September 13: A Day of Miracles

"The heavens declare the glory of God; 

the skies proclaim the works of His hands." 

Psalms 19:1

September 13 is a day of miracles for us.  Some of you may know a lot of our story from when I spoke almost two years ago at a Women's Event at First Baptist Lyman.  My story was called a Rainbow and a Promise.  It is almost impossible to summarize this story briefly, but you have to know the first part of the story to know why today, September 13, 2011 is such a MIRACLE. 

If you have time, I would love to share the whole story with you.  The link below will allow you to hear the audio of that speech. The sound recording is certainly less than perfect (I recorded it then thinking the only one I would be sharing it with was Tollie!) and the speech delivery, less-than-stellar, but the miracle of this God Story brings me to tears every time I listen.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B0UxFNpkEWo9OTY5NjkyZjMtZjAyMS00MDMwLTljNDYtZmQxZjgzMGMzN2Iz&hl=en_US

On that day I shared about a very difficult time in our lives, in February of 2004, when we lost our baby during pregnancy and how God completely restored this loss five years later, to the day, when I brought our beautiful baby Hudson home from the hospital on February 13, 2009.  (You have to listen to the audio to hear this February 13th miracle!)

September 13, 2004 was the day that the baby I lost was supposed to be born.  On that day, God set an amazing rainbow in the sky, directly over our house, complete from one end to the other.  Words cannot describe its beauty.  God gave us this rainbow so we would know that He had not forgotten our tears or our pain.  He wanted us to know that He has our baby, and that one day, we will with be with our baby again. 

Thus, we had a rainbow and a promise on that 13th day of Septmeber, 2004.  I thought that the promise was that He loved us and remembered our tears and that He was caring for our baby in Heaven.  And I do believe that was part of it, but  after today, September 13, 2011, I know that wasn't all of it!

As you know, 10 months ago, we began the pursuit of our daughter.  This journey so far has been much more difficult than I ever imagined.  Midway into our journey, just as our Home Study was being completed, we felt God leading us to switch adoption agencies.  And, if any of you are familiar with the adoption process, you know that your Home Study is one of the biggest parts of your adoption paperwork, taking months to complete.  At the time, I really struggled with why God would have allowed us to go that far, seemingly wasting time and money, only to have us start our paperwork all over again with another agency. 

And I guess I still don't know all the reasons, but when I see what He did today, it makes a whole lot more sense.  And I didn't even see it coming until last night. 

It was about 9:30 last night, and Tollie and I were taking a break from my cooking and his cleaning out the garage.  We were sitting on the couch, eating ice cream and talking about our day.  I told him that I tracked our dossier (adoption documents) which had been sent to China last Friday by our adoption agency, and that it was due to be delivered today (which it was!!).  I was wondering out loud about when they would actully review our paperwork and officially log us into the system.  I said, "I wonder if our Log-In-Date will actually be tomorrow, September 13?"  In that moment, God let me see it.  It was as if He said,

"September 13:

The day your baby was due.

Also, the day I sent you the incredible rainbow.

Yes, it did come with a promise, but I am just now revealing it to you.

This is the promise. 

I had your dossier arrive in China on this day, so that you would know that SHE is My promise to you. 

I have not forgotten your loss, your tears, your pain.  You are My child, and your sorrow was My sorrow.  But I am redeeming that loss through your daughter Meilí (May -LEE).  I never take away without giving so much more in return." 

I have struggle today to get my mind around this.  Who could do this but God?  It is so huge I can hardly comprehend why this Great and Awesome God of the universe would allow me to be part of such a amazing story. 

The more I follow Him and learn His ways, the more I fall in love with Him.  He promises that He has wonderful plans to prosper us and not to harm us, and His promises are true.  Even when we suffer loss.  God does restore us, He gives us beauty for ashes, gladness for mourning, peace for despair. 

My hope is that God will use this amazing story to draw others to Him.  He is trustworthy, and He loves us with an everlasting love.  If you don't know this Great God who is my Heavenly Father, I want you to know Him.  He is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I love Him with all my heart.