The Butterfly Effect

Noun

• S: (n) butterfly effect (the phenomenon whereby a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere, e.g., a butterfly flapping its wings in Rio de Janeiro might change the weather in Chicago)

A couple of years ago I went to a Women of Faith conference and heard Andy Andrews speak. He talks about this phenomenon. 

It really got me to thinking.

What small decisions have I made that have set the course of my life, that might change the course of the world? I love to put the puzzle together in my mind.  

I think that the butterfly effect that brought us here to this moment was cleaning a house. 

About 9 years ago we got involved cleaning new construction houses. It sounds way more easy than it actually is. It is a pain in the neck and new homeowners should really appreciate the fact that it is done for them. No one wants a new house with all the dirt that it would naturally come with. 

One day we went to clean a house that was for sale and it just stuck in our minds. It was this house. We decided to move on a Sunday and moved on Wednesday (2005).

My mom was teaching at Fort Wayne Christian School at the time and had an exchange student that she really liked. His host family was going to be moving and because we had a big house and extra bedrooms, she asked if we would host him for the last four weeks of school. We filled out the papers and never heard anything else. His host family had decided to wait out the school year. That was the end of that...or was it?

Four and a half years later we got a call(2009)...seems our paperwork had been unearthed. The message on our answering machine went something like, "Hi, Crystal and Garth, I got your name as someone who would be interested in hosting an exchange student for next year."

My knee-jerk response was "What?!" but both Garth and I decided to pray over it and ask for God's direction. We were led to Pedro. 

He came and it was wonderful! I learned that I CAN love someone else's child as if they were mine. Pedro is our boy forever. Our family and his family are very close.

August 2012. We got a call from Pedro, "Mom, João wants to come, too." I spent 2 months getting things straightened out to find a school to accept him and issue a visa, etc. Now we have Brazilian number two and he is an absolute blast, too! (That family knows how to churn out great kids!)

Throughout all of this we have dealt with disrupting the birth order, loving children that "weren't our own," enjoying other cultures and learning to be more flexible. All of these experiences have worked on opening our hearts to older child adoption.

I look back at how all of this and so much more have come together to make us the people that would say "Why not?" to God instead of "What?!"

There are so many God-stories sprinkled throughout that my heart just overflows with His goodness. I think that I will follow Jesus' mother's example and store these things in my heart. Store them in my heart for when it seems like God isn't listening or that things aren't going the way that I like.

Reader, look for the butterfly moments in your life. Where God has worked seemingly small, incidental things together to make something mighty and beautiful. And really, I have no idea where this is going to end up... But I know who is putting it together. And that makes me smile.