| For 20-something years, I'd been dating. I really wasn't
looking for a husband until I was around 35 or so, and then, I wished I had
started sooner with the pickiness. Dating for the fun of it had wasted a lot
of years. My friend Mary Ellen was getting close to 40, and she and her
husband had long since given up on trying to have a child of their own. They
were looking to privately adopt a child. This had been a long hard road for
them and they had gotten attached to several prospective children, and the
adoptions weren't working out so far. In April 2007, we were doing our usual
whining and crying to each other over the phone: I would moan, "Why doesn't
God send me the right guy for me??" And she'd moan, "I want to be a mother
so BAD!!" It finally occurred to me that we were spending way too much time
wallowing in our own pathetic misery, and not enough time thinking of
someone else's pathetic misery. I had been praying for a few years to be
blessed with the right God-fearing man I could be happy with, and eventually
have a family with. In the back of my mind, I was limiting God, saying to
myself, "Well, God might give me someone, but I'll have to accept less than
what I'm looking for because I'm too picky". Mary Ellen was also praying
relentlessly for a child. I told her we should just switch! I would quit
praying for myself and pray like a madwoman for her to find and adopt a
child. And, of course, she would just need to lay down her own prayer, and
pray for me to find this great wonderful man I was in search of. So, we both
agreed, and started praying for the other. It was 6 weeks later, in the
middle of June, that we all met up, Mary Ellen, her husband, Chris, her
daughter-to-be, Rachel, me, and John Mark, who I already knew I wanted to
marry. And, I might add, I didn't give up anything I wanted; instead, God
blessed me with every little or big thing I wanted in a man, and then added
a whole lot more stuff I didn't yet know that I wanted. God showed me that
#1, I needed to stop being so self-centered. And, #2, that He can do
ANYTHING! And MORE! |
