Life has taken an interesting turn for our family right
now. Although I cannot go into detail
just yet; I do ask that you pray for our family. There is a wide facet of things putting us in
a weird place of limbo, one of them being our adoption. Although we know wholeheartedly that we are
going to adopt again, it is on a temporary hold. So with that said I want to focus on the
unexpected blessings of adoption.
Before our sweet EJ came home I was in a place of having a
deep, deep desire to be a Mommy and years of that not happening. The wonderful blessing of being able to look
back on that time would bring me to one of my favorite people. My second mom, my beautiful friend Barb.
On a trip to Texas with other special friends we met up with
Barb and Mike (he also is a wonderful blessing). Now I did know Barb because she was a health/physical
education teacher for me in school growing up.
So I knew I liked this lovely lady already, but what I didn’t know was
the bond we would have many years later.
That bond was not having children, but always having the
deep desire to be a Mom. And let me tell
you this woman is a wonderful Mom. We
laid it all out in the back of a minivan with tears and smiles, but we each connected
on something deep in our souls.
This bond continued to grow between not just Barb and I, but
all of us. Mike, Kent, Barb, me, and
about a year later Elena. We loved these
God fearing, Jesus loving folk.
And then the bond grew even more. When God led us to adopting precious Mo in
Ethiopia the time came where we knew we could be traveling within a month or
more. I knew that our sweet EJ, who was
only 2 ½ at the time, would need Kent or I at home while we were gone for
around 7 days. I also knew that I needed
to be the one to go to Ethiopia, but I knew I couldn’t do it alone. So I prayed to God and asked who should go
with me, and almost instantly Barb’s name came to mind. My mind just raced. Would she want to do this? What will she think when I ask? Will she think I am nuts?
Not too long after we were at the short’s home for a
gathering, and I was being a chicken about asking. Can you imagine being chicken about something
God plainly asked you to do? At any rate
my husband asked Mike what he thought and his response was she should go, ask her. Not too long later I happened to be in the
kitchen with Barb and Kent, and my dear husband says “Carrie, don’t you have
something you need to ask Barb?” And
then he pretty much evacuated the room.
So I stood there I think probably stumbling over my words at
first, saying things like, now you can say no, and I know this is a lot to ask,
and we will pay your way, and etc. So
when I did ask if she would like to go to Ethiopia she was a little surprised
to say the least.
My memory from here won’t be exact, but here is the awesome
part of God’s plan and story for all of our lives. That very same morning I had asked Barb to go
to Ethiopia, she had sat down and prayed asking God what is it you want me to
do? I am willing to do whatever you have
in store, and then I come around that night and say, hey want to take a trip
all the way to Ethiopia with me? Easy
Peasy right?! Ha!
So Barb prayed and said yes, and after our trip told me she
would have been so wrong not to go. That
trip was life changing for both of us, not just sweet Moses. Here are a few pics from our trip:
Our adoption bond doesn’t end there though. When we adopted our boy Isaiah, guess who
were some of the first people to meet him?
That’s right, Barb and Mike. We ended
up living with them for almost 3 weeks while we waited to bring him home from
Florida. Talk about gracious, loving, and giving friends right?
But the whole point of all this is they are more than
friends, they are our family. My whole
family loves them so much and we are so blessed to have them in our lives. Guiding us, loving us, living life with us…
God is soo soo good!