And I get some treats.
But I know that being a human being with all of its challenges is such a
gift. It is wonderful to keep learning and growing and exploring. There is so
much to discover. We are on a journey. We are being led somewhere. We may
not know exactly where it is, but we need to trust that the Lord is there and
He is with us on every step of that journey. And sometimes you will get those
Stairway-to-Heaven moments like Jacob. I want to tell you about one of those
moments for myself.
We had two children and were thinking of adopting some more. So we
signed up with the Foster-to-Adopt program in Denver, Colorado. We worked
with them doing all the training for many months. Then after a while a couple
of opportunities came forward but they weren’t right for our family. It was
heartbreaking.
We finally decided to go with a private agency in a city north of us. Part of
that process was to consider names we would use if we adopted a child. One
day my wife came home with a name that she really liked. It was Malik. So we
talked about it. “Yeah, that is a really nice name for a boy.” And we went on
with our lives.
Then one day we got a phone call from the adoption agency. It was the
Friday of the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. They said, “There is this little
boy in Tupelo, Mississippi, that we want you to think about adopting. He was
born prematurely so he is still in the hospital. It will be a couple of weeks before
you can go gather him if things progress. We want you to think about it.”
So that is what we did that whole long weekend. We talked about it with
our family and with our children. We told the children: “There’s this little boy
who we have the possibility of adopting. We need to talk about it and think
about it.” My nine-year-old daughter said, “We are going to adopt him and his
name is going to be Malik.”
I said not so fast. But she was insistent. “Well, we ARE going to adopt him
and his name IS going to be Malik.”
We responded, “We might not be able to adopt him and he might already
have a name. That might not be the right name for him.”
She was quite certain, “We are going to adopt him and his name is going
to be Malik.” This went on during the whole weekend.
By Tuesday afternoon I had grown impatient, so I called the adoption
agency. They said, “Oh good, I am glad you called. There is a fax coming in
from the agency in Tupelo.” She started to read off the medical history of the
parents and more about the child. And then said, “Oh, what’s this? It looks like
a name. Yes. The birth mother named him. His name is Malik.”
It is one of th ose moments when you say, “Surely the Lord is in this place.
. . . How awesome is this place!” We were given a beautiful sign. And we did
adopt him.
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