Our LifeGroup has been reading The Land Between by Jeff Manion. I'm learning a ton and I highly recommend the book, even if I can't say it's a pleasant book because of the fact that we have been wandering The Land Between ever since August 6, 2010.
On that day, Jay was at the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek with a friend of ours, also adopting from Nepal at the time. Jeff Manion had just given his message at the Summit about the Land Between, the difficult places in our lives. Immediately following that session, the men turned their phones back on and received the news that the US Department of State had shut down all adoptions from Nepal. Thus began our Land Between. And we've been wandering ever since.
Our hardships in the land between have been tremendous, but the book does discuss God's blessings along the way. There have been plenty! Not only have many of you come through to help us financially (thank you again!) but at those exact moments when we think we can't go on, or when we question what the heck we are doing, God provides. Some would call it mere coincidence and in the past, I would have totally agreed with you! But after reading Choosing to See by MaryBeth Chapman and now The Land Between by Manion, I am convinced that these instances have not been mere circumstance, but blessings from God. Just like God provided warm bread to Elijah in 1 Kings, God has provided us with various blessings.
You've read about my ladybug story (and there have been more in this past week while we're waiting for our addendum to be completed) and last week you read my penny story. Now let me tell you another one. Let's go back to the end of 2011.
The weekend of November 15 was awful for me. The housing situation was just eating me alive! A house in boxes, ready to go, living out of suitcases, an adoption hitting every roadblock imaginable and taking twice as long as it should, enough was enough. Thanksgiving was right around the corner and I found it hard to be thankful for anything given our situation. I was angry and sad.
I walked into a friend's house one night that weekend and there were stuffed animal tigers everywhere. And I mean everywhere - on the stairs, in the hall, posters on the wall in one of their boy's rooms - almost a dozen at least. We hadn't shared our daughter's name and meaning with a soul at that point, so this definitely caught my eye. God was certainly trying to get my attention. "Let Me worry about the house. Be thankful for your Quiet Tiger in China. Be thankful for the daughter I have designed for you." He had my attention and I was listening.
Once our LOA arrived and we slowly started to prepare for Hu Jing's arrival, I'd love to hit the clearance racks at Target for girl clothes. I walked in couple of months ago with my youngest boy and we decided to swing through the dollar aisle first, something I normally do yet hadn't done in months and months. Just when I thought there was nothing there we needed, no little girly toys I could take to China for my daughter, I spied a stuffed animal tiger that sat alone on the empty bottom shelf. No other stuffed animals of any variety were to be seen in any of the dollar bins. I looked. I checked. Just this one. I picked it up and hugged it with joy, like a toddler girl myself and placed it in my red shopping cart. I love my tiger!
And I'll tell you something, that one solitary tiger on an empty store shelf was not the only random, solitary tiger placed at random times. I went back a few weeks later and my youngest begged to look through the toy aisles at the back of the store. On our walk through the aisles browsing at toys for my boy's birthday wish list, there again on an empty toy shelf in Target was a lone tiger. This time it was the hard plastic type with a fierce, growling face. I didn't make the purchase but it caught my eye and I said a quick prayer for my Quiet Tiger and the rest of the process to get her home.
Want another story? Leaving the office one day, after talking adoption details with my husband and signing and scanning and copying more adoption paperwork, I found myself driving behind a large SUV with the license plate "TIGER" (followed by 2 other letters that I don't recall).
There have been others too at Walmart, the grocery store, in TV commercials that have nothing to do with animals of any sort. Tigers are everywhere!
God's blessings are everywhere in The Land Between. We only need to look for them.
There have been others too at Walmart, the grocery store, in TV commercials that have nothing to do with animals of any sort. Tigers are everywhere!
God's blessings are everywhere in The Land Between. We only need to look for them.
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