I always look forward to planting flowers each May, and 2004 was no different.

Although I was filled with the hope of beautiful flowers adorning my front porch in a few months, my hope for growing our small family was beginning to wilt.

My 4-year-old son was riding his bicycle on our farm by himself. As I watched him play alone while I planted flowers, I worried that he would always be playing alone with no siblings by his side.

But that week, God decided to give us a lesson in patience and faith, and show us a bit of His humor.

Our profile had been with our adoption agency for almost two years, and we were hoping to be selected soon for a second adoption. My patience was weakening, and my son was even starting to question.

“Mom, when do you think I will have a little brother or sister?” he asked that evening. With sadness in my heart, I just said, “You will have to ask God about that.”

Later that night, my husband arrived home, and I told him about our son’s questions and my response to him.

So, he asked my son what God had told him about the adoption timeline.

“He said it would be on Thursday,” my son cheerfully replied.

I tucked him in that Monday night and didn’t think any more about his comment. Four-year-olds don’t really even understand days of the week anyway.

A few days later, the phone rang. I vaguely recognized the name on the caller id. “Where had I heard that name before?” I tried to remember. I answered and was greeted by the happy voice of Carol Krueger.

“Is your husband home, too?” she asked. “Can you call him to the phone? I have some exciting news to share,” she said.

It wasn’t all registering with me yet, but I hollered at my husband to come in for this important phone call. I was on the phone in the kitchen, and my husband picked up the phone in the office a few rooms away.

Carol was from the Nebraska Children’s Home. She was calling to tell us that a baby boy was born on Monday – the same day my son sent up his prayers. The baby boys’ parents, a young unwed couple, had picked our profile.

I couldn’t see my husband, but I could tell by his trembling voice that he was starting to cry.

“It’s Thursday,” he said choking back tears of joy. Unlike me, he had remembered our son’s prayer.

My knees went weak, and I about fell to the floor. Just as God had told my son. It was Thursday, and this one phone call was about to change our lives forever.

The young couple wanted to meet us the next day! I’m a planner who doesn’t generally like surprises, so this was extremely stressful but in the best way possible.

We drove to meet the couple three hours away on Friday. By Saturday, we were a family of four!

The flowers did bloom and grow that summer on my front porch, and so did our family. And, God had even more surprises for us that year as He decided to add to our family again just 11 months later by sending us a daughter.

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Kristine Jacobson

Kristine Jacobson is a writer, a mother of three children and farm wife living in South-Central Nebraska. She puts her creative skills to use as editor of Nebraska Family Magazine at www.nebraskafamilymagazine.com and helps non-profits and small businesses share their stories in her public relations business, KRJPR.

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