In August, I had dropped my twenty year old son off at the airport so he could fly halfway around the world to South Korea. Jordan and I were departing ways when I turned to leave and took one last glance to see the back of his Cliff Lee Phillies shirt causing me to blink the tears away .
It seemed strange I felt this way because I was glad that he had the opportunity to study abroad. So, for months it eluded me till about a week ago it dawned on me, like a delayed epiphany. My life has been detoured.
Detour #1: Redirect
To bring you up to speed, I must take you back twelve years. It was 1999, a time when it seemed that I had it all together. I had a job as a limo driver, was in line to one day own the business, had two kids was happily married and planned ultimately to be alone with my wife when the kids moved out. Then something happened, God detoured us.The two kids I did mention in the above paragraph are now currently out of the house. Yet my wife and I are not alone as our nine year old lives with us and are seeking to expand our family yet again through the adoption of an eight year old.
Often detours take you places you would never go on your own, scary at times, but full of adventure. Our life is not what we had planned; it is much more daring than I would have ever conjured up. My family and I are doing things we never imagined we would or could for that matter. Sometimes God just takes our plans and shreds them into tiny pieces, then he redirects us somewhere different, yet better.
Detour #2: Let Go
Bear with me for a moment as I give you a little background on my son and I. Have you ever been in a no win situation. Many years ago, I was faced with a situation when I had to choose between my eldest son and my daughter who was two years younger. They both needed me desperately at the same precise moment, but I could only be at one place at a time. It seemed terribly unfair to me and in some ways I blamed God. So, for a few years, I carried that weight around, among other things, until I realized some things just happen, no one needs to be blamed. Good comes with the bad, that’s just life, again like a detour you have to go with it or you never recover. Learn from the pain and let it go.
Once, Jordan told me when he was playing high school baseball that I did not need to come because he knew I would be there with him in spirit. God knows what He is doing and even though I can’t always be with my son or any of my kids all the time, He is. And that is enough for me. God has been amazingly wonderful to me and I never deserved one second of it, so my past failures I choose to leave behind me.
Detour #3: Look Forward
I used to take life as it came, but my latest detour has been to adopt God’s way of thinking and look forward and plan ahead. Our adoption has been proceeding along slowly but surely. Since everything has become definite on the adoption, we have chosen a name for our newest daughter. Her Chinese name has “Li” in it pronounced Lee (like on the back of my son’s shirt) and since everyone in our immediate family has the letter “a” in their name we thought it was only fitting she have an “a” too. So we’ve chosen Lia.
My wife and I have quite the eclectic family. We have a son born to us who is residing in Korea, a daughter whose address is Heaven, a daughter who was born in China who is living with us, and a daughter, who is residing in China, who we must wait for till she becomes ours. Yet in all of this craziness, God is blessing us.
Just the other day I realized how blessed I truly am. At one time in my life, I almost lost my entire family and now I am seeking to expand it. From this vantage God looks more than fair. I guess it depends on how you are looking at life or the season of life you are in at the time. I am learning to look forward and adopt God’s way of doing things because He knows better than I do. What I find terribly ironic is what God has for us is much better than what my feeble mind could conceive. What I saw as a detour God saw as opportunity to direct me to his path.
“Don’t think you’re on the right road, just because it’s a well beaten path.” ~ Unknown
Swavel
Adoption Update: We have received our approval of our I800A which is from United States Immigration and Citizenship Services. It took 74 days to receive the approval notice. Now all our paperwork being sent to Harrisburg for state seals and then onto the Chinese Consulate in NY for authentication. This step will take about three weeks. So we wait again....
