A Divine Appointment

On the dusty road to the Imperial Hotel today amidst the chatter and polluted smoke, I heard English and saw a blur of white. I paused and spun around staring, "Could it be?" And there was Mrs. Midwest staring back at me with a calm smile and her hands full of veggies from the roadside stand. "Are you an American?" It sounded weird to ask, she looked obviously like one, but I was in shock. In just a few minutes we exchanged stories and of course now yest I see-- a little black baby in an umbrella stroller and a boy of 11 standing with her. She was here adopting, too. Her husband and her were renting in the neighborhood and had been there three months. She's going home tomorrow she says, face happy and relaxed. Was I talking to Beth Stipp? Whe would probably be this chill buying avocado from a boxcar cornerstore. It was a reminder of words spoken earlier that I had read, "He leads me beside the still waters." Yes I had my panties in a wad at the moment. I had forced my jetlagged body to retrace the steps my host had showed me this morning to the local groceries--pushed back the anxieties about cooking here, about everything new and different and how I could barely count to ten in Amharic. Here He was showing up again--in his faithfulness to Tera Moven's family providing them a home and completing their adoption and in the peace she carried fulfilling this calling.

Still fighting to trust, but He keeps showing up.