A Phone Call from God

I guess I should clarify that I wrote this post before starting our road trip to RI, and saved it as a draft. It'd take me quite a long time to change all the verbs from present to past--and it wouldn't sound natural either. Sorry for the inconvenience. Here it goes. . .

I'm not talking about God's call to religious life or to a special life mission or ministry. Actually, far from being from God, that call was from a pawn shop. Yet, it was obvious that God had been involved in the making of that call. I was thinking that we were embarking ourselves in a total adventure by moving all the way from the west coast to the east coast with nothing pre-arranged--and with not even enough money for the move. It would be better for the twins in the future in terms of the many more and more prestigious medical schools. It would be better for Stephen, Thomas, and Nicholas in terms of the state-of-the-art medical care they can receive in the new area. It would be better to be safe from earthquakes and wild fires. Yet, we were, and are, only thinking about making it possible for Maximilian and Philip to be home with us. That was all we cared (and keep on caring) about. Gerard and Warren have absolutely no regrets about giving up their 23 otherwise transferable community college credits they have been gathering since they were ten years old, which would have been accepable within UCSD, but which are not even to be mentioned for admission to a four-year college on the east coast.

Many complications of different kinds, primarily financial, had been hitting us over the last couple of months. My mind and my heart were too far away from any work I'd try to get done, and I ended up making mistakes and pleading ineffective assistance of counsel against myself in several instances. Someone put me and all my family through a very unpleasant moment--but that's not something of any relevance herein. Yet, as we overcame every obstacle, I kept on thinking about Toni Vladimirova's words when she says that every adoption that is successfully completed is a victory of good over evil and of God over Satan. Having devoted her life to finding good homes for children with different physical and/or mental challenges, Toni well knows that the devil does not want kids to find families that will teach them about God and will lead them through good paths in life.

Well, even though I can with total honesty say that I had never considered going back in our moving plans and staying in California, deep inside me I was terribly scared that the leap of faith we were taking was perhaps too big--so wide that we might never reach the other side. Even the lady who owns the house we are currently renting and who does not want to lose her rental income for now had tried to scare my mom and me about all the bad things that could eventually happen. She is a friend and has good intentions--yet her husband is seriously ill with a degenerative condition, and our moving out means an obvious financial problem to her.

Once again, I never considered staying and giving up on Maximilian and Philip. That was definitely not an option for us. No way. The fear of the multiple what-if's opening up was not powerful enough to stop anything. Nevertheless, it was a significant amount of fear--until last Sunday, March 27, when God spoke clearly to me and did let me know I was doing the right thing and everything would be O.K.in the end.

In the morning, we attended Mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. That was not our Parish, but Fr. Pat Murphy, without being our pastor, had gotten very involved in our adoptions and had helped in many different ways in the past.  Without me asking for any financial help, he had very generously offered some by the time of our move--and on good-bye day he went back inside and came out with a check in the sum of $1,500.00!

Yet, I won't deny that, no matter how uncomfortable to accept help is, mainly for someone who comes from a family that used to extensively help others in the past, I knew Fr. Pat had volunteered help, and was sure he would live up to it.

What happened in the early afternoon was much more astonishing. It was Sunday, and we were waiting for a Bulgarian reported who wanted to interview us. The phone rang, and it was from the loan shop where back in 2009 I had pawned some antique family jewerly. I had done it for the sake of an intended adoption from Russia, which had failed in the end. The renewal of the loans was coming up by April 24--and will all the moving expenses, things did not look good at all.  A very kind representative told me they wanted thank us for our customer loyalty, and were willing to re-pawn our loans so that I could walk out of their shop with some extra cash--with no need to worry about renewal interests for four months from now. it sounded too good to be true--but it was true!!! And--it was not just some "extra cash," but $2,238.24 more!!!!

Have you ever heard of a pawn shop calling customers to offer to give them more money? As unusual as it sounds, it did happen that way. Just a coincidence? Not at all!!! I could almost hear God's voice letting us know He was on our side--and that Maximilian and Philip will be home perhaps even sooner than we think.

In addition, someone without so much good will had stated she'd refund some monies she owed me into two payments--one now and one in June. When yesterday, Monday, 03/28/ll, FedEx delivered a package, I opened it--and found that the entire reimbursement amount was there: $1,800.00!!!

We must kneel and thank Our Lord, His Blessed Mother, St. Anthony, St. Gerard, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and all the saints who interceded for us--including for sure the intercessions of my dad and all my grandparents, from much closer to God.

Every adoption necessarily involves some moments of shared anxiety, anguish, and tears--but also involves true miracles and a promise of shared joy.

This week we're finally moving to Rhode Island.