Super Sleuth

Every once in a while my boss calls me Columbo. Sometimes he calls me Nancy Drew or Sherlocke. Once even Matlock. I think he does it to make fun of me, but I take it as a compliment. Most of you probably know this, but I am a personal injury paralegal. Sometimes we get in cases with a lot of missing information, sometimes cases with medical mysteries, some with mysterious witnesses, or missing reports/news stories/911 calls- that sorta thing. Most people would probably find this annoying and move on to "bigger fish to fry" but I JUST...CAN'T....LET...IT...GO...... It haunts me. We live in a World of never ending information. I will dig and dig and dig until I reach China. And then I'll dig my way back. I just HATE to be beaten!

Anyway- with a little digging yesterday I was in touch with two families that adopted from CWA and are "Pskov" families just like us! And yes I found #1 (to our #2) It was so wonderful to talk to them (when I say talk I mean e-mail, I mean who "talks" anymore?) and share our stories. We shared words or encouragement and compared notes. It is always nice to hear that children are being brought home from any country, including ours, wonderful to see that our agency is bringing home children from all over the World, it's even more reassuring to me to see that children are coming home from Russia, but imagine my delight to know that children are coming home from PSKOV! And through CWA! I was encouraged and uplifted. It reminded me to have a bit more of a global perspective, not just to pray for Baby Deetz, but for families that have been waiting longer and are so eager for news. Hopefully, in turn, someone will remember to pray for Baby Deetz too, someone who has never met Chad and I, but shares a common bond.

One thing adoption does is broadens your sense of community. When we share with people about our plans to adopt, 9 times out of 10 they say "My cousin....." or "I have a family in my church that adopted twins...." Then our new "nuclear" family, the ones that have walked this road and fought this fight. We hear some stories and think "I hope that doesn't happen to us!" (Like the family that was stuck in Moscow for 26 days because their home study wasn't worded properly) and some stories that are our hearts desire (the story of the little Russian boy that was adopted that is so full of "joy" and has adjusted perfectly to life with his forever family.) I know that you can't believe everything you hear will happen to you (the family that was registered in their region for 3 days and received a referral) but it gives you hope that sometimes things work in your favor, that for every step back sometimes you leap three ahead. But one common thread binds us all together, that despite this roller coaster, God's grace is always sufficient. And THAT doesn't take a super sleuth to figure out.