I could have missed her...

and I would have missed

 a divine appointment with Mary. 

Today started out like most, with me really not wanting to get out of the bed.  It makes no sense how I stay up late to think for myself without interruption, like some force outside myself is defying going to bed (the one place I need to be more than anything) and then when I finally get in there, I don't want to get out.  What a stupid cycle that I want to crush in my life.  Aaanyway, I had to get up early to get showered and ready before my oldest gets up for school at 630am.  That is EARLY for this homeschooling "anti-morning" momma.  The shower worked, in spite of the up 4 times til almost 2am with 2 different kids with phantom requests and one bed wetter, I was rejuvenated and ready to tackle the day and actually run some much needed errands. 

2 kids fed, 1 on the bus, and 1 driven to preschool, we (me and the oldest of the 3 at home) looked all over the house for the stupid Redbox case that was needed to take a movie back.  My husband says I'm the biggest sucker and I am. I got the extra movie cause they lured me in with "get another movie for only 50cents".  I go for the deal EVERY.TIME. (gift with purchase anyone?? don't get me started:)  This was seriously killing my errand time before having to pick up daughter from preschool.  I was finally like, forget it.  Got 3 blocks away from the house and hubbie finally answered his cell to say, "yea, someone left it bedside by his alarm clock."  Ayiyi, I later get a complete confession out of one of my peeps to include the complete fabrication they gave me as to where they HAD put the case.  All made up, knowing where the case really was.  Mmm.mmmm. We were reminded about the consequences of lying.

Redbox retrieved from house, neighbors hear the whir of my diesel again and again as I make loops around the 'hood.  Sounds like a school bus taking off...a really cool one, ha!

So, the 3 of us make it in and out of library, got a stack of books on Egypt for big brother's school report. check.  Movies dropped at Redbox. check.  Now to Lowe's to return a wallpaper book my mom picked up for me, and to order an install.  Yea, don't just go ripping down the loose "Funhouse" striped wallpaper in your master bathroom, thinking that making a mess of it will be just the forced motivation to "get the project done." Especially if you don't know that God is about to blow the gates wide open on your adoption journey and you ain't gonna be doing any remodel stuff. tee hee. (Note to self about 1 year ago)

I get the book returned and learned that no they don't have wallpaper contractors nor can they suggest someone locally.  My attitude shifts deep inside, yuckiness. "Kind of hard to sell wallpaper that way," I find myself saying out loud.  Not nice, not her fault, mandi.  I know better...and as I push the cart heavy with 3 younguns going "Mom what are we doing now??" I let go of the frustration.  Unlike other times when it lingers and I let it cause more casualties of joy stealing.  I breathe, I smile...kind of hard not to when you have a Jeff Gordon cart full of giggling kids. The cart is too full and one of the wheels is making a "poot" sound as Freddie says.  It sounds like a circular saw and they giggle..."ewww."

Lowe's is empty on a week morning, so the woman who asked if I was finding everything on the way in, now asks if we are ready to check out.  I share that they didn't have the installer I needed, as I umph the 3 younguns back out of their race car.  A greeter is at the door as we approach the electric doors, I'm reaching for hands before the parking lot, Nuluu is enamored with the auto door..and I hear a voice say, "Bye, have a nice day."

And there is it, a recognition in my mind, in my soul in fact... I hear Africa.  Like a thunderclap that makes you stop and take notice.  In a split second, I'm thinking about the clock, the next stop at Walmart, gotta go...and then there it is.  The compulsion of something much bigger than me, prodding me to open my mouth and ask, "Where is your accent from?"

The corner of her mouth turns up ever so slowly. I see the usual hesitation (can almost see her thinking, "like she's gonna know") and then she says, "Cameroon."  Yes, I heard Africa.  My heart skips a beat... I CAN NOT EXPLAIN THIS....I can only say it is like when you first fall in love.  I am in love with Africa.  Her people, they have my heart.  How does this happen?  I do not know.  It is God. 

Then  we share our details, my children are from Uganda, just on the other side of Democratic Republic of Congo from Cameroon.  Both central African countries.  She sounds like Damali!!! I tell her this, (find myself blurting it out, my heart oozing with love for those that I don't even realize how much I miss them until moments like this) and then I explain who Damali is.  That she is the director of the baby home where my children were cared for and that she is my friend.  I just want to sit and listen to her talk all day.  I learn that she has lived here for 4 years with her husband and 15 yo daughter.  And she wants to have more kids, adopt even.  There is a kindred joy and spirit between us.  We share our Jesus.  Then before I know it she is hugging the kids, I've invited her to dinner Friday night and I say as I write down my digits, "man I could've missed this divine appointment to meet you."  She said, I just came on at 1030.  I look at the clock it's 10:40...and I tell her that we are an hour later than scheduled because of something we misplaced.  She smiles that knowing smile.  Meeting Mary made.my.day. 

As I walk out to the van with my littles, something stirs deep inside of me...the same question looms...Lord what is this love I have for Uganda?  There He goes again placing people in my path.  Brief encounters that stir an unexplainable longing.  What is this relationship you are calling us to?

Flashback to June 2011 (Remembering the Miracles-Part I)

In faith......we believed.

05/27/11 - Our Ugandan attorney filed our case in court, to await the assignment of a court date by the court registrar. (ie placing us on a particular judge's calendar) This day is our precious adoptive daughter Nuluu's birthday.  God was encouraging my belief against all odd's, for a court date before the UG Judicial System break in July....

05/31/11- Sometime over Memorial Weekend, our USCIS approval arrived in the mail. We received a verbal approval over the phone the week before and told our UG attorney immediately so she could file our case. 

06/13/11- Felt an unbearable prompting to fast regarding our court date assignment. Feeling downright unworthy and guilty to even lay a request for a timeline kind of prayer before the Lord...I began a fast and intense time of prayer...with a holy passion to believe Him for what truly seemed impossible and down right too much to ask for.

06/15/11- Didn't want to be legalistic... I didn't know how long I was to fast...but some part of me felt like I was to continue until we heard an answer (that was kind of scary, faith rattling... I mean it was commonly a month+ or months before parents got word)

06/16/11 - I really believed I would hear something this Thursday morning. With each passing day, the chances of it happening before July 15th were slipping away. Other families had aleady been assigned days in August/September. Who was I to think we would get one?
UG is 8 hours ahead of us..and so if you didn't have an email in the morning...it usually wasn't happening. I was crushed when on day 3 of my fast there was no word (but declaring all along during this week, I didn't want it on MY time, didn't want it NOW if it wasn't what God has for us. I can only describe it as a force outside myself, (something greater than me) in a way like no other in my life, that would not let me let it go. This force would not let me give up and just reside myself to later.

On this evening, I cried out to God...questioning this hope - this faith, that the Holy Spirit was clearly growing in me, clearly prompting and stoking in me... I was questioning myself and I kept coming back to Abraham. I felt in such turmoil...even digressing in my raw moment with God to ask if He loved me? Was all this in His will? I just loved Him so and wanted this all to be in His timing.

On this evening, I felt I'd said it all. Proclaimed all my faith in God to do the impossible and laid all my hearts thoughts, dreams and requests at Jesus' feet. It was finished and I ate a late dinner.

06/17/11- On this Friday morning, I wasn't up all night praying as the night before. I wasn't checking email, like an insane person. I was asleep, sound asleep, resting in peace. And my husband's voice rang out in the quiet, "Mandi get UP! get UP!" "We have a date!" (those of you who know me, you know I'm not a morning person)

I sat up like a crazed person... I remember shouting "WHAT?! WHAT?! as I realized he was checking email on his phone. My eyes struggled to adjust to the phone screen in the dark as I read through tears, our faces smushed together, the following words:


"I was at the Court yesterday and your matter has been fixed for hearing on the 1st day of July, at 2:30pm; Thank you for your prayers!! Kindly make your travel arrangements in time, and we hope you can be in Uganda at least three days prior to your court date so that we can meet before court."

This is really happening.  God made a way.  God heard my prayers.  He wanted me to believe in FAITH...and for once I did.  I wept over the cry of my heart the night before, and felt like a spoiled child...crushed under the weight of the truth, YES he loves me....oh, how He alone loves me.  I selfishly asked for a sign, and this time, unlike so many other times before, I got confirmation as a mountain moved right before my eyes.  We were going to Uganda to begin the real journey of bringing home our two children.  Little did I know, that in FIVE days...yes you read that right, FIVE DAYS, I would be on a plane with my husband, bound for Entebbe. 

Now picture a CRAZY woman, like a child pinging off the walls on Christmas morning, crying, laughing, permanent smile glued on my face, more crying, spaced out crazy excited Momma...and you see what I looked like for the next 4 days.  

To be continued.....

Memorial Weekend, just 2 weeks before...I made a blind hair appointment with someone out-of-town.  On a whim I got all my hair chopped off.  I said, "I just feel like I'm going to Africa soon, and I'm about to have 5 kids. "

This is what our tribe looked like just 7 days before we got assigned a court date.

My little homeschool tribe asked me to bandage them....the goofy, the wounded.

I love these little munchins.



It's my Birthday....It's my Birthday!!

So come on, celebrate with me in a whole NEW way.

Let's give the best gift EVER...the gift of an education.

  I know, you're thinking (Debbie Downer) that's no fun....OH, but it is!!!  It's a gift that'll change lives FOREVER and we can only do it together.

All our lil' bits put together can do something HUGE!!!! 

Can you tell I'm pumped about this??  I only learned of it last night, and thought it would make the ultimate virtual party to celebrate life. 

This event...

 2nd Annual ONE DAY/ ONE LUNCH

 is on my Birthday!

It is the faith dream of a precious daughter of a fellow adoptive Mom and now full-time missionary.

(I've been reading this family's blog for over 2 years)

Here's an excerpt from the event's founder:

Last year on February 3rd, a group of us decided to do something about the poverty I had witnessed in Ethiopia while picking up my baby sister Havyn- so we launched the One Day/One Lunch project. You can read about it here:

Over $6,000 was raised for the Adami Tulu Preschool in Ethiopia, because people like YOU and people like ME decided to do something. We came together and chose to give up our lunch for just one day and donate what we would have spent on lunch that day to those in need instead. That small sacrifice made a huge difference in those many children's lives. I cannot thank you enough for that.

This year, I like to once again ask you to join me in making a difference in the life of a child. This year on the one year anniversary , February 3rd, I’d like to ask you to join me once again in going without lunch and give what you would have spent on lunch that one day to Eagles Nest International to be used for school scholarships. But I’d also like to ask you to take it a step further and challenge your friends, your family, your coworkers, your class mates and your entire school or entire church to join in.

Can you imagine what an impact we could make if God’s people came together and decided to sacrifice by giving up their lunch- for just one day? It’s something so simple we can all do.

You can read more about the inspiration for this event,

(created by Addisyn Block) and about the Block family's work in Guatemala, here.

All it takes...

ONE DAY

ONE LUNCH

Are you in?

Give your Lunch money HERE.

My BIRTHDAY GOAL is $1000!!!

Please share this on fb and email...

100 of us, $10..piece of cake :)

Oh, and if you join me please leave a comment below...I plan to do a birthday party "thank you gift" DRAWING.

To know if my peeps actually reach 1000, leave your amount (none too small) or email it to me mandij75@yahoo.com.

I'll post a video of me and my crazies doing a celebratory Birthday dance Johnson style...be afraid.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

THIS will be the best Birthday EVER!!!

Water for my Thirst

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young--a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God. Psalm 84:3

I had the priviledge of attending a retreat last weekend.  Not just any retreat, but one that only existed for the first time last spring.  Now in it's 2nd year, Created for Care, was designed for adoptive mothers....those called and curious and needing information, those in the midst of the weary and long process, and those home and in need of equipping, strengthening, refreshing, and the listening ear of someone who understands.  It was a complete mix of domestic and international adoptive families represented..but I was so blessed to eat dinner at a table of women who have all adopted from Uganda, like me, and I had only seen their names on facebook.  Now I have faces, voices and hearts that I can reach out to in our crazy high-tech world and feel a little less alone. 
 
I fell into the later category of adoptive mommas.  I was dry parched earth in need of help.  The skinny letters on this page can not begin to contain the gratitude I have for Andrea who said YES when the Lord placed this retreat on her heart.  I was able to worship with a room full of over 400 like-hearted women for 3 days. I was able to hear other Moms and adoption educators offer wisdom as only those who have "been there, done that" can.  I was refreshed and refueled once again to keep going, keep believing, keep loving.  Sometimes the weight of how this thang is going to turn out....weighs me down.  But this weekend I was reminded so lovingly by my Heavenly Father that, I am not RESPONSIBLE....for how they all turn out.  I am responsible to walk in obedience to God's calling on my life and follow Him one step at a time in sweet surrender...that's it.  That alone was worth the whole trip.
 
I encourage anyone "thinking" about adopting, to those home and in need of help like me to read more about Created for Care.  The response and need has been so great, they are doing a repeat in March and there are about 70  25 spots remaining.