The Big Day

We last left my mom with a new baby and a wondering thought of, will this guy stick around. She slowly came to realize that he wasn't going anywhere and wanted to be a part of our lives. But, things were about to change.
   He was an American, don't forget. And he was about to be stationed elsewhere; Texas, to be exact. When he brought it up to my mom, she had a very difficult decision to make, one that would change her life and mine forever.
  The choices were clear enough, just not easy to make. Should she say goodbye to him and watch him leave the country, maybe to never return? It would leave her a single mother, she knew, but Germany was all she'd known. Her family, her friends, her job, everything was right there and it was good. But if she said goodbye, where would that leave her daughter? Without a dad, for sure, one she would probably never see again.
   Should she follow him to the US? A place she'd only heard about in school and in movies? It wasn't just that it was a new place, but she hardly knew the language, knew little about the culture and knew no one besides this one American. And her family did not want her to leave and let her know it. But, if she went, her daughter would have her father, and she would have the man she'd come to love.
    Well, you know what she decided, don't you. It's a dead give away, since I'm sitting here writing in English and not traveling the country looking for a dad I never met. What a hard decision to make though. I commend her decision and think it was the right one, even though for her, it was the more difficult one. They married on January 31st and by Easter were ready to head for the states.
   I had been living with my Oma and Opa for a while now, with my mom visiting on the weekends. I had formed a bond with my Oma so deep, that neither of us still fully understand it. The last time I was in Germany visiting, we looked at old pictures and my Oma pulled out a photo of her and I on Easter. She just started to cry. Then she told me, it was the last weekend I was with her and she'd had to say goodbye to me. It still hurt her deeply to even talk about it. I could tell she never really thought it was the right choice. I cried along with her for all the lost weekend visits, the relationship that had only just begun and hadn't had a chance to mature, and the memories that were never made.
   Though it's sad to think of this, I believe the Lord was guiding my mom to the states. He had a very specific plan for her life as he does for all our lives. I know he knows best and I do believe she made a good choice. I can say confidently that I wouldn't know my Lord if he hadn't directed her steps to the states.
  Almost daily we are faced with hard circumstances and hard choices. Often we know the right choice just because our 'conscience' is telling us. That little voice in our heads is saying, "choose this way". I believe that to be the Holy Spirit. And all too often we ignore his prompting, because it's the harder choice and we like things to be easy. But if we are willing to make the right, albeit more difficult, choice, we are opening ourselves up to all kinds of blessings from the Lord.
  In my mom's case, she wasn't consciously choosing the choice that the Lord wanted her to make, she was just listening to that little voice in her head. Later in life, when she knew the Lord, I know she would have said he led her to the states, but at the moment she wasn't aware of his leading. He was still leading, she just wasn't acknowledging that part of the situation. She still chose the harder path, setting aside her self and her worries for the concerns of her new family.
   So, the day after Easter, we flew to the United States, to our new home, and a new life, leaving behind all my mom and I knew for the unknown and the adventure that awaited.