Well... Lina made her choice.

We awoke this morning and Michele went to rouse Lina for our meeting with the Adoption Services. She went into Lina's room and found an almost Hollywood scene. The window of our ground floor flat was open and the curtians blowing in the breeze. Lina has gone. She took most of her things in her shopping bags but left several items. We don't know why she wouldn't take everything. The only thing I can think of is that she may have felt guilty taking all of the stuff we bought her. I have been taking her cell phone at night because otherwise she will talk and text all night long. I gave her several chances to just turn it off but that wasn't working so at 10pm she gives it to me. Last night was no different. She gave me the phone and hugged us both goodnight. We discovered in the morning that she had removed the sim card before giving it to us so that she can install it in a new phone later and we wouldn't know what she was planning. She made her choice. We called Elona and she set the paperwork in motion. The director of the orphange wasn't surprised and it sounds like the police just kind of said "oh well." Can't really blame them. She could be anywhere.

(bear with me on this one)
When Michele and I worked in Alaska I was the manager of a good sized tourist opperation. We would have up to 1500 cruise ship passengers arrive daily. One of my main responsibilities was to park all buses. We had 3 rows of parking and sometimes there might be as many as 5 buses in each row. There was no backing out. They had to pull through to get back to the highway. To further complicate matters, some passengers would stay just for the 1 hour show and some would stay for a salmon bake and then attend the show. Making sure the flow of buses got parked appropriately so that they wouldn't get boxed in was a constant challenge. Some buses arrived early and some later than planned. It was always very complicated with many unpredictable variables. Sometimes life would throw me a real curve ball and I would be forced to make a quick decision in the midst of chaos. I had several very capable employees and in these times those quick decisions didn't always seem to make sense. I would get that quizzical look and I would just say "trust me." They would shrug and do as they were instructed. It was my responsibility, I had the schedule, I had the big picture. They trusted me to make the correct decision even when it didn't seem to make sense. That is the situation we find ourselves in with God. I am sitting here in Lithuania with a quizzical look on my face saying this just doesn't make sense. But God can see the big picture. He has the schedule of our life events. And I always want to be that trusted servant that he can say to "I know it doesn't make sense to you right now but trust me."

Lina made her choice. She arranged to be picked up by her boyfriend or someone else. By all account she was very happy. She was excited about coming to America and that she would have a family and a future. Everyone here was shocked, except for the orphanage director. I guess it's true that you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. We are still here wondering how this fits into Gods plan and what we should do now? But we trust Him and know that He brought us here for a reason. We are hoping that He will give us some kind of really clear direction. We could use the encouragement right now. Keep praying for Lina, she really is a sweet girl.

KC