10 years ago my spouse and I moved to the Philippines to open a call center business. It was not uncommon for us to travel and find places, old businesses, schools or whatever and start from the ground up and make them into lucrative businesses for the owners. When we were offered to move to the Philippines we were ecstatic. This was an opportunity for us to get rich and retire, and we were a good team what he could not do I did in helping him and together we made it work. From the very bottom of finding the property to the tiniest detail of running a call center that is what we did. We lacked for nothing and were increasingly prosperous. Year by year we became more successful until we were making somewhere along the lines of 300k a year.
I was raised in the Adventist church, and although I was seeking I was not yet fully turned to Christ. When my eldest son was about 3 year I began to seek the Lord and I wanted to know what Grace really was that was the beginning of a long and difficult transformation of whom I was and what the Lord wanted me to become. During this time I became ill and could not have children. I did not seek my sons out. Please let me explain…
One day when I was at a nail salon I sat outside watching a small child play in the window., I began to cry and I thought about Samuels mother and I said Lord please just drop a baby in my lap. I longed for another child. A few days following I had a dream I was sitting in a car in this dream and Joey who is my eldest was sitting in the back seat strapped into a car seat and next to him was a baby boy also strapped into a car seat. I woke up and I felt so impressed by the Lord. I said to my husband as we stood in the bathroom and he prepared for work I said Steven we are going to have a son. I don’t know how and I don’t when but a child will be borne for us and it will be a boy. He laughed and said that was impossible dismissing me and left to work.
I could not shake the feeling that Lord was saying to me that a son would come, but at that time I was still not fully walking with God and I myself had a hard time believing the Lord would come too me directly in a dream and speak to me. The following weekend as we sat in the living room watching TV my husband’s cell phone began to ring. I honestly had no way of knowing who was calling. It was in the dining room adjacent sitting on the dining room table and I told NO ONE except my husband about the dream that I had had. There was NO WAY anyone could have known about this.
It being the weekend and Steve not wanting to be bothered with work ignored his buzzing phone. I turned looked at him and I said Steven you have to answer that phone our son has been borne. It is time. He looked at me like I was completely crazy. HE said NO it is not and do not answer the phone I don’t want to be bothered. Now I never answered his cell out of respect to him, but this time I just knew. So I ran over to the phone and picked it up and lo and behold my ex nanny was calling and said that a child had been borne by her mother’s friends daughter that a SON had been rejected by his family and her mother had instructed her to call me immediately and to give me the boy.
I had met the mother only 1 time during a Christmas party I had thrown for my employees. My Nanny was not working for me and SHE did not know about this dream!! Nor my desire for another son. However I was still skeptical to believe and everything was happening so fast… God ad literally answered my prayer and dropped a son in my lap! Still wanting to be sure I said to her. I want the baby, but first I must talk to the mother and I must call my lawyer and make sure that everything is right. The next day although I had told her to wait she brought Andrew my now middle son to me, he was freshly new still had his mother’s blood on him and was wrapped in a tiny blanket without a diaper. The moment I laid eyes on the boy I knew this was my son. With an aching heart I said please take the boy back and I will seek out his mother. I will first make sure that I can take him. So I called my lawyer social services etc and the next day which was a Sunday I went and picked up Andrew. He has been as my own since then.
Wehad already began the adoption process when we received another call this time it was also unexpected and I was told that there was a woman pregnant who wanted to abort the child. I said NO WAY! If my husband and I could not take the child in I would help to find the unborn baby a family.
My husband I needed some time away to sort it out and to talk so we left our now 2 sons with nannies and we took a trip to a place called Cubic Bay here in the Philippines and we spent the entire weekend seriously talking about whether or not we could handle another son. We even spoke about the consequences if the child be borne handicapped. We agreed that yes we would love to add another one to the fold and discussed a name for the child > we never talked about a girl’s name which is kind of funny. So Noah was chosen and Noah became.
Now as time passed we worked on the adoption the USA economy fell and my husband was asked to return to the states to work from there. Thinking that we would only be separated a short time he left too work and I remained to finish up the final documents that needed to be done and me n my sons would follow.
That was nearly 4 years ago. When everything was complete it was brought to my attention that I had to remain in the Philippines for an additional 2 years after the adoptions for Andrew and Noah were complete. So I did. In the meantime my husband was let go from his job, and because he was such a high paid employee it has been very difficult for him to get a new Job as A Vice President in the call center business. Due to these unforeseen circumstances I and my sons have been unable to leave the Philippines to be reunited with our family. My husband is able to send money to make ends meet but we are unable to come up with the additional funds needed leave.
My family has lost everything and I am not sad for that, because God used that time to bring me back to him. I got into a car accident and hit a Mercedes Benz and I was like UH OH!! This woman gets out of her car and she says to me have you been saved?? I am thinking what?? No anger on her face at all! She invited me to her church and as I sat there I saw who I was and what I had become for the first time in my life. I wept at the selfish person I was and even more so that God loved me despite my sins! I ran to the bathroom of the church and wept.
From that day on my life has never been the same. When we had no money and I was worried about food. I told NO ONE of my trials, only my closest family knew. I was on the computer talking to Jeff my elder brother and I was crying and I said Jeff what will I do??!! How will I feed my sons??>! He said to me Carolyn lets pray… My faith was not yet even remotely strong! So we did, suddenly there was a knock on the door and Joey answered it, there was the boys Sunday school teacher and she said please come out to my truck. So I followed. She said I was at the Market and the Lord told me to bring this to you, she gave us food and money and I wept. I was ashamed and grateful at the same time. I can speak of miracle after miracle happening after that, just unbelievable ways God has moved in my life! I think the last miracle was to help me cope. You see in the last placed that we lived we had had to leave our mansion and were now living in a tiny apartment. It smelled all the time because of what we call squatters. There were rats outside so we were forced to always be indoors and the children had no place to play. One night as we all slept a fire broke out. Now the fire was no where even near an outlet and I was like what?? Well we got evicted and I was struggling to find a place to go. Finally I got a call from the owner of the place I am in now and without seeing the place I prayed and I said Lord I really trust you!! I threw our stuff into a cab and we came to see our new place for the first time.
I was stunned when I arrived! A beautiful condo with a swimming pool and the rent is cheap. The Lord has blessed me a great deal, Now I have had to leave that condo as god has so moved me and my 3 sons and I are living in a place with only mats to sleep on and a fridge, a microwave, and a small stove. It is a nice place, but I had to move in order to try to save money to get us out of here and to the USA where we belong. I am hoping to be able to buy some small pieces of furniture to do until we are able to leave.
One thing I have learned that family is forever. I know that many people look at my family and see us as odd. I am asked why I adopted the kids and my answer is because God gave them to me. I will never ever leave these boys here and I love them more than if they had come from my belly! I have fought and we have had everything and nothing, but what we have gained is worth so, so much more! We gained everything !! the Love of God and his salvation, and each other …. ♥ I know the meaning of Ohana .. Jesus paid the price he died for our sins, so that no one be left behind! He is slow in his coming in order to give all a chance to live in a garden of peace and immortality, a garden of love with him. So it has been that I understand now the ♥ of our Saviour. For love of Christ, the love he gives to us is the love we ought to give others… Let us leave no one behind. I KNOW it is soon time for me to leave ere and soon I will see the faces of those I love again. I know I will weep uncontrollably when I stand on American soil again. But until that happens le it be known that the smallest of seeds of faith, is all that is needed for God to show you how much he loves you. Peace be unto you.