Yesterday I got a letter in the mail from the passport office. I was so excited, my passport had already arrived! But it wasn't so, it was almost the opposite. They needed my naturalization certificate, what I had given them wasn't what was needed.
Where's the certificate?
What if I can't find it?
Oh no - I sent out all those support letters and now I may not be going!
A voice in my head said don't be anxious, it'll be okay. I calmed down a little and had an image in my mind of my baby book. I had looked for my baby book before, hoping it had my birth certificate in it (which I found elsewhere) but never found the book. I remembered that there was a photo on one of the pages with me kissing the judge when I went to be naturalized. Near the photo was a piece of paper. Could that be it?
I didn't have much time to look and had something going on in about 2 hours and still had to make dinner. This didn't look good.
I headed downstairs to the room where I found my certificate and rummaged through boxes. When I opened the last box that I hadn't gone through, I just knew it was going to be in there, and it was! There was my baby book. I almost started to cry, I was so amazed at how God had led me to find it so quickly (it was within about 15 minutes). And I had also unearthed some knitting magazines that I had forgotten about. What more could I need? I dug back into the box, curious to see what else was in there. I found a photo album that looked like it may be hubby's and brought that upstairs to put it in the right spot.
Sitting down at the kitchen table, I opened the baby book. The naturalization certificate was not in there. Oh no.
My hand went to the photo album that I had brought up as a second thought. Hey, this was one of my childhood photo albums! And wait, what is that, it's my naturalization certificate and even a letter from Jimmy Carter. I sat back and cried. I had been looking all this time for the wrong book, my baby book, that as it turned out, had no certificates that I needed. But in looking for the wrong book, I found the right papers.
The icing on the cake was when I was flipping through the baby book and saw a note from one of my mom's friends. It said some kind words about them adopting me and then a quote - "Only one life, twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last." The significance for me is that this is something that John Piper quoted in his book, Don't Waste Your Life. Our small group is going through that book and we met that night. The lesson was on risk.
I know going to India is a good risk, one that I'm supposed to take. And I also know that I'm really, really, supposed to go.
Where's the certificate?
What if I can't find it?
Oh no - I sent out all those support letters and now I may not be going!
A voice in my head said don't be anxious, it'll be okay. I calmed down a little and had an image in my mind of my baby book. I had looked for my baby book before, hoping it had my birth certificate in it (which I found elsewhere) but never found the book. I remembered that there was a photo on one of the pages with me kissing the judge when I went to be naturalized. Near the photo was a piece of paper. Could that be it?
I didn't have much time to look and had something going on in about 2 hours and still had to make dinner. This didn't look good.
I headed downstairs to the room where I found my certificate and rummaged through boxes. When I opened the last box that I hadn't gone through, I just knew it was going to be in there, and it was! There was my baby book. I almost started to cry, I was so amazed at how God had led me to find it so quickly (it was within about 15 minutes). And I had also unearthed some knitting magazines that I had forgotten about. What more could I need? I dug back into the box, curious to see what else was in there. I found a photo album that looked like it may be hubby's and brought that upstairs to put it in the right spot.
Sitting down at the kitchen table, I opened the baby book. The naturalization certificate was not in there. Oh no.
My hand went to the photo album that I had brought up as a second thought. Hey, this was one of my childhood photo albums! And wait, what is that, it's my naturalization certificate and even a letter from Jimmy Carter. I sat back and cried. I had been looking all this time for the wrong book, my baby book, that as it turned out, had no certificates that I needed. But in looking for the wrong book, I found the right papers.
The icing on the cake was when I was flipping through the baby book and saw a note from one of my mom's friends. It said some kind words about them adopting me and then a quote - "Only one life, twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last." The significance for me is that this is something that John Piper quoted in his book, Don't Waste Your Life. Our small group is going through that book and we met that night. The lesson was on risk.
I know going to India is a good risk, one that I'm supposed to take. And I also know that I'm really, really, supposed to go.
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