The Swan - The Rest of the Story

On our 20th Wedding Anniversary I presented my wife with an ivory necklace of two swans intertwined. For those of you who have read our journal you will recall the significance of a particular swan in our ongoing efforts to adopt Alyzabeth. With that as a background, I began looking for an anniversary gift that had a “special meaning” for the two of us. As easy as that sounds, finding a necklace or bracelet of a swan proved to be anything but. I was quickly running out of time to find such a gift. Alyson and I were soon to be leaving for Maine to celebrate a series of family events, a mix of anniversaries and birthdays. I simply was not finding the “swan” gift locally and the timeline to buy online was slipping away since it would have to be mailed and received before we left for Maine. I was down to pretty much my last day to either find the swan or forget it. Then this happened. I arose early one morning before Alyson was up and typed in swan – ivory – necklace on the infamous Google search. I must have had done this two dozen or more times in the previous days with nothing coming back that even remotely struck me as the “gift” for Aly. Until that morning, the last morning. There in front of my eyes was the necklace of two swans intertwined. As gooney as this may sound – to me, those two swans represented Alyson and myself. We were the two intertwined swans. We had received our “sign” in the form of a swan and this necklace was to serve as our permanent reminder of what He had done for us. I immediately emailed the Jewelry store with my offer to purchase along with a short note explaining briefly that it was a gift for my wife for our 20th anniversary and that the swan carried significance regarding our adoption hopes of an infant baby girl from China. Below is the reply I received from George, who along with his wife, own the jewelry store that sold me the swan necklace. I copied this letter and put it in the box containing the necklace and gave it to Aly while attending the celebrations in her home state of Maine. The necklace and this letter from George will always be remembered and treasured. Alyson was looking at this letter today and asked if this was something we could share in our journal. Why not… We shared the story of our swan – and as Paul Harvey would say – now you know the rest of the story. Our Swan Story; The Rest of the Story Hi Ford, This is George from J Jewels. I really felt compelled to write you this email in regard to the Ivory Swan necklace that you are purchasing. A big part of my life is dedicated to the Lord, I do ministry work and I have a very close relationship with Jesus. About a week ago I listed this necklace on Ebay, it had been at auction for about 4 1/2 days on a five-day auction. That night before the necklace was to end, on my way to bed I always start to pray as I enter my bedroom and ask the Lord where he would like me to read in the Bible. Yes, I do hear Him speak to me in my Spirit all the time but for some reason lately I had felt Him distanced from me and I did not feel His presence as strong as I normally do, I guess I was going through a “Spiritual Valley if you can relate to that. As I was going to bed I cried out to God and asked Him "please speak to me tonight God and let me read with some understanding and let me absorb whatever it is that You would like to speak to me." I heard Him softly speak to me to read the Book of Amos. So I open my Bible and started to read along. I got to verse 15 in chapter 3 and it read: "I will destroy the winter house along with the summer house. The houses of Ivory shall perish, and the great houses will have an end. Says The Lord. This scripture for some reason jumped off the page at me, and to tell you the truth I still do not understand the meaning. But the next day when I awoke I came out to check my emails and found that Ebay had canceled my listing on this necklace because they said I used the words "Elephant Tusk Ivory" and that it was not appropriate to sell on Ebay. I was quite confused, I didn't really understand what or why this happened, and also because there were about 1200 other items for sale on eBay that were made out of elephant tusk. And then again I heard the Lord speak to me out of the blue and He said to me "It was I who canceled this listing off Ebay". Many times I do not understand how He works but I try and do as He instructs me the best I know how. I knew there was a significant reason this happened but couldn't figure it out. Then I had to laugh to the Lord and say.... "Lord I ask you to let me read with understanding, but Lord I don't understand any of this." So I listed this necklace onto my shop’s business site. When I read your email, and saw your offer to purchase, and that you are adopting a little girl from China, and that this was going to be for your wife on your 20th Anniversary... I welled up with tears. I know, that I know, that I know that the Lord did all of this so that you get this Necklace. You must be very special to God and He definitely has your interest and your steps at hand. I felt His presence very strong; this is truly a wonderful blessing. God is going to honor you greatly, and I pray that he renews your marriage with a youthful spring, and that this little girl will bring great blessing, and deeper love to you and your wife. I am so blessed to have been a part of this. I can't stress to you how much for certain I know that He loves you and your household. May He continue to bless you. A modern day miracle for sure. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Thank you so much. A very astounding moment. George & Evelyn @ J Jewels