Under each bottle cap is a quote. Here is what I found today.

Every once in a while something happens that I have been praying about and I say, “Wow, I CANNOT believe it.” And Dave says, “Why not?” He is right, of course. Why am I so incredibly surprised when God miraculously works things out???

Last week I experienced a miracle and yet again, I was surprised.

I believe in miracles. If I didn’t before Carmen, I would now. God has provided for Carmen in so many miraculous ways. But, I still struggle with faith and trust.

God must have a LOT of patience with me.

***

I stayed home with Carmen today and watched our church service on the computer. Pastor Dale talked about having a heritage of miracles in your family.

Not too long ago, Lauren and I were in Buy Buy Baby. I have no idea what we were there to buy. Lauren was wearing a pink princess bracelet that my friend, Karen, had given her. We finished our shopping and went to the car. As Lauren climbed into her car seat, she said, “Mom! My bracelet is gone!” We looked around but didn’t see it so I decided that we better retrace our steps. By now, I think you all know that Lauren LOVES all things princess so this was a big deal to her and the tears were pouring down her face. Right there in the car, we prayed that we would be able to find the bracelet. We walked back into Buy Buy Baby, walked up to the customer service desk, and asked if someone had turned in a princess bracelet. The customer service rep handed the bracelet to Lauren. As soon as we got back to the car, we thanked God for having someone turn the bracelet in and that Lauren got her bracelet back.

More recently, Lauren and I were shopping for shirts to wear in a photo shoot. We were trying to match our shirts to Carmen’s red Guatemalan dress so I had Carmen’s dress in a bag with us. We first went to Target and then Kohl’s. As we were standing in line at Kohl’s, I realized that I did not have the bag with Carmen’s dress. I felt sick as this was the dress that we bought for Carmen when we visited her in Guatemala and the dress she wore in her first photo shoot with Rashmi. So, I told Lauren that we needed to pray as I had lost Carmen’s dress. We looked around Kohl’s but didn’t see the dress so we walked back to Target. All the way to Target, we prayed that God would lead us directly to the dress. We went back to the ladies dressing rooms and searched through each room. Imagine our joy when we found the dress in one of the dressing rooms, right where I had left it! Again, we thanked God for protecting the dress for us and making sure we got it back for Carmen.

I hope that both of these incidents are etched on Lauren’s heart and that she knows that God cares.

Here is a picture of Carmen in the red dress. Rashmi took this picture August 2007.

Carmen’s adoption process cost roughly $28,000. When we started the adoption process in January 2006, we did not have $28,000 sitting around. We had purchased a home recently and spent everything we had on a down payment. So, there we were, starting an expensive international adoption with no apparent way to pay for it. I remember feeling stressed about the whole situation and thinking that we were dumb as dirt to jump into this. But, we felt God’s leading so we forged ahead.

We talked about getting a loan or doing some fund raising to pay for the adoption. We started feeling that we shouldn’t do either but should simply wait on God because He had something else in mind.

And, wow, did He ever!

In March 2006, Dave (who was contracting at the time) was unexpectedly paid for some extra work he had done previously. His contract stated that he would be paid for 40 hrs/week but he actually worked a LOT more during the previous months. $12,000. Later in the year, after Dave transitioned from contracting to a full-time position with the same company, Dave asked someone in his HR department if the company offered adoption benefits. It didn’t. However, the HR representative did mention that they were thinking about adding that benefit in 2007, which would at least be nice for the next adoption. Wouldn’t you know it, his company did implement adoption benefits beginning in 2007 but…decided to make the benefits retroactive to the fourth quarter of 2006 so that we would receive the benefit for Carmen’s adoption, which was finalized in December 2006. $5,000. Finally, since Carmen’s adoption was finalized before the end of the year, we were able to immediately file for the adoption tax credit for both the IRS and Maryland in February 2007. $11,000.

$12,000 + 5,000 + 11,000 = $28,000

Sometimes I think God likes to show off. He could have provided half the money and we would have found a way to pay the rest. Or He could have provided more than we needed. But, no, He provided exactly what we needed.

Whenever I start having thoughts that we sure could use that $28,000, I remind myself that it was never our money to begin with. God specifically provided it for a little girl named Carmen. And I think He provided it to give us yet one more proof that He took care of us then, is taking care of us now and will continue taking care of us into the future.

At the time, our agency had a 12 week wait for the referral of a healthy infant girl. Our best guess was that we would receive the referral for a baby girl in October.

Less than a month later, we received THE phone call on July 27th. We were presented with a one week old baby girl. 8 lbs. 8 oz., 21.25 inches long. I remember our adoption coordinator saying that this baby was as healthy as they come. We were shocked and ecstatic because we thought we had months to wait for a referral. I asked our coordinator why there was such a short wait and she said, “We must have caught up on our waiting list.”

That evening, I sent an email to our adoption agency’s yahoo group, a group set up for adopting families to ask questions and receive support from each other. I was excited to announce our new baby girl. A short time later, I got an angry email from another family waiting for a referral. This family knew they were ahead of us on the waiting list and were irate that we had received a referral before them.

I called our agency back to ask why we had been presented with this baby girl when others were ahead of us on the waiting list. Our adoption coordinator said she couldn’t believe what had happened. She had accidentally entered our dossier completion date incorrectly, which bumped us way up the waiting list. She said that in all her years as an adoption coordinator, she had never made this mistake. Once she figured out — after presenting Carmen to us — she and others at the agency discussed what to do and decided that God must really want this child for this family.

The day we found out that Carmen had Tay Sachs, I flashed back to this discussion. I am very thankful that God made it so very clear that He wanted Carmen in our family. In the darkest of times, I have clung to that assurance.

Dave and I accepted one-week-old Carmen’s referral on August 1st (our anniversary). From reading every word I could find on the Guatemalan adoption process, we fully expected a rather lengthy ride before Carmen could come home. The most unpredictable part of the process was PGN, the Guatemalan court system. Once you were “in”, you never knew how long you might have before being signed “out”. There did not seem to be any rhyme or reason to who got out when and certainly no first-in, first-out rule.

From August to December, Carmen’s case moved through the various processes including the biological mother interview and DNA testing. We decided to travel to Guatemala and meet Carmen in early December. We had not been notified that we were even “in” PGN yet so we fully expected that we would have months more of waiting before Carmen could come home.

Dave, Lauren and I flew to Guatemala December 8, 2006. Meeting Carmen for the first time was an amazing experience and one that we will always cherish. We had a wonderful, wonderful time in Guatemala.

Despite how much we enjoyed our trip to Guatemala, I couldn’t stop thinking that we might not bring Carmen home for months, even years. Every adopting family we talked to had been in PGN for months. We met several families in Guatemala whose cases had been in PGN for years. Dave and I prayed that Carmen would come home soon.

We flew home December 13, 2006. When we arrived home late that night, I decided to check my email quickly before going to bed. I sat in the basement and could not believe my eyes. The first email I saw was from our adoption agency saying we were OUT of PGN! The day we said goodbye to Carmen in Guatemala, her case was signed off and she was legally ours. Not only were we in PGN, but we were OUT! Carmen’s case stayed in PGN 9 short days.

I ran upstairs, yelling to Dave that Carmen was ours. He had the biggest smile on his face. He told me that on the flight home, he was praying when suddenly a warm and bright ray of light landed on the side of his face. He looked out the plane window and noticed that it was the only ray of sunshine that made it through the thick clouds in the sky. He felt total peace that Carmen would be home soon. I got a little mad that he hadn’t shared that with me earlier!

I still get chills thinking about that day. Apparently, our agency tried to contact us in Guatemala but we were already on the plane. They were just as amazed and excited as we were.

Less than a month after first meeting Carmen, we flew back to Guatemala and brought sweet 5 month old Carmen home. God knew that this precious little girl needed to come home quickly. He gave us several months of enjoying and loving Carmen before the Tay Sachs’ symptoms started progressing.

First meeting Carmen in the Guatemala City Marriott baby room, December 8, 2006

A few days ago, Sarah wrote that she had received a phone call from Hill-Rom that the Vest machine for Amelia would be delivered soon. What she said next is something that we have also experienced in our journey with Carmen.

“Amelia’s pulmonologist told me a few months ago when I requested the Vest that my insurance would not approve both the Cough Assist and Vest. I told him that I’ve had more answered prayer in the last year than I’ve had in my entire life and to just order it. Apparently faith isn’t a criteria for ordering medical equipment. Then again when Amelia was in the hospital he said it would get denied, and we’d have to appeal it. I don’t know why these medical people don’t get it. Our children are angels, and they will be provided for.”

After reading this, I started thinking about all the miracles we have experienced with Carmen. Some of them we have shared, others not. So, stay tuned for the miracles in Carmen’s life!