The Black Purse

We are in the middle of a 30 day waiting period regarding legal protocol for Wesley's adoption. It is something that is required in many states these days but it sure is nerve racking! I thought that the 30 days started when Wes turned 6 months old on August 16 but actually it didn't begin until August 30. So for two weeks I was anxious for no reason and then I found out that the anxious period has to draw out even longer!!!! ARgggh! Wesley is such a precious gift and a sweet little guy. I can't imagine not having him. When we found out the time period was two weeks off what we had thought and that we had to wait that much longer, Eric and I were pretty crushed.

It seems like this spring and summer have dealt us some difficult blows and this added to the list. We've been desperate for godly fellowship in this time but it seems to be alluding us. We so miss the continuous wellspring of spiritual encouragement in Norman! So we've found a church that we really like though it is quite a distance further than we'd prefer. We were so pumped about getting involved in a small group from the church starting up next week very near our house. However, true to all the other little and large disappointments these last several months, yesterday we've found out that they have had too many people sign up for the groups. Now, this is not a bad thing at all! It is amazing that they had 475 slots and 600 people signed up! (this church is only 2 years old!) However, they had to give the slots to the people who had been going the longest. That would not be us. :( There is another option for us but it just delays that much longer what we've so much been longing for. So, we were even more crushed last night.

I don't mean to have a pity party. Per usual, God has really been so gracious to us in this time. He's been teaching me so much about myself and about Him. Eric and I have drawn even closer to each other. It seems God is just clearing away more weeds in our lives.

So where does the title, "The Black Purse" fit into all this? Well, just after we found out we had to wait longer for the 30 days to be up Eric said, "Remember the black purse." He didn't need to say anything else. Here's the story:

We had three days left in Lebanon in 2008. We were at the end of ourselves completely - not much left in our reserve. However, we had been given the opportunity to go back down south to visit the people we had come to love so much over the past 8 months. And then we visited a very poor area on the coast as a means to be a light to the community. It was a great time but nonetheless we were still exhausted, emotionally spent and ready to return to the US. We took a bus back from the southern coastal town to Beirut with our bags and other paraphernalia in tow, stopping to change busses half way through the journey. After traveling for probably almost two hours, I realized that I didn't have my tiny black purse. With all the other bags we were carrying, the black purse was forgotten. Forget the money and credit cards it contained - more importantly it contained my passport!!!! I could not leave the country without it. We had plane tickets and were virtually packed and we couldn't leave the country!

We made several different phone calls trying to figure out if we could find the purse. When those came up a dead end, we called the embassy to try to figure out what to do. It seemed that the process could take up to two weeks! Oh brother! I totally melted. I took a shower and cried and cried and cried.

However, when I got out of the shower I heard Eric trying desperately to speak Arabic with a guy named Mohammad. Turns out, when we changed busses, someone had found my purse when they got on the bus. They gave it to the driver who in turn gave it to the bus station office. In my purse, they found a doctor's bill that had the doctor's phone number on it. They called the doctor's office to get my phone number. The doctor's office gave them my number and so they called us!!! Would that ever happen in America? The people who found the passport realized that it would be pretty important for me to have my passport and wanted to get it to me! Amazing! All along we thought it would be found and confiscated for some back ally plot or something crazy like that - this is where your mind goes when you are absolutely out of everything in your heart, soul and body and you've been living in a politically tense country! This shows what most Lebanese people are really like even in a pretty radical city that is not too fond of America.

The next day one of our friends who could speak very good Arabic was heading to the city where we had changed busses and retrieved the black purse for us. Hurray! Everything in the purse was in tact along with the passport and the doctor's bill, which I have kept for memories. (There's more tied up in that bill than just getting the passport back). However, the black purse was quickly retired when we returned to the US. It rests in my closet. I can't seem to throw it away. Eric will not ever let me buy a purse so small ever again. I guess I have to agree with him.

The Black Purse was a lesson in trusting completely in the will of God when we have absolutely no control over a situation. God could have chosen not to let us retrieve the passport but I am positive there would have been a good story with that outcome as well. So now, whenever we find ourselves in a situation that we can't control, all it takes is a mention of the black purse to bring us to our senses about God's hand on our life and that we are in His hands. He's trustworthy regardless of the situation, regardless of the outcome.