A Story of Hope: Mon. June 8

I called Hope's mother at 6:45 last night, and reached her voicemail. I left a message, saying that I have her jacket and would like to know when I can get it to her. I planned to set up a time to drop it off, and then use that time to propose my offer.

I had planned to bring the kids camping with Dad at Mohican State Park these next three days. This was the first event that was to keep me from caring for Hope. I wondered the whole weekend if I should be going or not.

But there was no response, no return phone call from Hope's mom, so I decided to go ahead with the trip. We left after Morgan's softball game. Before we even reached Port Jefferson, we had a close call. I was watching a goose in a small field near the side of the road. When I looked back at the road, all of a sudden there was a whole family of geese crossing the road! I had to stop pretty quickly, thinking I was probably going to hit them. Luckily I didn't.

Later, as we were driving through Prospect, two things occurred at once. The kids were watching a movie on the laptop, with the sound plugged into the aux. jack so it would play through the car speakers. All of a sudden (it has never happened before!), the car switched from playing the movie sound to playing the local Christian radio station we had been listening to before the movie! Morgan said, "What happened?" and I told her I didn't think I touched it. But I switched it back. After a few seconds, it switched by itself again! I switched it back. This happened several more times, each one more quickly than the previous, until I finally decided I was supposed to hear something coming up. At the same time this radio thing was happening, I also began hearing one of the straps of the bike rack flapping around, and felt the need to check that the bikes were secure. When I pulled over, sure enough, one of the bikes' straps had come loose. I fixed it, and got back in the car. It was at this time that I decided to leave the radio on, and Aidan got out headphones so he could finish watching the movie.

A few minutes down the road, the song "God of This City" came on - "Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done here." Immediately after I realized this was the song I was to hear, I prayed to the Lord, telling Him that if needed, I would leave the campground immediately, if she would just call. I said it over and over several times. Again, a few minutes later, another song came on, which I knew was just for me - "Here I am, Lord send me." Wow! At this point, my heart was feeling very large again!