Revolving Door

There's a familiar saying among the Christian community:  "When God closes one door, He opens another door."  I do believe that is true and I also believe that God guides us in His will by closing and opening doors as we pursue obedience to Him in prayer and His Word.

This morning My Man was woken up by a horrible Charlie Horse at 5:15 a.m.  Since it wasn't exactly a situation that encourages sleep when it was over and so close to the time the alarm would be ringing, he checked email.  The email that we have been waiting for since January finally came.  Our boys' visa was ready!!  What joy filled our hearts as we realized that it truly could be a reality that we leave to Africa the day after tomorrow.

Several hours later, just minutes before I picked up the phone to dial the travel agent and re-book our flight, we got a call.  A call from our agency to hold out.  It appears that there is a lull right now on the completion of adoptions.  She didn't want us traveling until things settled and folks were coming home unless we were able to stay indefinitely.

You might think I would have hung up and burst into tears.  It's happened many time in this process.  You might also think that despair and intense desperation would consume me all day.  That's happened multiple times too.  But it was strange.  I felt a peace.  Yes, we were highly disappointed, but there was a peace deep inside.  All I can say to explain it is that we have been plunging forward with a passion like a Mama Bear getting her cubs.  All the while as we plunge forward, we pray constantly for the Lord to guide us in each step.  When a door is shut, I know THE ONE who shut it.  I can praise God knowing that this is His hand guiding us.  With the roller coaster we've been on, especially the last 3 weeks about traveling, it's seemed more like a revolving door.  We hop in with excitement as the door is spinning in circles, all to find that we are back where we started and never got to the other side.

Some precious friends of ours gave us advise.  Pursue your children across the globe with all you've got, in constant prayer and guidance from the Lord.  He will direct you.  They know this to be true because they experienced huge frustrations finalizing their adoption from Haiti when flights were rearranged and schedules disrupted, all to see later that God spared them from traveling by airplane on 9-11-01.  The 9-11 that went down in the history books!

I know I keep quoting song lyrics on this blog, but it seems that when I'm in my van (which I am daily) God comforts and speaks His truths to me through songs on the radio.  One hour after my disappointing phone call, I heard these words that I've heard so often but that rang so true for today.

I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do

What you all probably want to know is WHEN do you get to travel.  Good question.  We have no idea if it's next week or at Christmas.  All we know is that we will be ready when we get the green light.  All papers are good to go.  Suitcases are almost completely packed.  And we are ready to get to the other side of the revolving door.