Wade Saves the Day!

If you've ever had the chance to get to know my husband or myself, I don't think it takes very long to realize that we are a marriage of two different personalities. One of us is very logical in their thinking, able to pick apart scientific questions and come up with correct answers, the other drawing a very pretty picture of something in nature and not giving a second thought to answering that same question. It's very handy for raising kids that need to finish their homework, because one of us helps tackle the science and common core math questions, while the other is the go-to for every poster board project, diorama, and writing edit.

But....our differing personalities can also cause some friction. While Mike only needs to know a general sense of whether he's travelling North or South in order to get where he's going, and doesn't mind a wrong turn or two, I MUST have well-written, orderly instructions that must be followed to the letter. The second we deviate from said instruction, my heart starts to race, panic sets in, every inevitable outcome of our wandering, in my mind, looks something like this:

A bit dramatic, I know.  

So, when we said "yes" to bringing home our 5 ticos, it is surprising that we did it not really having a plan of action. A dear friend of mine said just this week, "When you sat in my living room and, cool as a cucumber, said 'we're going to try and adopt these 5 kids,' I thought, she's bringing home 5 kids." Because this detour from the norm, this outrageous adventure, the fact that I volunteered for it is nothing short of amazing. 

And it's been the best place for God to work. 

It was decided on the day we gave our "yes," that we needed to pick one of two options: buy a house that had an additional bedroom, or take the house we had and find a way to create another bedroom. If redoing paperwork, a home study, and trying to raise funds to bring home 5 children didn't sound like enough to do, packing up a house, selling it and moving didn't sound like something I wanted to tackle anytime soon. Then again, taking one of our existing bedrooms and splitting it into two or building a new bedroom made my head hurt just thinking about it. 

What would we do?

Well the answer is, not much. 

At least not on our own.

This is where our dear friend Wade swooped in to save the day. Wade is the type of guy that I'm fairly sure could fix just about anything, and he isn't much for sitting around and talking when you could be getting it done. He isn't your out in front, center-stage super star basking in the attention, he just serves where there's a need doing more than you probably will ever know about. So when my husband went to his men's group and shared our situation, Wade said, "I'll take care of it." And Mike started giving possible solutions to our space problem, but Wade just said, "I'll take care of it." 

And that's exactly what he did.

He gathered friends and contacted professionals he knew, and the garage we had back in September:

Turned into not just a bedroom - but a bedroom, bathroom, and play room:

(I promise, this really was once our garage. Amazing, right?)

I just needed one bedroom, and would have been happy with just four walls, a floor and ceiling, but Wade said we had enough space for more than that. I would have been happy with just a bathroom that gave us another toilet, but Wade said we could have a full bath. I happily handed over the control, took on the job of running to Lowe's when needed, and let him work. (which I think he was truly thankful for because I tend to talk all the time, and I'm not exactly handy on a construction site) 

He gave up days off and vacation time to show up, gathering people to frame up our addition, pulling in his son, Logan, to install the electrical work, and reliable professionals to take care of the plumbing and AC. 

I would have settled for the bare minimum, and I feel like I've been gifted with a mansion. 

I didn't begin to have a clue where to start on the map in order to reach the finish line, and ordinarily that would have sent me into a tail spin. I'll even admit, when Christmas came and went and we still weren't finished, I had doubts, but God already knew we'd be just fine. 

This week we received our inspection certificate and moved our 16-year-old out to his new room. I've been busy painting the rooms for the rest of the kiddos, and walking from one end of my house to the other, seeing all the beds in waiting for four girls and one little boy to come home, looking at the bookshelf housing our small collection of Spanish children's books and board games, and it's starting to feel like home. 

Our home.  

So, if you know our friend Wade and see him out and about, he probably won't want the extra attention, but you send him a friendly smile and tell him, 'good job.' I've no doubt God will be happy to tell him, "Well done, good and faithful servant" when his time comes. I know our home is forever changed by his willingness to serve, and we could all learn something from that.. 

To update: All of our dossier paperwork is in Costa Rica and has been translated and submitted to PANI. We are waiting for them to approve us as a family and then to "officially" match us with our kiddos. If things continue to move along, we could be travelling this summer. It both feels right upon us and forever away. If you could pray that all would go smoothly with the paperwork processing, we'd be much appreciative.

Blessings - C