What brought us here...

On Monday we headed into Cleveland to have our fingerprints taken for USCIS (immigration). We should get our approval in a couple of weeks in the mail, and then after authenticating the approval in Columbus and the Chinese Consulate in New York, our dossier is ready to be sent to China! I have never been more excited to pay the government $900 (and I’m sure I never will be again)!

It was exactly a year to the day on Monday (August 10th) since our family packed up our lives and moved from Virginia to Ohio. I can’t help be reflect on the miracles that have brought us here. They were absolutely, no coincidence about it, God interventions. Here is a little glimpse at what God has done in the past year to get us ready for His plan!

Miracle #1: After applying for a couple of art teaching jobs in Ohio, Dan was finally called for an interview in mid-June, after we had given up all hope of any job opportunity for the year. We found out later that they pulled Dan’s resume out of a stack of more than 200 applications. Of course, Dan is a GREAT art teacher. But, there is nothing on his resume, short of divine intervention, that would make an out-of-state art teacher with absolutely no connections to the school be one of 10 candidates (out of more than 200!) selected for an interview.

Miracle #2: After three interviews (traveling 500 miles for each one), Dan was offered his teaching job, with four weeks until the beginning of the school year!

Miracle #3: After Dan accepted his new position, we got our house ready and on the market in Virginia in three hectic days. Our house sold within 12 hours!

Miracle #4: A week and a half before moving day, the sale of our house fell through. Although this brought many tears and pleading prayers, this was absolutely a miracle.  It turns out our best friends had prayed and decided that if our sale fell through, it was a sign from God that they should buy our home. God completed amazed us all, and one day later, we sold our home to our best friends. The day we moved out and they moved in, they found a post card they thought we left for them. It was a postcard from them in Korea that they sent to us when we purchased the house four years earlier, congratulating us and promising to visit soon. The amazing thing? We did not leave that postcard for them. But we know who did and that His plan was perfect. After they called us on the road to thank us for the postcard, we were all speechless and in awe of our amazing God.

Miracle #5: Living in Ohio with the support of our family, along with more financial stability with Dan’s new job led us to God’s plan in our lives: expanding our family through adoption.

My all-time favorite song is “In Christ Alone”. My favorite verse in the song says,

No guilt in life, no fear in death--
This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home--
Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand.

From life’s first breath, God has had a plan for each of us. Isn’t that amazing? No power can ever take us away from Jesus. Nobody can tarnish His plan for us. From the beginning of time, God has known you, loved you, and made plans for you. I am so thankful for that; I am so thankful that His plan for me included being a mom to my two precious little boys and my precious little girl that I haven’t met yet. But, God knows her, and I am so blessed to be a part of His plan for her life!

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