Act of God

There have been 2 times in my life I have seen an act of God.  Two times when there is no other explanation except God intervening and rippling the effect.   Two times that have been imprinted on me and I will never forget.

The first one was in the early ’90s.  I was driving in my old Dodge Omni.  It was a white stick shift with very few extra’s but I loved that car.  My friend’s child was in the back seat in her car seat.  We were driving down a busy road and for some unknown reason my car stalled as I was driving.  It just stalled.  No reason.  It took all of 3 seconds to get it going.  It was very odd but we were on our way again.  We were coming to a busy intersection and my light was green.  Right before I was to enter the intersection a semi-truck ran a red light and passed right in front of me.  I got this feeling in my stomach that was somewhere between fear and being thankful.  My Omni would have been no match for the semi.  The car had never stalled like that before and it never stalled like that again.  Coincidence?  Perhaps.  That baby in the back seat is now married and has 2 beautiful girls.  Imagine how different our lives would have been if that truck had hit us?

The second time I saw intervention was when Husband and I were in the process of fostering Little Girl.  We were in a court hearing and the judge out of nowhere ordered unsupervised visits.  Where we were in the process this was unheard of.  Perhaps the judge was not familiar with the case.  Perhaps he wanted to give the parents one last shot.  Perhaps he ate something that did not agree with him and had an urgency to end the hearing quickly.  Who knows.  All I know is at that moment my stomach hit the floor.  We were ordered to send this little child whom we loved with all our hearts, into the lion’s den.  Alone.  There would be no supervision.  Would they take her and run?  Would they harm her?  There would be no safe adult for her to look to if she felt scared.  I was a mess!

I woke up the day of the visit with my stomach in knots…although I hardly slept.   I took her to school as normal and tried to go through the routine.  I open my work computer and see an email from our social worker.  It said these few words.  “Visit is not happening…I will email when I have more information.”  That’s it.  This obviously left more questions and sent my mind spinning.  I waited and watched my email.  What could have happened?

The next day I get an email explaining the situation.  The day before Little Girl’s visit, for no good reason, the biological mother’s Parole Officer made an unannounced visit.   He showed up at their door and discovered what we had assumed all along.  They were evidence of drug use for both biological parents as well as illegal activity.  This was the beginning of the end for them.

Let me insert this here.  I am very aware that the creation of our family meant a death for their family.  A day does not go by that I don’t think of both biological parents and the loss they must feel.  I do not take this lightly but this post is not about that.

A simple visit from a man who had a very busy schedule and happen to be in the right place at the right time changed the course of our lives forever.  Mine.  Husband.  Little Girl.  Her life would be very different if she went back to her biological parents.  A life of transition battling homelessness.  A life of poverty.  A life where she would be forced to grow up way too soon.   A life being raised in a home with drugs.  My husband and I are not rich but we make sacrifices so Little Girl can have activities such as piano, soccer, gymnastics, and cheer.  How different life for all of us would have been.

Again, coincidence?  Or the act of a loving God who had it all under control before we even knew what was going down.  I prefer the second option.   I know God works daily in our lives but it is rare that we get to see such a concrete intervention.  Twice.

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