Connecting dots

It's been so long since I have updated or even written about our adoptions. Our life is an adventure for sure! Our days are full, and our hearts are too. We are blessed, in the valley and on the mountain. Through it all, we continue to see God work miracles in our lives. He is so, so Good! I wanted to share just one way He continues to connect the dots in our lives. He amazes me.

Sara has been asking a lot of questions about Ecuador lately and expressing a desire to go back and visit the orphanage she called home for 5 years as well as to try to locate her birth mom. She has also talked consistently about two little girls who were like sisters to her, adopted at the same time as she was. We would love to take her back some day, a few years from now. I know locating information connected to an international adoption can take months and sometimes longer, so I decided to email the agency I thought did her adoption. I explained the situation and asked for copies of Sara's files or, at the least, a contact for somebody who spoke English at the orphanage she lived in. I received a reply two days later..."I'm sorry. We are no longer in Ecuador and cannot help you." I decided that maybe this wasn't going to happen, at least not right now.

Fast forward about 6 weeks. James and I were at Great Wolf Lodge, and I had a very vivid dream that we adopted an albino baby boy from Tanzania. It was all kinds of strange for many reasons. I don't typically remember my dreams, and if I do, it is hard for me to recall much of it. I had never heard of Tanzania or adoption from Tanzania. I told James about it and googled "Tanzania" on our way home from Texas. Many articles came up about how people from Tanzania that have albinism are sought after and kidnapped then killed, or people hack their limps off and sell them. It is believed that body parts or full bodies of people with albinism bring good luck and wealth when mixed into a potion. I was horrified.

That night, I shared with a friend, while on a double date, about my crazy dream and findings on Tanzania. She told me to follow a specific page on facebook because this woman was in the process of adopting an albino child from Tanzania and could probably answer my questions. I contacted her a couple of days later asking her which agency she used and to share anything she could about the process. She shared with me, and I then contacted the agency. I simply said that I had a dream about adopting from Tanzania and had no idea what it entails but that I feel like God gave me the dream for a reason. I shared that we had adopted two children and that one was from Arkansas and one was originally from Ecuador. I got an email back shortly with much information and then at the bottom a small little side note..."I have adopted 5 children from Ecuador."

This began an email chain of me asking to know more about her adoptions from Ecuador and explaining more about our adoption with Sara. In the email, I stated the name of Sara's orphanage as well as the two little girls she would like to reconnect with.

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS GOOD!

I got an email back that said "We do adoptions at Hagar Maria Bordoni, and I handled Shidela's (one of the girls) adoption. I can connect you to her family."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! AND IT GETS BETTER...

I received a phone call the next morning from Jaci at the adoption agency, which was the same person I had been emailing back and forth with.  She had connected with Shidela's family and was confused about some things. After asking me several question, she explained to me that SHE ALSO HANDLED SARA'S ADOPTION! She has Sara's entire file and is going to send me any photos inside as well as provide information for birth parents if available. She is also going to help us reconnect with the orphanage when we are ready to take that step.

I can't explain this, friends. This is all God. His ways are so far above anything I can comprehend! I am in awe. I mean that, in complete awe of the way he intricately weaves our lives together, of the way he provides answers when there are none, of the way he connects the dots that I could never connect.

Through a dream about adopting an albino child from Tanzania, He led me to the exact woman who facilitated both Sara's and her friend's adoption, 6 year after the adoptions took place. God still speaks in many different ways. He just spoke to me through a dream. He knew exactly what would pull at my heart string...He knew I would look into adoption.

HE KNOWS MY HEART. and He knows Sara's heart too. He is good! soooo good!