Spam I Am

It's tough to find spiritual significance in spam. (Not the canned meat product popular in Hawaii - I've never considered the spirituality of that particular food substance - but rather the junk email variety.)

I should back up. On March 4th I emailed our homestudy draft to AFAA, our agency, after calling and learning that Cheryl was in Africa. Cheryl must check and approve the homestudy for wording issues relevant to African adoptions before the homestudy can be finalized. Our homestudy agency also emailed her a copy so she could approve it while overseas.

Days passed. Weeks. I emailed again. Still nothing. Now I'm starting to imagine all sorts of terrible things (a quick google search of international adoption elucidates some of what flashed through my mind). Trent, ever mellow, encouraged calm and patience, "Just wait until Cheryl gets back in the states."

She returned, I called, and after some back-and-forth and checking of email files, I learned...I was spam. Spam I am. My two emails and the email from the homestudy agency had gone directly to AFAA's spam. Long story long, the homestudy was retrieved, checked, approved and finalized - bing, bang, boom.

Any spiritual significance to the month-long delay caused by an overefficient spam filter? I have no idea. Maybe someday there will be a cool story about how this odd delay allowed us to connect with a specific child at a specific time. Chances are I will never know. But I do know that I have been a bit more diligent about checking my own spam files...who knows what might be missed?

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).