After going to Ecuador in 2002 I pretty much just got into the routine of life. That is until on a camping trip one September with my small group, one person was joking about the kids seeming to be digging a hole to China. That is when Allyson said "speaking of China". She proceeded to tell about being led to adopt a little boy from China. Watching them go through everything that that entailed got me thinking about the call in my heart again. I wish I could begin to tell you about the Robbins journey in finding their little boy in China, but you'll just have to trust me that it is a God written all over it story (it is a story you'd need to hear from them).
In late October of 2005 my heart really was stirring with all of my old thoughts again. I recalled looking into teaching overseas a couple of years earlier, but still always thought I needed to get out of debt first and that God would bring me a partner to go with. But I prayed and made the request to God, I said I would give Him until I was 38 and if I was still single then I would go. Looking back now I am sure that God had a good laugh with that one. However, I NEVER told anyone this at first.
I ended up house sitting for the Robbins while they went to China to meet and bring home Jack. Through out all of November I was dealing with some other disappointments in my life and really praying about what God would have me do about the stirring in my heart. I spent a lot of time thinking over the past and all of the growth that had taken place in my life. I really recalled The Momentus Breakthrough Training (www.accd.org) I went through back in April of 1999 and how during one exercise I remember so many saying they felt I was on a journey but looking for the road map. I think I once again felt like that.
I continued to pray even after the Robbins returned home from China. I felt good about knowing that I had a plan. I would teach where I was at another year and wait and see if God would bring my husband into my life and then I would finally go and do something.
Then in the beginning of December I got a chance to talk to a friend who had told me that God had been moving on his heart and that he had felt a call to go to Thailand for years and was finally going to go. I know I was crying as we talked, I mentioned to him that I had had a similar calling myself (and boy did I know God was bringing it all back to my heart at that moment). It was amazing to hear about David's 6 week trip and all that God had done. It is funny writing about it now, because I took the step in placing my resume with ACSI about five days after his return.
Between hearing about his journey and going through the process of my friends adopting, plus every time I went to their house and saw that little boy- I felt soooo ready to do something.
Then the week of February 13-17,2006, happened. It was a long rough week. I think I was late to everything and so many things went wrong. I spent a lot of the week praying, crying, feeling unsure, and just questioning so many things. This was a week that I am pretty sure I cried out to God about sending at least once a day if not more. Then on February 17, all I wanted to do was to get to work for staff devotions and have the women I work with pray for me. I walked into the door right as they were saying amen. I lost it, but they did come and encircle me and pray. After walking out I was talking to the high school teacher. Some how everything about being single and wanting to really do something for God, well to really be used by Him, came up. She asked why I just didn't do it. I had told her that I had felt God saying wait!!! Somehow though by talking to her I really questioned whether the wait I thought I had always heard was God's or mine out of fear. My heart stirred and my mind was on a roller coaster the rest of the day. After school is when it really all came full circle. I had a student who needed to stay after to finish something. His dad came up to the room to wait for him and began asking me questions. He asked where I lived, if I was married, had a family, etc.... Then he said "you know you should think about going overseas to another country to work. You could make so much more money and the experience would be great". This man had NO IDEA what had been going on in my life since October (actually Saturday, October 22,2005, to be exact- and some of you know why that was so significant a day in my life).
During my drive home that night I decided I needed to just inquire and start seeing about the possibility for after I turned 38 (for any of you reading this who don't know my age, you should probably know that I will be turning 37 at the end of May this year, 2006). My heart had always wanted to go back to the Ukraine after my mission trip there, but I had also wanted to go to Thailand since the summer of 2002 when I was a camp counselor. So I went to ACSI's website, www.acsi.org and just started looking around, before I knew it I was applying to a job directly in Bangkok, Thailand. I then figured I could post my resume on the site. I thought if the wait was really coming from God then He would close all doors, but if it was from me He would still move and His plan would prevail (Proverbs 19:21, Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purposes that prevail). I had figured I could take the step and that God was still the one in control, sure I could make anything I wanted happened since I knew there was a need for teachers but I wanted God's will for my life first and foremost.
So that night I posted my information and found out that it would go out to all the schools on March 1, so I just prayed and waited. I did get an email from the school I directly applied to in Bangkok and they had already hired the positions they were looking for for the 2006-2007 school year but would keep me in mind for the following year(which was ok because it was when I really was wanting to go anyways). I think I will stop here for tonight and finish with the most incredible part of what God has been doing over the past two months with this journey for later this week.
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