As I was driving back from the pharmacy (after picking up a new bottle of Reuben's "rescue" med since we had just used up his last bottle this afternoon) I was thinking about a number of ways that God has been providing for us as we prepare for Andrea to go get our girls and bring them home.
Last Wednesday I was with Krassi and Reuben at the YMCA while Krassi was having his pool therapy. Reuben and I were hanging out near Krassi and his PT, Lori, talking about plans for the girls and getting them home and we were talking about how we were going to be trying to figure out how to custom fit a car seat that Tsvetomira can be in during take-off and landing procedures. Adam has a seat he will be bringing and Andrea has ordered some memory foam and the two of them were planning to just cut and piece to try to get the best fit they can once Tsvetomira and the car seat are in the same location.
As we are discussing that, Lori with a mix of excitedness and sadness tells me that she has some positioning foam that she can give us that is specifically intended for doing exactly what Andrea and Adam will be trying to do. Lori was excited because this will be much better than the memory foam alone and she has it and she can just give it to us to use. The sadness is because the reason she has the foam is that a person that she had been treating for close to 20 years passed away and this person's mother gave the foam to Lori and told her to find someone who could use it. You could tell it was a bittersweet moment. It has also been neat to see how excited Lori has been getting about potentially getting to work with Bogomila and maybe Tsvetomira and help them to new levels.
As long as we are on the topic of people from the Therapy center, last week while Andrea was out with Gloria at her 1 year doctor appointment, I got a call from Reuben's OT (Kelsey) saying that she and Reuben's old PT (Brian) wanted to set up a Pajama Drive at the therapy center to be able to send some PJ's with Andrea to Tsvetomira's orphanage. As of Friday (after only two days) they already had 15 pairs. It will be fun to see how many they have by this Thursday when the PJ drive is done. If you have been following this blog for a few years, you will recognize these names from when we were getting ready to bring Krassi home and both of them helped us as we were working on the addition to our house.
Late last week we also got another substantial financial gift from someone who had already donated, but knew that God had been telling them to give more, so they did. Amazing!
Then on Saturday one of our neighbors called to tell me that he was going to be coming over to pick up his daughter, who had been playing at our house, and to drop of some PJ's and something else for us. Before I get too much further on this story, I need to also fill you in on some of the emails we have had with Toni (our Bulgarian attorney). We have been trying to make sure we have plans in case we need to take Tsvetomira somewhere for emergency care while Andrea is still in Bulgaria. We have a plan figured out and part of that plan requires us to have funds to pay the hospital if we end up needing to go that route.
In Bulgaria, medical care is free to all citizens of the country. The catch is that since Tsvetomira's birth certificate has been re-issued with changes related to the adoption, she (as well as any other adopted child) is no longer in the database and therefore can not get free care after the adoption proceedings have taken place. So, that means we would need to pay cash for her care. Based on Toni's estimate of cost for a worst case scenario stay, we has figured the amount we would need in cash.
When our neighbor arrives, he gives us a bag of PJ's and then an envelope that is something their family wanted to share with ours. You guessed it, it is the exact amount (in cash) that Andrea and I had been discussing!
I know Andrea has commented about this before, but if anyone out there is reading this and they are considering adoption and feel that God has called them to it, but they don't see how the finances can work, be encouraged. If God is calling you to adopt and you are obedient to that call, He will provide you with what you need.
Lastly, but by no means least, we have been getting volunteer support from our church and neighborhood friends who are making themselves available to bring food or take kids to therapy appointments or stay with our other kids so Andrea can take Reuben and Krassi to therapy if we end up taking Tsvetomira to the hospital and I am staying there with her.
I guess that was the last part about provision! Now onto timing.
Sunday morning before church, Leah said she did not feel well and that she did not want to eat breakfast and just wanted to stay home, so we let her stay home. Andrea said she did not feel well, but she would go to church anyway because if she stayed home she would end up keeping Gloria and/or Krassi home with her and it would not end up being restful anyways, so she would rather be at church. She made it OK, but as soon as we got home, she spend the rest of the day in bed trying not to move. Leah was fine the whole time we were gone, but ended up throwing up a couple times this afternoon.
I am glad I am going to have Carolyn here next week to help me as when I was trying to do everything today on my own without Andrea or Leah's help, it was a little crazy, especially at meal times!
By bed time, Leah and Andrea were feeling a bit better, but Gloria was running a fever and Reuben also seemed feverish. For Reuben, he might be sick or he might just still be off from his runs of seizures the last two days. Either way, something is moving in our house. Then as I am up laying kids down, I hear Andrea whisper up the steps that my Mom threw up in her bathroom and that I needed to come help clean that up. That is a step in the right direction...last time my Mom was ill, it was all over her bedroom on the wood floors. I much prefer the bathroom tile floors for cleaning up.
So what does this have to do with timing? I think it has everything to do with timing. Andrea and Leah are the first two to get sick, which means they stand the best chance of being better in time to leave on Thursday. It would also be much nicer to have whatever this is get in and out of our house before Andrea and Leah leave and Carolyn and I are trying to keep things in order around here.
So in the midst of a crazy day, where it would be tempting to ask "why now?", I am instead able to say "Thank you". Thank you for timing everything exactly according to your plan and not mine and thank you for providing everything that we need.
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