5 Million Minus 1

Blessing Others

I will not lie. I have a had a rough week. A friend is going to Ethiopia on Saturday but new agency rules will not let her visit my son because she with another agency. Our agency decided not to tell us about when our court date is but only when we pass....so our paperwork has been in Ethiopia since the end of February with no news. It is frustrating at times because I really want my son, my first child, only child, in my arms. JT has moved to Louisville to start his new job and I am still in Somerset. We moved out of our apartment and are each staying with our respective parents. All of this is stressful and frustrating, but yesterday I had an encounter I will never forget.

Through my work I have met a lovely couple. He is 88 years old and she is 81 years old. They have been married about four or five years, but will tell you they have 100 years of marriage between them. Each of their first spouses passed away and they remarried one another. From Cincinatti, they retired to Somerset. I have seen them twice at work. A coworker told me that they saw JT and me speak at our church. The day we spoke back in January was broadcast on TV, and because of snow, many churches were cancelled, so the couple saw our service. I never thought much about it though.

Yesterday they came to my office and I went to see them. Was he ever happy! He sat me down and explained to me how his son, who is now 54 years old, is adopted. We shared the blessings of his adoption and the blessings JT and I have experienced thus far. We discussed how when you hand everything to God, HE will truly bless you. He stopped me and asked if he and his wife could give us "a little something". I said that was their decision but I did not feel comfortable taking their money. Again, he stopped me to tell me this story..

From his perspective "when I was four, which was 84 years ago, my daddy and I farmed and sold produce in the summer. On our way home one day from the produce stand, we passed an old man on the side of the road. The old man was selling a bushel of old rotten green beans. My daddy asked the man if he would like to buy our last bushel for 25cents. The old man bartered and then admitted 'son, I don't have 25cents.' My daddy sent me to the truck to get our bushel of green beans. I handed the old man our crisp beans and daddy took the man's old beans. As we drove home, my daddy explained to me that God gave us the blessing of the good green beans and we did not deserve them. Daddy said 'when God blesses you, you are supposed to blesss others."

He then looked at me and said "young lady, do not turn down a blessing. God has blessed us and we want to bless you. Just do the same thing for someone else someday." His wife handed me a $500 check. I may never see this couple again, though I very much hope I do. I can not even tell you how blessed I was by this encounter. It completely changed my outlook, my week, and really my perspective. I know there will be frustrating days and days when this slips from my mind. But I will never lose this completely. This lesson, this blessing, has changed me. I want to be this couple. I want to give what God gives me, in love and in money.