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The Phone Call
On Friday April 17, I was out of school for our conference release day. Philip had gone to Hiawatha to visit his family so I went to see a movie with my sister and another friend. As I was almost to my car after the movie was over, I realized that I had something in my purse to give my sister so I turned to head back to find them. As I was heading back, my phone rang.
It was not a number saved in my phone but showed up as an Alabama number. My heart leapt because any call from an Alabama number usually is from our adoption agency. (I had just emailed some with our caseworker a week earlier and all my previous questions had been answered so I knew she wasn't calling to follow up on anything else.) I answered and it was our caseworker. She first asked if I was with Philip and after telling her I wasn't, she proceeded to say the words we had waited two years to hear. She asked if we wanted more information about twin boys.
She continued talking which was good since I don't think I could have responded immediately. By this point I had wandered back to the theater and found my sister. She immediately knew I was acting weird. I called Philip and told him about the call. My sister and friend began freaking out at the news they were hearing as I explained it to Philip. Philip and I agreed to view the file. Later, I called back our caseworker to tell her we wanted to view the file so she conferenced Philip in on the call as well. (Isn't technology grand?)
The timing has been pretty amazing in this entire journey (more on that later), but we laugh about the fact that we got the long awaited phone call on the one weekend of the whole year that Philip and I weren't together. This, of course, was all in God's good and perfect timing. Yes, this was a decision we needed to make together, but the time apart was actually really beneficial for us to individually process and digest the information about the boys and the impact saying "yes" would have on our lives. Philip called Saturday as he was driving back to Wichita and as he began sharing his thoughts, tears began to stream down my face because he was saying and expressing everything I was thinking and feeling as well. We serve an amazing God who planned this all down to the exact timing of the phone call. Each and every intricate detail in this journey has been according to his plan. Throughout this process, one of my prayers was that we would know confidently know when to say yes when we finally got the phone call. He more than answered this for both Philip and I and we emailed our agency on Sunday that we would wanted to move forward to adopt the boys.
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Now to back up a few weeks... As many of you know, each month our agency emailed out our wait list number. We got our first numbers May 1, 2013 and our last wait list email came on April 1st though at the time we didn't know it would be the last one. Being a numbers nerd, it was kind of cool to me that we got the call 24 months after we were on the wait list. Our dossier arrived in Ethiopia on April 22, 2013 and we got the call April 17, 2015; just five days short of exactly two years! Again, God's timing and purpose in this process has humbled and amazed us.
On Friday April 17, I was out of school for our conference release day. Philip had gone to Hiawatha to visit his family so I went to see a movie with my sister and another friend. As I was almost to my car after the movie was over, I realized that I had something in my purse to give my sister so I turned to head back to find them. As I was heading back, my phone rang.
It was not a number saved in my phone but showed up as an Alabama number. My heart leapt because any call from an Alabama number usually is from our adoption agency. (I had just emailed some with our caseworker a week earlier and all my previous questions had been answered so I knew she wasn't calling to follow up on anything else.) I answered and it was our caseworker. She first asked if I was with Philip and after telling her I wasn't, she proceeded to say the words we had waited two years to hear. She asked if we wanted more information about twin boys.
She continued talking which was good since I don't think I could have responded immediately. By this point I had wandered back to the theater and found my sister. She immediately knew I was acting weird. I called Philip and told him about the call. My sister and friend began freaking out at the news they were hearing as I explained it to Philip. Philip and I agreed to view the file. Later, I called back our caseworker to tell her we wanted to view the file so she conferenced Philip in on the call as well. (Isn't technology grand?)
The timing has been pretty amazing in this entire journey (more on that later), but we laugh about the fact that we got the long awaited phone call on the one weekend of the whole year that Philip and I weren't together. This, of course, was all in God's good and perfect timing. Yes, this was a decision we needed to make together, but the time apart was actually really beneficial for us to individually process and digest the information about the boys and the impact saying "yes" would have on our lives. Philip called Saturday as he was driving back to Wichita and as he began sharing his thoughts, tears began to stream down my face because he was saying and expressing everything I was thinking and feeling as well. We serve an amazing God who planned this all down to the exact timing of the phone call. Each and every intricate detail in this journey has been according to his plan. Throughout this process, one of my prayers was that we would know confidently know when to say yes when we finally got the phone call. He more than answered this for both Philip and I and we emailed our agency on Sunday that we would wanted to move forward to adopt the boys.
_________________________________________
Now to back up a few weeks... As many of you know, each month our agency emailed out our wait list number. We got our first numbers May 1, 2013 and our last wait list email came on April 1st though at the time we didn't know it would be the last one. Being a numbers nerd, it was kind of cool to me that we got the call 24 months after we were on the wait list. Our dossier arrived in Ethiopia on April 22, 2013 and we got the call April 17, 2015; just five days short of exactly two years! Again, God's timing and purpose in this process has humbled and amazed us.
Ok, sorry for the numbers rabbit trail... We knew from talking via Facebook with other families from our agency that we could potentially be close to getting a call as many families on the list ahead of us were gender specific for girls only or were on pause for other major family changes (birth of a child, move, etc). Even though our number was still a ways from the top, we felt confident that the adoption would finalize sometime next school year, so the week after Spring break, I met with my principal and submitted my letter of resignation to not return to teaching after the current school year was over and stay home next school year.
Looking back, some people probably thought I was off my rocker to resign to stay home with kids that we didn't have yet and haven't even been matched with. God gave us a peace that surpassed even our own understanding! And 24 days later, when the call came, we again saw God's purpose and plan come together.
The verse that God kept bringing to mind throughout this time was Proverbs 19:21 "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." I will blog more about this verse in a later post. Thanks for reading this (if you made it to the end) and being such an encouragement to us in this journey. We count it a joy to share with you all!
