Best of 2011: God Speaks Through Facebook

Original Run Date: January 7, 2011. This one gave me chills all over again. Definitely one of my favorite stories of the year.

The following events are true. I’m not making any of this up.

The day was Tuesday, January 4, 2011.

9:00 am

I drop off my 4-year-old daughter, Elliana, at her Mother’s Day Out program. As I am leaving, Linda, the director of Mother’s Day Out, stops me to share some exciting news: the day before, Linda received her “travel date.” That’s adoption-speak for that long-awaited call from the orphanage in Korea telling her that she may come and pick up her 7-year-old daughter.

For those who don’t understand the magnitude of this, the “travel-date” call is akin to your water breaking in pregnancy. You’re having regular contractions and you’re on the way to the hospital.  You’re in the home stretch, baby. It’s just a matter of time, and that child will be in your arms.

As you can imagine, Linda is beside herself with excitement. And I’m more than happy to join Linda in her excitement. You don’t much have to twist my arm to get me talking about adoption.

For the next 30 minutes, Linda and I chat and giggle about the arrival of her new daughter. Seeing the anticipation on her face brings a flood of sentiment to my heart, as I recall the day WE travelled to pick up OUR daughter.

Hey…wait a minute…it was exactly 3 years ago that day (January 4, 2008) when we flew to Guatemala and met our sweet girl for the first time!

Wow. What a cool coincidence.

10:15 am

In honor of this little anniversary, I post this as my Facebook status:

“Three years ago today, in the lobby of a hotel in Guatemala City, a beautiful woman handed me my daughter and our family was complete.”

Along with this picture:

11:33 am

I receive this message from a Facebook friend. This particular friend and I had exchanged lengthy e-mails a year or so ago, where she revealed that she and her husband were considering adopting a child. She had lots of questions. I had lots of answers. You don’t much have to twist my arm to get me talking about adoption.

Anyway, her message reads this:

I had some pretty scary health issues this year so I put the whole adoption thing begrudgingly to the side. Long story short I was being checked for cancer and didn’t want to bring another child into the fold if I was not going to be healthy. Looooong story shorter, my heart has been so consumed by the desire to adopt a precious child who needs so much love. My human nature seeks confirmation, over and over again sometimes. I kept praying for God to give me signs to know if it was the right thing for us. Yes my desire (and my husband’s too) is there, but is it the right thing?


My silly human self asked God for 3 specific signs.


1. The first was to show me a way to help us cover the adoption costs. While reading a book (Mary Beth Chapman’s) I discovered an organization I had never heard of that helps.


2. I asked God to show me if my children could handle the changes. My son directly asked me this weekend if we could adopt a child who needs a good home…preferably a boy because he could relate to him more…but a girl would do, none the less.


3. Third I asked God to show me somewhere, somehow, the face of a mother meeting her new baby. Why I asked that, I am not sure. I guess I wanted to see if I could see it through her eyes.


In under one week ALL of my “signs” were given to me…the third being your picture you posted today. I am in awe of the loving grace of God.

I sent her 3 more pictures of my “face” that day, just to make sure she didn’t miss the sign.  And I told her to get busy with that paper work.  Looks like she’s adopting a baby.