GOTCHA, BABY!

"...and she called his name Samuel, for she said, 'I have asked for him from the LORD.'"  1 Samuel 1:20b

About three and half years ago, a wonderful woman named Debbie sent me this picture.


  It is of a tentative young man, who seems unsure of what is going on.  And why not?  He had been born, whisked across an ocean to Seoul, poked and prodded by doctors and nurses in a nursery for 4 weeks and then given to a mother other than the one he was born to.  And little did he know.....THAT woman was not his forever mom either!

Three months after I received this picture, I was wandering around Seoul, South Korea with my husband.  We were TRYING to tour a palace there.  But, our minds were severely preoccupied.  We knew that in three short hours, our son, Sam, would be placed in our arms forever and that the plan God made before the foundations of the earth would be full circle.  Those three hours were the hardest labor of my life!!

God worked miracles to bring Sam to us.  It was a crazy journey, with God constantly confirming that Sam was the son God was giving us.  Miracles like....

*We were supposed to be waiting 11 months for a referral and we got ours in 2.5 months!
*He had a medical condition that didn't even phase us because God had "blessed" one of our other children with the same condition years before so that we had no fear of it.
*Three other families passed him up!
*His birth father's last name is the same as ours!
*FREE tickets to Seoul!
*Room for us to stay at Eastern's guest house.
*Our whole process to bring Sam home took 7 months.....it "should" have taken at LEAST 14 months!!!
*He even has two cowlicks like several of my other kiddos!

God left nothing out!  Including bonding our hearts across the ocean before we even met.  How else could our son greet two people he never knew like this??




I prayed harder for Sam than any of my other children. That is why his name is Samuel....for this child I prayed and the LORD has granted me my petition that I made to Him.   I guess, I felt that there were more unknowns with him than my other kids.  Truth is, there are unknowns with every baby.  As my friend said, "none of them are born with halos".  There are no guarantees about what you are thinking.  There is only trust that God has led you here because He loves you and your child.   I can hardly remember that Sam hasn't been with us since the beginning.  In fact, I sometimes freak out because I cannot recall my labor and delivery with him!  (Well, I remember A labor and A delivery...but not from my own body).  He is a perfect fit.

Just as God planned.