggling.  I went to check the mail.  Wow.  Nudge? No, more like a 2x4 straight across the chin.  Thanks God.  I found a letter from some dear family friends Ruth and Phil C.  Ruth wrote and encouraged us about our journey.  We had no idea that they knew were following along!  Totally awesome.  The letter just melted our hearts.  God’s way of showing us to trust Him.  And the timing of this letter was incredible.  Only God.  Not only was there a letter but also a very generous check.  We were told this is to cover some of our upcoming expenses and a little something for Carter, maybe a toy airplane.  Amazing.  The decision was very clear.

So, Saturday we leave.  The 3 of us.  Rachel, Ash and Jake.  Then in 3-4 weeks we come home.  The 4 of us.  Rachel, Ash, Jake, and Carter.  Can’t wait.

One thing I know for sure: I can’t wait to tell Carter all of these stories!