Wednesday, November 27, 2013

The Unthankful Years, Part 4, (The finale, but surely not the end!)

One day 22 years after my oldest grandson was adopted as a baby, I came into work and turned on my computer. There was a single email that caught my eye. It said, “Hello, my name is Michael and I think you’re my grandma.”

I can’t tell you how hard my heart was beating or my head spinning when I clicked to open that email. Could it be? Was this my grandson whom I hadn’t seen since he was three days old? The answer was a resounding YES!

Michael had thought about contacting us when he was 16 years old but had decided to wait. He was now married and in the armed forces serving overseas. In his words:
I wish to let both my birth parents know who I am so they can have some closure, and know that I am safe, and was raised in an amazing family....and I would like to know my lineage and where I come from, this has plagued my mind since I was first told I was adopted.
At this point I was crying so hard, trying to breathe and regain my composure but after waiting for 22 years it was definitely hard. My employees were watching me through my office door window and wondering what was going on!

Michael was searching. We were searching. But God knew where he was all the time. Those years of praying so hard were coming to an end. Unfortunately, if he had contacted us when he was 16 he would have met his grandfather, but that was not God’s plan. Michael would have to learn of him through us, a new part of his family.

Since that time we have had a reunion of sorts. My son and his wife, Michael and his wife, his entire family, and I all came together to talk about what had happened all those years ago. It was more than a reunion, it was a healing.

My first glimpse of Michael was astonishment. He was built just like his dad. Thick and strong and powerful. He was musical like his father. He played and sang us some songs on his guitar and harmonica. Two instruments his father plays! Other than my marriage and the birth of my children, it was one of the most amazing days of my life! My only regret was that my husband was not there to share it with me…or was he?

God’s hand was in every day we prayed through those 22 years. God knew our hearts and heard our pleading. I remember memorizing Romans 8:18 during those years and wondering when that verse would come into play in my life. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” Now I know.

Thank you, LORD, for hearing, for waiting, for rewarding. May I never be ungrateful or unthankful for another day of my life. Each one is in Your mighty hand and I am in Your heart.

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