Our Crazy Week

I was just bending over to pick up the sweater that I was planning on wearing to school the next day. No big deal. That’s when the Poulterers' terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week began. I never made it to the sweater. The back pain was so severe I could hardly breathe. Luciana came in the room a few minutes later as I stood contemplating how I would be able to go to work the next day. She exclaimed, “You’ll need to get a sub.” After protesting for about three minutes, I explained to her that I would need to get a sub. Funny how the words coming from my mouth sounded so similar to hers, yet made so much sense when I spoke them. By Monday I was running down the hall of the high school to help break up a fight. I was completely healed. The next day Luciana called and told me I would have to come home and get Isabel on the bus. Luciana’s back had decided it was her turn. I came home to find her on her knees at the coffee table. Wednesday evening while guests were over I went to the basement and stepped in a puddle. Hmmm? Time for a new hot water heater I guess. After He emptied our savings account, and reminded us of how frail we really are, God was ready.

“We have two children.”

That’s what Luciana announced when she dropped off my lunch at school the next day. Sometimes I’m a little slow on the uptake. “Huh?” The meeting in which the Peruvian council would decide the fate of Cecilia and consequently the make up of our family wasn’t supposed to take place for a couple more weeks.

After one of those when-it-rains-it-pours weeks, God made us laugh... hard. We knew the timing didn’t make any sense. We actually wrote the letter requesting the adoption half-heartedly after three failed attempts with other children over the past couple of years (and a recent miscarriage a couple of months ago). “We might as well...” were literally the words that preceded the writing and sending of the letter. We began to pray, “Help us with our unbelief.”

He did.

“We have two children.”

mbp