Packing for
a trip to a country literally on the other side of the world, to pick up 2 new
children to add to our family was bewildering to say the least. The exact climate
was a bit unclear. I did not have a firm grasp on what was actually going to
unfold during those 7 days and on and on the list goes. How do you plan for
something like this? It was just another step in the trust walk of this
adoption process. To keep tract of the list of unknowns and uncertainties over
the last 2 years leading up to this trip was too great of a task. But somehow,
the details continued to fall in to place and encouraging us that God was in
fact working everything out.
I just did
the best I could, stuffing the suitcase with jeans, shorts and Capri pants.
What the heck, variety never hurt anyone, right? I also put in the necessary
items to bring our children home; we were instructed to bring clothes for them
as well. Anything they were currently wearing belonged to the transitional home
called “Layla House” and was to be left there for other children to use. That
was fair. Layla House needed that stuff more than we did. Similar to the
variety-pack I stockpiled in the suit case for myself, we had collected a
variety of sizes for these 2 children that were legally “ours” (per the Ethiopian
courts) but we had never met.
After longs
hours of travel, settling in to the hotel and receiving our children on a bit
of a rushed occasion, we were invited to come back the next morning to Layla
House for a more in depth tour and a time of hanging out. We got ready in the
cool of the Ethiopian morning. I picked out a comfortable pair of jean Capri pants
and a red shirt saying “Inspi-(red)” on it. I don’t know where I acquired it
from, probably Goodwill. Red isn't my favorite color against my pasty white
skin but the concept that "The Gap" had designed the shirt to help fight against
Aids was reason enough to wear it. [Although, the fact that I bought it second
hand sort of eludes me from actually being a real part of the cause. But who’s
keeping tract.] Our taxi took us to Layla House.
As we
unloaded and entered through the door cut in the 10 foot wall surrounding the
property I bumped in to one of the few American workers we had met the first
day. She was a very outspoken and charismatic person from New Jersey that had a
tremendous heart for the mission of this program. We had connected immediately
and I knew she was the kind of person I would never forget. She had literally just
arrived at work when we saw each other; we both stopped dead in our tracks. How
is it possible, someone I had just met, that took up residency on the other
side of the globe showed up that morning wearing the exact same shirt? She didn’t
just own the same shirt as me... she
was wearing it on the same day!
____________________________________________________
God is a God
of details. He doesn’t have to
put specific color or flair to anything we go through but He delights in doing
so. The Bible says He knows the number of hairs on top of our heads. That is
not an exciting detail to most people. But it is to God. He knows everything
about us. He knows how to remind us and specifically point every situation we
go through back to Him. He is there in it!
He chose to add a special detail of
our trip to Ethiopia through that red shirt as a landmark that HE WAS THERE. It
was a crazy whirlwind of a trip and even after almost 4 years that have gone by
I still cling to the tiny detail of this shirt almost more than anything. I was
exhausted from the traveling. I was overwhelmed with the newness of my 2 adopted
children. I was unclear how to act and what to do as a new mom. God provided a
detail in the heap of doubt and insecurity to breathe a needed sense of life
and peace. “I am here with you!”
God is a God of details, specific
details designed uniquely for me, designed uniquely for you, designed uniquely for
each one of us. May we have eyes to see those details lovingly given from God, who is always
with us!
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