Already reflecting on how Good God is!

This morning I woke up praying for D & M, and was just amazed, comforted, and blown away with how good God has been on the journey - and how much he cares about two little children 5000 miles away. When they can read, D and M will get to read their blog - want to be able to share indelibly with my children how very much they are loved by me, my family, my friends, and by God. They'll hear it many gazillion times before they can read, but here it is for posterity:

1. In October I was driving to a project site in Tennessee from home, and had just crossed the Mississippi border when I got a call from Kayla ( my sister who I talk to multiple times a day generally). She was telling me about a little boy with down syndrome who was in an institution and needed to have a home, but she didn't know that she was telling me about it - she thought she was telling a local friend. The timing overwhelms me because if this had happened two or three months earlier, it would've had vastly different results - I got a new knee last August, and prior to that, there's no way the call would have had any impact on my mind or heart - I could not have adopted children as I had trouble just walking. But, this time, I knew it wasn't an accident right away that she started calling and I began praying about adopting this little boy the entire drive to Tennessee and beyond. It took me two months to say "yes", but I did. That little boy was not available for adoption, but I knew that none of this was an accident by that time and began seeking out other directions.
2. When I started realizing that my "yes" on adoption was going to take me overseas, I immediately started praying that my mother would get a passport (noticed I didn't even pray she'd go). My mother defines the word "mother" in the dictionary, and there could be no one I'd rather go with me when I actually bring the children home (was even still thinking a single child at this point). I did not even say anything to anyone about this prayer because it was such a far fetched thing to even dream for her to go with me. She's not flown since 9/11 because she is not a big fan of the invasion of privacy thing that flying is these days - hasn't even gone to Hawaii w/my dad who's been wanting to go. My sisters laughed a little about how there's no way she'd go. Yet, I prayed quietly she'd get a passport. In April she called one evening to tell me that she was not saying she'd go, but that if I'd help her get her passport picture she was going to get a passport. I was blown away with how God had answered my specific prayer - her getting the passport. My prayer changed to that she'd go, and she's definitely planning on accompanying me on the last trip when the children will come to their new home. I defnitely praise God for this one!
3. Once I'd decided that Russia was the place to adopt and it would take more money than I had saved outside of retirement (and being a Dave Ramsey listener not believing in borrowing money), I started praying that God would not send me the referrals until I had the money saved. I diligently put feet to getting the money in the account, but when I got a certified letter asking if I wanted the nearly $20K that I thought would not be available until 2011 and wouldn't be very much anyway, I knew that was a God thing - that God was providing to meet a need. When I got the call about D and M four days later, I KNEW that God provides to meet needs - He was calling me to be the mother of these particular two children. I'm not sure why those children, but I kne and KNOW it is them. Answering my prayer so uniquely about the money in such an unexpected way was such a bonus in taking on this new endeavor. He could've waited until I got some more checks, lived on less than I made, and had the money and that would've been good. God provided very quickly, sent the children, and screamed loudly with the anwer that He's going to provide for every need no matter what it is - emotionally, physically, whatever. How much more blessed can I be?

People ask regularly if I'm nervous. I'm not nervous about this, I'm excited to be a part of what clearly God has orchestrated for the last nine months already (and even further back if you count the new knee which HAD to happen first). We'll encounter some things along the way, but we'll get through them.