16.00

Yesterday, I was grumbling at the 16.00 I paid to park 10 miles away from Shedd's Aquarium. Grumbling mainly because we would only be there for an hour and a half. (Thanks to all the construction on I90 and in the city, and GPS that didn't quite realize that Lake Shore Drive was indeed, a key road in getting there.)

Truthfully, I didn't even want to go. The thought of taking 4 kids in there myself was a little unnerving. (Craig was on his way home from Germany) Last time we went into Chicago for some medical appts for Evan, we went to the aquarium and got a membership. We knew it would pay off, and it has. :)

Grumbling the entire trip in, and then even more so when I had to fork over the 16 bucks to park....then the what seemed like a 4 mile hike to get into the aquarium...I was already...well, crabby.

As the kids were on the ledge of a floor to ceiling display of the amazon river and all it's fishies, I noticed a lady chuckling as she watched Evan.

Evan is more or less "old hat" in our family. Seems like he's been here forever, and we just don't notice that he looks different from the other kids. Must be an adoption thing, I guess? So, this lady was watching the boys peering into the display and watching some polka dotted stingray looking fish glide around. She asked me if I had adopted Evan. I said yes. She then started asking some more adoption related questions and mentioned she was 48 and was interested, but thought she was too old. Funny that she mentioned her age...she didn't look like she could be past 35.

Then, I knew exactly why the Lord had me in that spot, at that time. It was for her. It was for them. For the little one who could very well be somewhere out there who is meant to be her child. She was mostly interested in China. I could tell that this was something more than just a passing thought. She was extremely interested. She said that she and her husband married late in their 30's and never had children, but wanted them. I gave her information on New Day as well as our agency. We talked briefly about sn adoptions as well.

This meeting was not by chance. I live 90 miles away, she lived in Michigan, I had just a short time there, and was trying to keep track of three very excited kids in a crowd. God allowed us to meet up and worked the whole conversation around.

As I walked away, I chided myself and bad attitude. I had momentarily lost sight of the big picture in life. Gee, 16.00 for parking or the mega-chance that a child will go home to a mom and a dad? I'll gladly pay that parking fee!

The kids were awesome, and my fears, though valid...were squashed. :)