Unexpected Call

Every now and then no matter how much planning a person can do, ultimately God reminds us who is in control.

We spent the week buying last minute items and packing our suitcases and coordinating with our respective co-workers regarding our various projects so they can help out during our trip.

On Friday May 20 we sat in the nursery and filmed a short message for Little Baby Forrester saying we can’t wait to meet him on our May 23 Gotcha Day.  

Everything was ready finally and we were en route to Claudia’s parents’ house for the night because they were going to take us to the airport early Saturday morning. Then we received the call.

I’ll say up front that it could have been much worse. But Nichole, our social worker from Children’s Hope International, called at 6:27 p.m.

“Is Brian with you? I need to speak with both of you,” she asked.

“We’re almost home. We can call you back,” Claudia responded.

“Well I’ll go ahead and tell you that I have bad news,” Nichole said.

She went on to say our contact in Bogota, Lucia, had called her late in the afternoon. Little Baby Forrester has bronchitis and was being taken to the doctor. As a result, ICBF (the Colombian institute that oversees adoptions) was recommending we reschedule our flight for a week to allow our son time to get better. In effect, our Gotcha Day for the 23^rd was going to be pushed back and Nichole didn’t have a definite idea when we would meet him.

Our hearts sank. We took a deep breath. God is in control and operates on his own schedule.

The good news is Little Baby Forrester is being taken care of by his wonderful foster mother and doctors. We pray he has a speedy recovery.

It’s difficult to know your child is sick and there is nothing you can do to help him. We would love to visit him, but unfortunately that’s not an option. It hurts that our meeting is being delayed.

Still, we told Nichole that we were going to go to Bogota as scheduled and hope for the best. With us already in the city, hopefully that will help the Gotcha Day be sooner rather than later.

We’re writing this at the Houston Airport waiting for our Bogota flight. We were supposed to be filled with excitement about meeting our son in two days. Now, we console each other and give each other hugs and kisses hoping to see Little Baby Forrester as soon as possible. The date and time is in God’s hands.