One year ago today.......

I knew.
I knew it was time.

It had been a dream for a very long time, even after having three children of our own. We knew there was a someone somewhere in this world that needed us; and we knew that we had plenty of room in our hearts and home for her.

We knew why this was the right choice for our family; and we kind of knew how we were going to do it financially - but we didn't know where we would go to find her.

Eventually, we stumbled our way through agency brochures and country specifics and narrowed it down to one. Of course, this was over several weeks time. We chose our agency, wrote the first check to mail in and settled down for a three year wait.

Of course, God had another idea. No matter how organized I am and how much research and planning I do; He's always there with that wagging finger saying, uh,uh - not so fast.

That check was never mailed, that agency was never used and that country never picked. You see, we learned later that very next day that the probability of three years had turned to almost five and we weren't willing to wait that long. We felt like the rug had been pulled from beneath us. At one moment we knew where we were headed and the next we had no clue.

Of course He knew. That same day in school I was teaching art to a first grade class, my last class of the afternoon. A little girl by the name of Emily stopped to ask me a question as she came in my classroom door. She talked so quiet I had to bend down in order to hear what she was asking me. She asked- "why don't you have Korea?" I looked up and she was pointing to my multicultural art wall with my many crafts and pictures of different countries and cultures. I laughed and answered - "your right Emily, I don't have Korea up there." I knew Emily's story. I knew she was adopted. I didn't know, however, where from...until that moment in art class. I couldn't help it, I had to ask why. She smiled and quietly said, "because that's where I'm from." And then she turned to talk to a friend.

Needless to say, it was very hard to concentrate on teaching for the next 55 minutes. This was a country we had not considered, mostly because it was one that many local agencies did not work with. I truly believe this was God showing us the way. As soon as school ended I hopped on the computer in my classroom and googled agencies that handled South Korean adoptions. Strangely enough, one popped up a little over an hour away that I had never seen during past searches. Excited, I called my husband and within a week we had our first initial round of paperwork mailed in. In three months we were approved. We're officially headed to South Korea.

Oh, and thank you Emily.

Not the end of the story though. About a month after being approved we learned that that the Commanders job would be transferring him to Minnesota. Would we go? Of course, if we want to to stay gainfully employed in this economy! But being in the middle of an adoption process , having already spent thousands of dollars and learning that you will be moving almost 1,000 miles away from your adoption agency - how's that going to work?


He's got that covered too.

You see, unkown to us, our agency - one of the few that South Korea has allowed to handle adoptions in the US - works in only two states. Maryland and Minnesota. How's that for a coincidence? Of course there are no coincidences, I once read, just small miracles where God likes to remain anonymous.

I like to think He's drivin' this bus, that He's been driving it all along, steering us in the right direction from the very beginning. Even when we get to the bumps in the road like having to move and pay dual housing expenses that have eaten away at our adoption savings. We're confident that He will provide and thanks to the Lord, we will make our destination.