Coach Calipari and the Small Miracles...

I don't know why I keep getting blown away by the amazing provision God keeps giving us, but I do. He keeps surprising me, and overwhelming me with His goodness.

Okay, many of you know that I live in Lexington, KY. It is not one of those places people really know anything about, though. When people think Kentucky, they either think about the Colonel and his chicken, or they think of toothless hicks that marry their cousins (the latter is more of an unfortunate stigma....marrying your relatives is not that common these days!). Of course, there are some of you avid basketball fans that DO know at least one thing about Lexington, KY: Lexington is home to the University of Kentucky Wildcats, and more specifically, the greatest men's college basketball program in all of history (okay, maybe some of you won't agree, but that probably just means you are a tar heel, blue devil, or hoosier...yuck). So with that tradition, comes a whole slew of insanely fanatical fans. Year after year, much to the chagrin of other schools, Kentucky blue dominates the stands at each SEC and NCAA tournament. KENTUCKY. FANS. ARE. CRAZY.

Well, last week, Maker's Mark (Kentucky is also the whiskey capital of the world) put out a special Calipari edition (all blue, of course, with Calipari's face on it). John Calipari is Kentucky's new head coach. He is insanely good! Last year we went to the NIT for the first time in FOREVER. This year, coach Cal started, we went to the Elite 8, and 5 our players are now projected to be in the top 15 draft picks (four of them are freshmen!) Well, in just a couple of hours, all 25,000 bottles sold out. That same day people were selling them online for twice the price. Well, I managed to buy one from a guy who sold it to me for just a little over the regular price (because I told him we wanted to sell it to raise money for our adoption). Last Saturday, 1200 tickets went on sale on Tickemaster to nab a coveted spot in line at Keeneland (our local race track), where Calipari would sign those 1200 bottles. Well, those tickets (which were free, by the way) sold out in less than a minute. And yes...you guessed it...we got one!

So this morning, I got into line, and I had spot #79. Not too shabby. There were thousands of fans there (plenty of the 1200 brought friends and family), and it was a bit chaotic. I watched as a news crew interviewed the guy who got the #1 spot in line. I kept thinking about walking up to them, and telling them our adoption story. I decided against it in the end, and instead just prayed, "God, if you want a story done on us, have them come to me." Didn't really think that would happen, but I knew God could do it if He wanted to.

So they whisked us (or should I say "whiskeyed us"....Bahahaha!) through the autograph line. Calipari didn't even look up. His eyes were down, set on the task before him....sign 1200 bottles as quickly as possible. Who could blame him? As I walked away from the table, three ladies that seemed to work for Keeneland started raving over the hat I was wearing. Another one of our not-so-public fundraisers was selling Norwegian Knit hats, many of which had UK in the design. There was a lot of, "Oh my, I LOVE your hat! Where did you get it?" I promptly told them that my Norwegian mother had made it, that we were selling them to raise money for our adoption, and we were doing the same thing with the Maker's Mark bottle (which was now signed and held closely to my body so there was no chance of me dropping it). Well, in the very next instant one of the women's eyes light up, she grabs my arm and says, "Oh the news has GOT to do a story on you!" She quickly leads me outside and yells over to the local news crew, "You have to do a story on this girl!" From there, they interviewed me, and I told them about our upcoming adoption of a little boy or girl from ethiopia. The reporter took down all my info, and that was that. As I walked away from them, another news crew stops me and asks me if THEY can do a story on us. I said yes, of course.

As I walked away, I got my things together, and decided to head back over to the building where the signing was taking place. I wanted to thank the woman who introduced me to the news team. A couple of policemen gave me these stern looks, as if they were going to clobber me if I went any further...as if I were going to try and attack the coach. Well, the woman spotted me, and walked over to me. I thanked her for caring about our story, and she proceeded to tell me that her daughter had given her baby up for adoption, and that she understood how important it was for us to adopt. Ummmm....yeah....tears....flowing.....How could I not cry? I was so overwhelmed.

So that was my morning, which all happened before 8:30am today. I prayed a simple prayer, which I didn't think would turn into anything else, and then God TOTALLY does all the work and makes it happen. AMAZING!!!

At about 11am, a woman calls me from the first news station that interviewed me. She asks me for more details about our adoption, and then says she would like to pitch it to her boss, and do an extended interview with both Wes and I. Again....floored....I told her I would LOVE that! So on Sunday, as long as there are no national tragedies or other things that could take up their slots, they are planning on interviewing us. Can you believe it?! Yes, it's possible that it might not happen, but I don't even care! I am just in awe of how good God is, and how much He cares about this adoption and our family. AWESOME!

So this is one of my longer posts, but I just had to share all the goodies of the day. So stinkin' amazing.

Coach John Calipari signing my bottle.

The crazily coveted Maker's Mark bottle.

The hat I was wearing today that grabbed the woman's attention who pulled me over to the news crew.

Some of the hats we have sold this year.  All hand made by my amazing mother, Ia Williams.

Here's a short segment of the signing, and there's a teeny tiny snippet of me close to the end.

*UPDATE on April 13, 2010:  Well, the news station did not get back with us this past Sunday, but like I said before, it doesn't matter, because God is in control.  We got our little snippet on the news that day, and who knows what will happen next!  We have such peace that God will provide in every way.  We are SO excited to see what creative ideas God comes up with next.  :)