(Mike #3, Jim #2, Craig #1, Dan #4)For the sake of blog readers this is the Reader's Digest version of this story.
Nevertheless it is a powerful story. It is about Eileen's search for her son.
It all started when God answered the prayers of her grandson, Michael.
Every single night Michael had been praying for his dog to come home, surely God could do that and he knew it.
Months later the phone rang with a strange woman saying she had the dog and wanted to return it.
It turns out her boyfriend had taken the dog when they made a quick stop for gas at a truck stop. Both cars had stopped at the same time all needing potty breaks and some how the dog was taken.
Mike and Roxy had no choice, they had to leave with out the dog.
The stranger said she had broke up with the boyfriend, found the dog tags in a kitchen drawer with the phone number on it.
She put two and two together, made a phone call and sure enough the prayers of Michael had been answered.
That was all it took for Eileen.
For years she and Jerry had been holding a secret.
Her mother said she should never speak of it, it was done and in the past.
But it wasn't her choice and she couldn't forget about it. It is just how her family dealt with it "in those days".
She knew that if God cared enough to bring home a little dog, He could find her son.
One by one she and Jerry told their three sons that they had a full blood brother that had been given up for adoption before they married. They explained that it wasn't optional, the choice was made for her, she was sent away to have the baby alone. When he was born he would be placed with a family for adoption and she was not to talk about it again.
February 1st could come, she would say to Jerry, today is his birthday never forgetting about her son.
Forty years had now passed and she was trusting that God would help her find him.
She made a few phone calls, finding a list of adoptions made around the time it all would have happened.
She made three phone calls. The first two ended in a dead end but the third phone call was answered by a woman who said, Yes! The voice on the other end said, Yes, she and her husband had adopted a son with the same birthday, but she couldn't be sure.
Eileen talked to her for awhile, asked if she could send a letter with a few pictures, the woman agreed.
Weeks went by with out an answer until one day she got a phone call saying yes, it was in fact her son.
His name was Craig, he was married to Sharon, they had two sons and he had lived in Duluth, MN his whole life.
She would meet him much later.
It was strange. He had a mom and a dad and a life that he had lived. She wanted to be respectful of that.
While she was in Haiti with us we told her we would be in Minnesota for Faith's wedding.
She had said how much she wanted all the boys to be together just once and this seemed like a perfect time. Maybe she would ask if he would please make the trip to the cities so that the whole family could be together. He agreed and later admitted he almost chickened out several times on the way. Who could blame him.
Some prayers take longer than others, but for the first time in fifty-three years all of the boys would finally be together.
It was a sweet thing.....
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