Have I got a story for you.

There are many, many things I want in this life and I have been gifted with many, many of those wants.  Some things seem to be put on hold indefinitely only to then be wrapped up and delivered in a package too perfect to wonder if it's from God.   

I wanted to go to Haiti in February.  So badly.  It was with our friends, Kim and Keith and Heather and Seth and others I had met on a previous trip and others I hadn't met yet.  Last summer/fall when they were planning the Feb. 2015 trip, I decided to back out. It just didn't feel like a good time to go when we really felt like we would be in the adoption process sometime in 2015.  We could use the money for other things.  
I let it go.  Mostly.
Trusted that we would be going to this little country we love so much again soon.  Just not in February.  
I would have to wait longer to see these faces.

Or see this stunning landscape 

Then a chain of events followed that one could easily pass off as coincidence or unrelated, but I can't look at these pieces and not see God's hand and hear His voice saying, "Go. For others sake, for My sake, and for you."   
Link 1. The chain starts in Oct. when my grandma passed away.  Would Haiti have even been our radar without her?  I don't know, but I can't imagine it would have to the degree it is now.  If we are fortunate enough to adopt children from Haiti, it will be my greatest sorrow that she will never get to meet her Haitian grandchildren.  To see what she and my grandpa started in our family.  Soon after her funeral, my parents came to visit and brought some money from her and said we could use it for adoption expenses or whatever.  We set it aside with hope that it could be used sooner rather than later.  I secretly hoped I could use it for a ticket to go in February, but didn't say anything to Chad or anyone because I knew we would need it for adoption at some point and I didn't "NEED" to go.
Link 2. Turns out we needed it sooner, but not in the way we wanted. Our gym affiliation fees and insurance are due each year in Nov/Dec/Jan. Big expenses and with Christmas too, we ended up using that money from my grandma.  I knew we would be able to put it back in savings later, but I still silently felt like I was losing my only chance for the February trip.  
Link 3. December 15, I got an email from Kim out of the blue.  She was going through the team list for February. She knew it was late to get in on the team.  She knew money was tight.  She knew it would be tough to work out.  But she wrote anyway to say she was thinking about me and she really wanted this to work out for me. At the time, I knew it wasn't possible.  I told her I'd pray about it and talk to Chad, but it would be a miracle if it worked out.
Link 4. The week before Christmas we got our first ice/snow storm and it came on later in the evening on a Wednesday.  Autumn and Cory go to youth club at our church on Wednesdays in a town about 30 minutes away.  Chad went to get them that night.  On their way home, he slid on a bridge, hit a guardrail, did a 360 and hit the other guardrail.  Scary for everyone! Thankfully, no one was hurt badly.  The kids both had some whiplash and Chad hit his shoulder on the window pretty hard.  The truck was drivable, but pretty beat up.  He got it home and the next days we waited on an estimate and on whether our insurance would total it our not.  If they didn't, we'd have to pay the $1000 deductible.  If they totaled it, we just hoped they gave us enough to pay it off.
Link 5. We found out they were going to total the truck AND we would get more than we owed on it.  More than what a flight to Haiti costs. At this point, I hadn't told Chad that Kim had emailed. I hadn't told him how much I had been thinking about this trip in February.  I held those thoughts and prayers close.  I knew I didn't "need" to go. I knew that extra money was much needed other places.  I knew it didn't make sense.  But I also knew every chance I get to spend time with our "maybe forever" kids, was priceless.  I knew if I didn't go, our new church family wouldn't know about our Haiti love, or our desire to adopt.  I knew if I didn't go, I wouldn't get asked to speak to people about Haiti and the mission society and Josie and Thomas and all that they do.  
Link 6. So I asked Chad about it.  I might have begged a little.  I knew in his logical mind, this was not logical.  I knew in my illogical mind, that I didn't care if it was logical.  When I told him about the speaking opportunities I felt like I was losing, he agreed.  That made sense to him.  It's not that he didn't want me to go, he does. He knows the value of these trips having been twice himself.  He knows how I ache for this place.  He knows me. So, I started telling people I was going.
Link 7. My friend Alana who had wanted to go originally too, but had backed out as well for medical reasons, said well, maybe she COULD go after all.   She told her mom and her husband and they both encouraged her to go.  Her mom who is as kind as they come offered her flight miles.  She apparently accumulates them faster than she can use them.  She had enough for Alana's entire flight and I was able to save about $100 using them.  
Link 8. Random Friday in January and I get a text from my friend Cassie.  She was driving and just started thinking about the Haiti kids and how much she wanted to be able to go someday.  I hadn't told her we were going to Haiti in Feb, but said "How about going with us THIS time??"  A total miracle if she could raise the money for this trip when it was less than a month away.  Just a few short days later, it was a go.  She had enormous support from her family and friends and church AND Alana's mom donated more miles so Cassie's flight was only about half what it would have been.  
Link 9.  I email Josie and tell her I'm going to visit.  She emails back with a favor.  Amessaminthe has asthma.  We didn't know this. She has had to go to the hospital for an attack which is no small feat there.  A breathing machine is what Josie asked for and I don't have experience with asthma so I ask Jamie what that means.  A nebulizer is needed, but is no good without the drugs used with it. It's a shot in the dark because those are prescription meds here.  So I take to the great stage of Facebook and ask for a nebulizer.  I get them and then some.  My friend Kelsey hands me a neb and some meds a few days later.  Kim Slygh whom I met in Haiti two years ago, "happens" to be a respiratory nurse.  She is putting together a box of everything she can so that Minthe will have what she needs. This is our "maybe forever" daughter.  I can't be her mother yet and I don't know if I ever will be given that chance, but to be able to carry with me the things she needs to breath easier is the most amazing gift I could have at this point.  
These links, these pieces of a puzzle, all connect to make for a really beautiful story, am I right??
So, social media comes into play and we tell people we're going and what things we would like to take with us and we set up a fundraiser row-a-thon to offset some of the other expenses and people give.  E.V.E.R.Y.T.I.M.E this happens.  I am always amazed at the generosity that people display for a place they have no connection to except through us.  Haiti is all wrapped up and around my heart, but for all these other people who give, they give out of such a place of genuine kindness.  And it leaves me overwhelmed and humbled and often on the brink of tears.  

And so I'm going to Haiti in February.  And I get to have 2 friends go with me.  And I get to spend a night or two at House of Love and Hope with our "maybe forever" kids.  And I get to hand Josie equipment and medicine to offer some relief for Minthe.  
It's a chain of events that can't help but make me think that God hears my quiet prayers and my silent dreams and gives me my wants far beyond what I could imagine.