142,999,999 to Go

Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 6:24am

We are once again a little giddy. We made it through the day and the difficulties at the Embassy. We have appointments for the morning with both the Doctor and the Embassy. Our guide has assured us that we will be able to accomplish all that we need to accomplish. We may even leave for home a day early and surprise our kids if all goes well. Laura and I stayed up a little late as we watched the video that Damon has recorded. We watch ourselves from our own kitchen table on the screen when we received our travel call from our adoption agency. It seems like this call happened a year ago. It was only a few days. We continue watching the tape from that day until the present day. We are emotional all over again as we see the transformation of our little Siddhi.

The same little girl who was in a bad way at the orphanage is now sleeping peacefully in the room next to us. She no longer cries or pushes us away. In fact she only cries when we leave her. We are in love. I have something on my mind. In order for Siddhi to be allowed to leave with us she was required to have been offered to Indian families first. There are 1 billion people living in India and no one claimed her. I am sure there are people in India who would have adopted her had they known about her. But the court says that no one claims her so we can have her. I can’t explain what kind of emotion this stirs up in me. I am ecstatic at the fact that the Lord saved her for us. But I am also wondering how anyone could pass by her. We finally go to sleep for the night as the next day is a big day.

Once again, I am up before the sun rises. My head is killing me. I haven’t had a Diet Mountain Dew in almost a week and my body is finally rebelling. The hard bed and the strange smelling India air doesn’t help the situation. I am very nervous for this day and feel that something will go wrong. Laura is a little more optimistic. While I am in the shower the phone rings a little earlier than it should. We are supposed to be picked up at 9:15am and it is only 8:30am. Gloria is on the other line and tells Laura that our guide, Madhu needs us to call her. I am slow about finsihing my shower because my bad feeling is creeping up. All of the sudden I feel trapped and out of control. I really want to get home and have all of my children under one roof and in the same country–the same continent for that matter!

I call Madhu and she has bad news. Delhi is holding their elections today. The taxis are refusing to drive into the city because it is a volatile situation. Madhu has no ride and urges us not to venture out. She believes we are at risk. I tell her that we will make a decision in a few minutes and call her back. I am a little panicked at this point. All of the sudden I feel that we are no longer watching the news but that we are in the midst of the news. You know that kind–the stuff that tickers along the bottom of CNN that “fills you in” and keeps you informed on tragedies around the world. I fired up the computer to find out everything I could about what was happening just outside our window. It becomes apparent to me that we are in the midst of a volatile foreign situation. There are 55,000 police deployed across New Delhi alone–55,000! That is an army of armed men and women! I can’t even comprehend that in my Delaware mind.

I call Gloria and she is a little concerned. She believes we will be okay but also says that there is some possibility of danger. She offers to do what she can to bring in a taxi within the boundaries of the police check points. I trust Gloria and begin to feel a little sad that our Embassy appointment will have to wait another day.

I call our friend Lisa back in the states who is very familiar with India. She works with our adoption agency. She feels pretty confident that we will be okay but wants to call a few of her friends from Pune and Delhi to ask them their opinion. In the end her friends are also a little concerned for us. It really is a toss up. Should we venture out or should we stay at home and wait another day.

All of the calls had been made, our taxi was refusing to come anywhere near Delhi, our guide was stranded on the outskirts of the city and all of our friends and advocates were concerned to say the least. I felt like I was starting to pry. Let me explain. When the journey began to bring Siddhi home–even before we knew who she was–Laura and I agreed that we would only walk through doors that the Lord opened. These doors would have to be clearly open for us to continue. We would not pry and we would not fight His will. We wanted to get home as soon as possible to all of our children but it seemed as if the door was shutting. Laura and I reminded ourselves of our promise to the Lord. He had been faithful since the start. Besides, at the appointed time, the end shall be. No sooner and no later.

Just as I was saying this to Laura and just as we were about to call off the efforts to get us to the Embassy and the Doctor, our phone rang–literally as I was walking to the phone it rang. Gloria was on the other line. All she said was, “I have a taxi.” I am convinced that the Lord was waiting for us to surrender. This was his way of refining us a bit more. Would we surrender to His will? Our will was to get everything done. The Lord’s will was to make us trust him.

My stomach went nuts. The taxi would be here any minute and we were going to venture out into a city which had volatile potential. I didn’t know if I was making the right decision but God had opened the door–no pry bar needed. The taxi arrived and everyone was nervous. We ventured out into the street and everything was eerily quiet. We had been on the streets many times in the past few days and I felt as if I was in a different world. Barely anyone could be seen. We passed a few police checkpoints and we were not pulled over. Laura held my hand and prayed that the Father’s will would be done.

We arrived at the Dr’s office and I was full of adrenaline. They received us, put three shots in Siddhi, and gave us our paperwork. These were the papers we needed to complete our adoption journey in India. Siddhi was so sad again. As soon as the nurse was finished torturing her Laura picked her up. Siddhi began to hug her mommy and immediately stopped crying. Siddhi is a different baby today. She is just as active as our 2 year old Eva at home. Boy do I miss my Evangelini tortellini. I miss them all. I can’t wait for all my children to hug and kiss each other at long last. Siddhi is very interactive and happy today. She is peaceful–unlike her daddy at this point. She is laughing. She is problem solving with some toys. She is babbling. She is eating. Life could be so much worse off right now.

We got back into the car. Mission 1 was complete. Onto the Embassy. I felt like I was in a movie. Too bad Damon was sleeping like a bear back at the house at 10am in the morning. He wouldn’t have been able to film at the Embassy but the sight of empty Indian streets is something to behold. It is like a ghost town. More police checkpoints and no stops–some one is praying. People are praying. My phone vibrates. My brother Chuck is calling from the states. “Anything happening.” I just text back with a shaking hand something like, “Very tense right now I’ll let you know”. He texted back, “Hang in there you’re at the end.” I couldn’t help but think of my last sermon a week or so ago. I preached that at the appointed time the end shall be. This is a verse from Daniel 8. We were in the midst of the means as our Lord was bringing us to His end.

We arrived at the Embassy. The guards remembered us from the day before. Yesterday we had all kinds of electronic gadgets and batteries. They all had a good laugh at our stockpile. Today I just had my phone. This time, we didn’t have our guide. It was just me, Laura and Siddhi. She was still very peaceful. We walked straight in to the Embassy. Everyone there remebered us from the day before. We were sent straight to the correct window this time and the familiar face greeted us with a smile. I could see the finish line.

I had a huge stack of papers. Most of them I did not need. I handed over the papers they asked for, asnwered a few questions, paid for a visa and took my seat in the waiting room. Laura and I had a good time playing with Siddhi and reminding her that we love her. All three of us were called to the window and were sworn in. It was kind of wierd to be sworn in behind a piece of bullet proof glass. Imagine yourself standing in a DMV line and swearing to tell the truth. Very surreal. We answered a few questions about our desire to adopt, our experience in India, and our life at home. It was very difficult to wrap up our answers in a few words but we did our best. The girl behind the counter was nervous herself as she was being trained. She probably didn’t realize the significance of this moment for us just as we didn’t care so much for the significance of her feelings. At least the feelings were mutual. And then, just like that, we were done. The nice woman asked if we wanted to wait here for the visa or come back later. I said, “We’ll wait.” And just like that we were done.

We waited about 45 minutes until my name was called. The man who handed me the visa had a clue as to how hard and and long we had worked on this moment. He handed Siddhi’s visa and immigration papers to me with pride in his eyes. He could see how excited I was because he just laughed and smiled with me. I said, “thank you” and he responded with “Namasta”.

We called our taxi and headed back to Gloria’s home. We barely noticed the police checkpoints on the way. Siddhi was as happy as we were. Perhaps she felt our relief. She was smiling, giving kisses, playing with toys and generally behaving. Although, she was starting to get a little hungry.

Back at the Shaw’s we ate some lunch and sat around and talked with Gloria for a while. It was good to sit with another pastor’s family and just share our hearts. It doesn’t matter how far away we live from one another–we are the same. I can’t help but think of my mission, purpose and goal in this life. Am I content with doing the same thing every week or will I walk through doors that God opens? Will I obey or will I even listen so that I can obey?

The story doesn’t end there. As I mentioned before, our goal was to finish everything so that we could go home a day early. If we had not found a taxi than we would be forced to stay in India another day to finish our work. Another day away from our home and children. Our goal was to finish our work and change our flight plan so that we could surprise our children by coming home a day early. I was excited to get back to the room to change our flight plans. I called our airline and told them of our dilemma. I said we wanted to leave tonight rather than the following night. They were confused because our flight was ALWAYS booked to leave this night. I had forgotten that I had made our plans hoping for a short trip! We will be on the plane tonight and be home well–today. Flying back and forth from India is like time travel!

I burst into Damon’s room after the visa victory and he was asleep like a hibernating bear. Damon just gave into the jet lag every day. Asleep during the day and awake at night. I shared with him the whole story, demanded 500 Ruppees from him and left just as quickly as I came in. He didn’t know what hit him. Later, after lunch, Damon burst into my room and said, “Dude, I just realized what happened! We came to India and are leaving with a little girl!” We had a great laugh and just began hashing out what we have learned.

We hope we will not forget. We hope we will live in the light of Jesus Christ. Siddhi will be home soon. For now the Lord has brought us to the end of this road as the next turn comes up on the spiritual GPS. Siddhi is our daughter and in the words of the guard at the Embassy, “Little one you are going to America to live.” According to some estimates there are 143,000,000 orphans in the world today. So I guess there are 142,999,999 more to go. One at a time.

Pastor Dan