"I believe God had you move to Cincinnati for this adoption." Those were the words from our home study caseworker last Friday as we completed our interview. Our move here was crazy, obvious, obedience, random and somewhat miraculous. For those of you that don't know, I thought I should tell you our story of moving to Cincinnati since it's becoming clear that it is a part of our adoption story. Andy and I had talked and prayed about looking for a job with more work-life balance. He started to look casually near our Chicagoland/Northwestern Indiana home and every door was shut. He was turned down from jobs he should have easily walked into. We went to Cincinnati for the first time for a home school conference that March since we were going to start homeschooling Emma the following year for Kindergarten. We enjoyed our time there and Andy joked we should move there it was so much fun. I gave him "the look" and told him that we just moved, there is no way we are moving again! We returned home and jumped back into normal life. Three days later Andy got a call for a job at the University of Cincinnati. They had found his information online and thought he would be a perfect fit. He hadn't applied and had never even heard of the school. Such a funny thought since it enrolls 40,000+! He wasn't interested and was about to tell them no, but we had this nagging feeling that it was too much of a coincidence. We went through a series of discussions and there were serious concerns. First, it was a six month contract to hire offer, meaning we would not have insurance for those six months. We had three kids, one of which was high medical needs at the time and on expensive prescription medicine she couldn't be without. There was no way we could leave a full time job with great insurance for such risk. We couldn't afford two homes while we waited for ours to sell. It was going to be difficult to pack with three again, especially without Andy's help in the evenings. I didn't have it in me to pack and care for the kids on my own again while Andy was away during the week. And the time frames they were talking about were head spinning. They wanted him in two weeks. There was no way we could find an apartment that quickly. And there was more... The phone call that we got three days after returning from Cincinnati? It was answered in the parking lot of the hospital as I was going in to have a biopsy on a tumor that was found in need of being removed. As all these discussions were happening in the span of two weeks, I was still waiting on news as to whether my tumor was cancerous or not and wouldn't be fully determined until surgery. My surgery was scheduled a few weeks after we had to give our answer, so we had to decide to accept the offer and move not knowing whether or not I was cancer free. And odds were against me as I come from a family that has been battered with cancer. So that 6 months of no insurance...that was a big deal. We had EVERY reason to say no and we did. There were several email and phone calls that ended with Andy saying we couldn't accept the offer for a specific reason. Then we would receive clarification or another offer and the door would open. We had a constant, obvious feeling that we needed to do this, it even felt like disobedience not to go. What should have been fear turned to peace and promises. An offer was made that gave a temporary housing allowance so we could afford an apartment for Andy while the house sold, but only for 3 months. Would the house sell fast enough? We accepted the offer after the Lord continued to make it very clear we should. Andy found an apartment in a few days even though there weren't many available. Our house sold in two weeks. My tumor showed no cancer. No one got sick or injured in the 6 months of no insurance. Emma's medicine? The automatic mail order company accidentally shipped a 3 month supply to our old address and it got lost in the mail. A new one was sent and a month later the old one showed up at our door so we had a six month supply for her. It felt like such an answer. Andy's job was great. We were excited to find so much homeschooling and larger family support here. We met many international adoptive families. But it always felt like they was more purpose than what we knew.
In August 2016, we were given the opportunity to interview for worship pastor at a church plant in Florida. It would have been working alongside our friends who we consider to be mentors and really look up to. We have dreamed about not only ministry work, but specifically helping these friends as we wanted an opportunity to work alongside them and learn from them. We had many reasons to say yes but it was so very clear that it was not what the Lord had planned and we had peace about staying in Cincinnati.
As we began learning more about adoption, we found that Cincinnati was the mecca of adoption resources. Andy and I began to realize that our adoption was part of why we were brought here. It was the missing nagging feeling that there was more to the story of why God went to so much work and detail to bring us here and to keep us here. It was so confirming to hear from a professional that she knew we were brought here for our adoption. Now we are trusting for the same detail and confirmation again as He makes a way for these children to come home.
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