What a day it has been! A good one I might add:) We had a full schedule with my individual interview with Mary at 10:00, then our joint interview at 11:00, lunch at Chili's, and a 3 hour doctor visit. Yes, the medical examination requirements are so extensive that they even suprised our doctor! But we are moving right along and are being amazed at every turn how the Lord's plans are unfolding.
During our interview today, we put together a few puzzle pieces that some might casually attribute to a "small world" coincident. However, it became even more evident to us that the Lord has been walking this road with us before we even knew where we were going.
In talking with Mary, we realized that we have much in common. Both of us grew up Presbyterian and were involved with Young Life. She went to Wake Forest University which is directly down the street from the house I grew up in, and at one point worked with Young Life leadership while she was there. Her oldest daughter, whom she originally wanted to name Salem (go figure), was at Windy Gap on Work Crew the summer of 1996, while I was a summer guide at Pioneer Plunge, then went on to work at Noah's Ark (a Christian rafting company in Colorado that led me twice down the raging rapids of the Arkansas River...and a place where I always dreamed of working). It seemed like everything we spoke of led us into a common life experience. But as we were leaving, the sight of a small wooden box with the inscription of "King College" caught my eye.
The campus of King College holds a very special place in my heart. I spent several summers there as a junior high camper at a PFR camp called The Great Escape. I asked if she went to King College and she began to tell me that they used to live in Bristol and worked there in ministry. Soon we found out that her husband worked with PFR ministries and directed those very programs that I had attended as a young teenager!!! Even several of the guys they had on PFR staff were Wake students that volunteered at our church in Winston-Salem to whom I had direct contact with and who answered many questions I had as the Lord was pursuing my heart. It was wild!!! I even commented to Drew in the office before leaving of how cool it was that Mary and her husband were behind the ministry that was instrumental in leading me to Christ. But, it wasn't until Drew and I were sitting at Chili's about to order our meal that it hit me.......God knew at that moment of my life, as I was sitting on the floor of the cafeteria at King College hearing about the love of Christ, that Mary and Rocky were there. Tears welled up in my eyes with the realization that as God was in the process of adopting my heart, in the same room were the very people who would be leading my future husband and I through an adoption process to bring our daughter home. At the same time the Lord was quietly laying the name "Salem" on my heart (see "Our Christmas Letter"), He was writing our family story (that we would come to realize more than 15 years later), and clearly ordaining our journey to bring her home:) WOW!!! It is amazing to know a faithful God who hems us into His will, "scoops" us up, and carries us to the places to where He is calling!
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
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