Mid Summer Happenings

We spent a week on the vineyard.  Martha's Vineyard has always been one of my favorite places in the world.  But then everyone discovered it....and crowds are not my thing!  This year we went a month earlier than usual because of college and high school schedules and you know what...It was quiet, again.  No crowds.  So the kids walked to the beach, swam, surfed, went fishing, slept late, ate ice cream, watched bi-planes and gliders take off and land, played games, rode the carousel, got tattoos,  went to Vineyard Sound, got chocolate from Chilmark Chocolates, met up with summer friends, and planned for next summer when our new little guy would be home.  What a gift it was to withdrawal from the chaos and enjoy the fact that we have seen his face and that CHI was working so hard so that we could then get to the next step of the process.  Feel so blessed.

Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy

So this time our referral had a completely different feel.  Remembering back to Bella's referral.  It had all the elements of a good story.  Jason had gone out with a few friends for a guys dinner.  I was home making dinner for the kids.  For some reason Jeff (Jason's partner and good friend) picked him up instead of Jason driving.  Odd, because they really don't do that often...they must have been discussing a case.  At around 6 Jason calls and says...why aren't you answering your cell phone?  Uhhh, you got me on the house phone, so why does it matter?  Well, Jessica has been trying to call you.  WHAT????  Then Jason gets Jeff to drive him home, we open an email, and get to know our daughter.  By the next morning we were madly in love.
Flash forward to this adoption.  The details are not so dramatic but same dramatic effect.   We saw a little boy on a wait list.  Actually, we saw two little boys on a wait list.  Both so very sweet.  Both would be a blessing to any family.  Different stories, and yet kind of the same...they both have been waiting for a family for a long time, their whole life.  So how do you decide between perfect for our family and perfect for our family?  So we talked to the administrator, and then the director who has met them to see if we would be a better family for one of them...youngest of five vs only and oldest.  (I will do a long post on the people of YWAM, and how much we love them.  How much they inspire us.  Have I mentioned that they have sent us several hand written notes just letting us know that they are thinking about and praying for us?)  No way to tell.  After Jason's initial, "Okay, let's adopt both," (not an option, not allowed by our agency),  we prayed.  That's the beautiful thing about prayer and faith.  The answer came.  Almost immediately.  While we still cared for the other sweet little boy, and could have loved him or any other child as our own, it was clear which one was ours.  We were matched and then waited briefly for our official referral.  The call from our case worker was unexpected, but not because we did not know it was coming or what child would be on the paperwork.  It was unexpected because we knew she would be flying outside of the country.  There was nothing new in his information that we did not know.  There were a couple new pictures.  Oh yeah, that email came at 1:30 am.  And I have not figured out how to open zip files...so I could only open the "non-zip" files which thankfully were the really important ones.  So there was no cell phone battery dying.  No race home to get the email.  And no falling in love...we were already there!

For this child, I prayed... 1 Samuel 1:27