Fourth Trip April, 2010 Preparation

So in February and March of 2010, between the third and fourth trip to Colombia, the Bullen family is in the midst of an all out war. At the same time we are working hard on the mountains of adoption paperwork, I am pastoring, Luke and my girls are leading worship, Lisa and I are counseling dozens of people, I am working 115 miles from home on a new project, I am speaking at two Tres Dias weekends, our family is ministering to these two sweet but troubled girls God has sent us, and my dear brother Chris Dinkler calls me and says, “hey we are planning a Padrino trip to Colombia in April, you and Lisa gotta come.” My heart sinks because I know that there is no way Lisa and I can go. Other than the busy schedule and huge financial struggles that we are going through, Lisa has never been to Colombia or out of the country for that matter and she has emphatically stated on multiple occasions that her entire role in this orphan ministry is to stay home and pray! Well one day a plane ticket shows up in the mail with her name on it. I thought she would be so mad but instead she strutted through the house waiving it in the air telling everyone that she was going to Colombia to see her girls! It was awesome. Now I just had to pray for my way there. We prayed and prayed and just in time the money came in for us to go with some left over to spend on the Goddaughters while we were there. I was so excited that Lisa was going to be able to meet our two sweet girls that she had heard so much about. I had now been in Colombia twice with my daughters Rebekah and Beverly and once with my daughter Brooke and now I was going to get to take my bride. What a blessing! We were delighted that our friends and fellow soldiers Curt and Tonya Currie, David Richardson and his sister, Charlotte, Chris and Julie Dinkler, Luis Escobar and Alexandra Vanegas were also attending. Lisa and I arrived at the airport about 2 hours early and we sat in the terminal and enjoyed a nice lunch. I was giddy like a little child on Christmas morning waiting for the ok to go check under the tree. On a Padrino (Godparent) trip Padrinos are able to take their children out of the orphanage and have them with them for the week. We were going to be staying at the Country Club in Madrid. We met up with our friends and flew to Bogota. After we collected our luggage we walked outside and there were Sandra and all the Goddaughters waiting for us. They jumped into our arms and there were many hugs and kisses. Heidy and Ginary presented Lisa with a beautiful colombian corsage and a sweet letter that they had written for her. Once again I discovered that there were new depths of my heart still to be touched by these wonderful children. The first time I heard Heidy call Lisa, Mami (Mommy), in her sweet little sing song voice and saw the radiant look on her face I felt as if my life and all the struggles were more than worth it. I looked up to heaven in that chilly Colombian night sky and said, “Lord, I can go to heaven now. Hearing Heidy call Lisa, Mami, is reward enough. I don’t need anything more.” I can’t explain how deeply this touched me but once again I knew that I was in the right place, doing the right thing, and that nothing short of death was going to stop me.