God's Big, Small, Wonderful World

I am violating my new one-post-a-day rule; sorry-not-sorry! This is a post I have been waiting a few days to write, and I am excited.

There is a blogger who blogs at One Thankful Mom (onethankfulmom.com); her name is Lisa Qualls.  Lisa is old enough to be my mother; in fact, I am the same age as a couple of her kids.  (She has 11, so it's hard to place my age exactly vis a vis them.)  Lisa and her family live in Idaho.

I do not remember how I found Lisa's blog in the first place, but I stayed because she was "telling it like it is" about her four children adopted from Ethiopia: her struggles and triumphs with them, and how she felt about it all.  At that time in my life, I believed I wanted to adopt one day, possibly internationally, so I soaked up all the information regarding adoption and post adoption life that Lisa posted on her blog.  I believed it was helping me prepare better.

Over the years, Lisa struggled most especially with one of her adopted daughters.  Somewhere along the way, I began to include this child in my daily prayers: asking God to heal her of her trauma and help her live a happier, more relaxed life. 

When this child died in a tragic car crash (injuring Lisa and leaving her husband unhurt), it didn't seem like such a big leap to pray for her family's emotional healing from her death, instead of for her directly, so I started doing that.

In recent years, I have realized that I do not want children of my own: birth, adopted, or otherwise.  I just could not be a proper parent, for a variety of reasons, primarily my own disabilities.  However, I have kept reading Lisa's blog for a different reason: her Christian faith.

Lisa is an example to me of what I would like to be in my faith.  She is Christian and I am Jewish; but we see eye-to-eye on a lot.  Her faith brings her comfort, healing, and happiness; that is what I would like mine to bring me.  The two of us pray for each other.

I titled this post the way I did because I do not believe it was a mere, trivial coincidence that brought us together.  Only God! Lisa lives in Idaho; I live in New York.  Lisa is Christian; I am Jewish.  Lisa has 11 children; I am a generation younger, right around the age of her "big kids," as she calls them.  Yet God and the internet have brought us together, and we both benefit.

Simply amazing.