Full Circle

         Two years ago at Darla’s, (Cory’s mom), house I saw a Christmas card that changed my life. Usually I know everyone in her cards, so when I saw this one and asked about it Darla told me about Aaron and Charity Clayton and their story of adoption of their son Sam from Kazakhstan. She told me about their blog, and when I read it, it struck a cord in my heart and I never forgot it or Sam’s little face.

Last summer I found myself at Super Summer (leadership youth camp). I was praying, and asking God to just let me know how I could follow him better. Through a few different methods, he showed me that I needed to go on the mission trip they were offering the next summer, and that I needed to quit my job as a nurse and become a teacher. I am not the sort of person who does irrational crazy things like that, so I told God that I would take one application to one place to be a teacher, and if he opened that door I would walk through it. So I made a resume and drove it to Hardin High School, simply because it was the closest to my house. Two weeks later, after getting certified, I was hired. I became a teacher, and then signed up for the mission trip that they had talked about at Super Summer as well.

Ever since Cory and I first got married we had talked about adopting. And since I saw Sam’s picture and subsequently read his parent’s blog, we knew it was something we wanted to do. At the beginning of this year we changed in an idea for something more tangible, as we started contacting adoption agencies. Cut to now, and we are neck deep in this whole adoption, just waiting on pictures and medical information to show up any day now.

I spent the last two weeks in Paris, France on that mission trip that God called me to go on. The day before I left I was in a little town close to Dallas, at base camp to prepare us for the trip. One of the speakers was Aaron Clayton, the father of Sam, whom had turned our hearts to adoption. When we broke for lunch I saw Sam running around the cafeteria. He was older now, but I knew it was him as soon as I saw him. I watched him for a while and then saw him run up to his mom. I finally got myself together and went over to her and told her everything I could, about how Sam’s picture and blog had inspired Cory and I to adopt, and now we were in this pursuit for Jonah and how much their story had inspired me. She was so nice and so informative. She told me that today was Sam’s birthday. “How old are you Sam?” I asked he smiled and said “4”.

I called Cory and told him how everything had come full circle. To me it seemed that everything from the moment that I had first seen Sam’s picture two years ago at Darla’s house had led up to that moment, from quitting my job to becoming a teacher to going on this mission trip. I was so thankful that for a moment in this crazy process of adoption that God allowed me to see some of the puzzle pieces as they fit together. Even though he didn’t owe it to me, he let me see how a few steps of obedience had put me exactly where I needed to be, and yet the strength I had to be obedient hadn’t even come from me but from him. Thank you God, for adoption of me, just as I was, sinful and wretched.