On April 4, 2012, True Princess G.A. had been sick, really sick, for three days and three long nights. All of the kids were on Spring Break. Tornadoes had ravaged the Dallas area and areas east. New puppy, Hazel, had an appointment to be spayed at the end of the week. Easter was coming. Knight-in-Shining Armor's birthday was just days away, and I would be leaving town on a jet plane in a few short hours.
Late in the afternoon that day, my baby was still running a fever as a ferocious storm rolled into our city. The sky darkened, the thunder roared, and the lightning cracked as we were loading our luggage into the car. Winds whipped and swirled through the air. Rain poured from the sky.
In a strange turn of events, Knight-in-Shining Armor and I were on our way to the airport. We were on our way to a parental training conference in Ft. Worth, Texas, called Pathways. Pathways Training is a required program sponsored by our adoption agency, Gladney. We must complete the mandatory training before we can travel to Colombia to meet our future children.
At one point in time, we were registered to attend the April session of this training, but then transferred our registration to a special Colombian families only session that was opened up in May. Some of Gladney's in-country team as well as some orphanage directors were slated to be in attendance as were several facebook/bloggy friends of mine. I was excited to meet all of these people in person.
In my wildest dreams, I never would have imagined that we would end up transferring our registration back to the April training session.
It happened like this:
After investigating airfare for a May flight from RDU to DFW, I emailed the rates to Knight-in-Shining Armor with a friendly reminder that we needed to think about booking our flight sooner than later. That night as we walked down the street unwinding from a busy day he said, "What was that stuff you sent me today?".
I explained and he said, "Is there a chance we can just go ahead and attend training next week?"
I quickly replied that our registration had already been transferred to May and it was too late to change anything at that point.
The next day, in the midst of an email conversation with our caseworker, I ask for some recommendations of where to stay while we were in town for training.
One thing led to another and it was clear that she thought we were coming in April NOT May.
She quickly discovered that we were indeed registered for both trainings and asked me exactly when we were coming.
I chuckled and replied that as long as she mentioned it, Knight-in-Shining Armor wanted to come next week. I asked if that would be possible.
She said, "Absolutely! Come on."
Within twenty four hours we had booked our flights, reserved a hotel room, and lined up a rental car.
We would NOT be going to Texas in May. We were going to Texas in six days!
To me this was just another disappointment in a continuing series of Divine disappointments that had been plaguing my life. I was in a season where nothing that I had expected to happen happened. Everything I looked forward to, anything I anticipated, every bit of excitement related to possibilities had been steam rolled lately.
It seems to have started with our USCIS fiasco in early March.
Then, no referral for my birthday.
No phone call with our caseworker to discuss where our dossier would be going.
Translation of completed dossier documents was delayed.
Everybody was asking questions. I didn't have any answers.
And, now, a trip that I was looking forward to with great anticipation was being rescheduled.
Once again, my ways were not His ways. My plans were not His plans.
This was becoming a common and recurrent theme on 'the Adoption Highway'.
As we pulled up to the terminal at the airport, the radio in the car was tuned to a country music station. The singer belted out this phrase, "It's been a long hard road and it ain't over yet. It's been a long hard road and we've got a long, long way to go."
Leave it to a country song to put this journey into perspective!
After unloading the car, checking in our baggage, and making it through security, we settled into a seat at our gate waiting to board.
Outside the rain had stopped and the skies had cleared. Sun radiated through the wispy clouds painting a sunset of purples, pinks, and oranges across the horizon. Peace overwhelmed me and I knew that like it or not, we were right where we were supposed to be.
Circumstances change...some to our liking, some not, but one thing remains the same...
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." HEBREWS 13:8
Late in the afternoon that day, my baby was still running a fever as a ferocious storm rolled into our city. The sky darkened, the thunder roared, and the lightning cracked as we were loading our luggage into the car. Winds whipped and swirled through the air. Rain poured from the sky.
In a strange turn of events, Knight-in-Shining Armor and I were on our way to the airport. We were on our way to a parental training conference in Ft. Worth, Texas, called Pathways. Pathways Training is a required program sponsored by our adoption agency, Gladney. We must complete the mandatory training before we can travel to Colombia to meet our future children.
At one point in time, we were registered to attend the April session of this training, but then transferred our registration to a special Colombian families only session that was opened up in May. Some of Gladney's in-country team as well as some orphanage directors were slated to be in attendance as were several facebook/bloggy friends of mine. I was excited to meet all of these people in person.
In my wildest dreams, I never would have imagined that we would end up transferring our registration back to the April training session.
It happened like this:
After investigating airfare for a May flight from RDU to DFW, I emailed the rates to Knight-in-Shining Armor with a friendly reminder that we needed to think about booking our flight sooner than later. That night as we walked down the street unwinding from a busy day he said, "What was that stuff you sent me today?".
I explained and he said, "Is there a chance we can just go ahead and attend training next week?"
I quickly replied that our registration had already been transferred to May and it was too late to change anything at that point.
The next day, in the midst of an email conversation with our caseworker, I ask for some recommendations of where to stay while we were in town for training.
One thing led to another and it was clear that she thought we were coming in April NOT May.
She quickly discovered that we were indeed registered for both trainings and asked me exactly when we were coming.
I chuckled and replied that as long as she mentioned it, Knight-in-Shining Armor wanted to come next week. I asked if that would be possible.
She said, "Absolutely! Come on."
Within twenty four hours we had booked our flights, reserved a hotel room, and lined up a rental car.
We would NOT be going to Texas in May. We were going to Texas in six days!
To me this was just another disappointment in a continuing series of Divine disappointments that had been plaguing my life. I was in a season where nothing that I had expected to happen happened. Everything I looked forward to, anything I anticipated, every bit of excitement related to possibilities had been steam rolled lately.
It seems to have started with our USCIS fiasco in early March.
Then, no referral for my birthday.
No phone call with our caseworker to discuss where our dossier would be going.
Translation of completed dossier documents was delayed.
Everybody was asking questions. I didn't have any answers.
And, now, a trip that I was looking forward to with great anticipation was being rescheduled.
Once again, my ways were not His ways. My plans were not His plans.
This was becoming a common and recurrent theme on 'the Adoption Highway'.
As we pulled up to the terminal at the airport, the radio in the car was tuned to a country music station. The singer belted out this phrase, "It's been a long hard road and it ain't over yet. It's been a long hard road and we've got a long, long way to go."
Leave it to a country song to put this journey into perspective!
After unloading the car, checking in our baggage, and making it through security, we settled into a seat at our gate waiting to board.
Outside the rain had stopped and the skies had cleared. Sun radiated through the wispy clouds painting a sunset of purples, pinks, and oranges across the horizon. Peace overwhelmed me and I knew that like it or not, we were right where we were supposed to be.
Circumstances change...some to our liking, some not, but one thing remains the same...
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." HEBREWS 13:8
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