How He Works

A few weeks ago I started going to the Ladies' Bible Study at our base chapel. On our first night, as we introduced ourselves, one of the ladies mentioned that she had three boys and was in the process of adopting two girls. When my turn came around, I made sure to share that we had recently adopted Abby, and invited said lady to please ask me any questions or to just stop by and chat with me about their growing family if she felt so inclined.

Well, she did indeed take the time to stop by and chat with me after we were done that night. She mentioned that she had noticed me at the commissary parking lot recently and just felt like she recognized me from somwhere. Which, when you've been part of the military for this long, is not surprising, really.

So we started the run-down of the bases we'd each been stationed at over the years. When we hit on R*mstein - BINGO!!!! We'd overlapped there for two years. She then says "Where did you go to church there???" Again - BINGO!!! It turns out we'd been in the same Bible Study WAY BACK THEN!! We weren't in the same small group and so never developed a friendship, but she'd seen me enough to recognize me almost EIGHT years later.

So, here we are, all these years later, sitting in the same Bible study again, at yet another foreign country. AND we have just completed this amazing journey with Abby and she's in the middle of HER journey to bring her two beautiful daughters home from Kazhakstan. What a blessing to be brought together again at this time - somehow the fact that we "knew" each other before gave us common ground and help us feel very comfortable around each other from the get-go. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be an encouragement to someone else during their wait, as it seems like only yesterday I was yearning for the day I could get on that plane to China!

And as it turns out, when my new friend and I met for lunch this past week, and I was so excited to be able to be there for somebody else - God again reminds me that His plans are so much more intricate than I can imagine.

I ended up leaving that lunch feeling like I was the one totally blessed. Hearing S share about her feeling during the wait helped to refresh those feelings for me, and to remind me what a great MIRACLE adoption really is. I feel like maybe I'd started to take the whole process for granted now that Abby's been home seven months, now that we have really molded into family. I forget what it took to get here and how truly blessed we are to have her here. But all that was fresh again in my mind after my time with S. So as it happens so many times, when I thought I'd be a help to someone else, they turned out to be a great help to me!!!

It doesn't end there.....

Did I mention that S's boys are 11 (I have one of those), 13 (I have one of those too), and 16????? And her daughters are 6 and 8 (my girls are 9, so I think they'll definitely be good friends). Plus the kicker......

They homeschool too : )

Friendships are so important when you are this far from home!

And I'm just smiling at the way God works things!!!

P.S. - SORRY about the crammed look - I couldn't get blogger to space today for some reason!!