We were on the way home from visiting Dave’s parents when we came upon a train that was stopped on the track.

There are two railroad tracks that we cross on the way to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Since our move, the ride to visit Grandma and Grandpa has turned into a little trip for our family since they live just outside the city.

And so this train was stopped with about 5 or so cars stopped ahead of us. I looked to Dave and said, “Great. Can we turn around and go a different route?”

“Not if you want it to take us an hour or more to get home.”

“Say what? An hour??” It takes us about 35 minutes to get home and we had left with just enough time to get Sweet Pea home in time for bedtime. And, with her naps being a little out of whack, I was really hoping to get her to bed on time this particular night.

This wasn’t looking good and I silently prayed for God to move this train! An hour drive with the girls and a late bedtime for the baby wasn’t exactly how I wanted to end the weekend.

And then the first car in the line of cars stuck because of this train made a U-turn on the road and started talking to each car as they made their way back the other direction. They got to us and said, “The train is broken down. No telling when it will move.”

Fab-u-lous!! And we made a U-turn and started going the opposite way we wanted to go so that we could get around the stupid train.

In my moment of frustration my husband says, “God is in control of everything. He obviously doesn’t want us going that way!”

Thanks. Just what I wanted to hear!

In my moment of frustration I also knew I had a choice to make: be frustrated or choose to be happy (as I always tell my 4 year old. Are you sure that has to apply to us adults too?!).

Driving along the road in the middle of nowhere, I asked God to help me apply this situation to life, and He reminded me of four things.

1. That train in the middle of the road, stalled, and going nowhere – a complete road block to where we wanted to go – is so symbolic to March 9th, 2009. The day a pregnancy road block landed right in front of me and there was absolutely no going around it. Road blocks force us to move to a new direction. We had to turn around and go in the completely opposite direction than we wanted to go. Hearing I’d probably never conceive forced us to move to a new direction – adoption – on our journey through infertility.

2. As we were driving along in the middle of nowhere Dave turns to me and asks, “Do you know where we are?”. We might as well have been in China because I had no clue. I asked him, “Do YOU?!?”. Having grown up in the area he confidently said, “Yeah. These are my old stomping grounds.” There was peace in knowing at least one of us knew where we were going. I’d have been in a pickle by myself in that predicament. But, all I had to do was go along for the ride, trusting Dave to navigate us through the boonies back to civilization. That’s how it is with God, too. He turned our direction on March 9th, 2009, and I had no idea where we were going. But His Word promised me that He knew and it was going to be good and it was going to be even better than I imagined. I just had to go along for the ride, and trust Him. His Word was (and still is!) truth, because God navigated us through the road of infertility, blessing us with two precious daughters.

3. The whole God is in control of everything comment? He was so right. And that served as an excellent reminder to me. He knows everything that is going to happen in my life and His ways are perfect.

4. Attitude is a choice. We can’t control everything that happens to us in our life, but we can control how we respond to what happens. Having a positive attitude when things don’t go our way – for things as serious as infertility or as silly as a stalled train in your pathway – is half the battle to overcoming whatever obstacle stands in our way. I consciously decided I was just going to sit back and enjoy the scenery and the time with my family. We cranked up the music, saw some interesting things along the way that you don’t normally see in the city, listened to Dave reminisce about his old “stomping grounds” and heard from the backseat, Mommy!! I need to go potty! Now! That brings me to point number five.

5. I just laughed at this point. Here we were with no potties in sight and Little Bug needs to pee. We told her she was going to have to pee in the grass on the side of the road. She was all for that. Dave pulled over and I jumped out of the car to go get her. She peed and then she saw three little flowers and said, “Mommy, I want to go pick those flowers for you!”. And I let her. Who cares that we were on an impromptu road trip and running late for the baby’s bedtime? Sometimes life calls us to just stop and smell the roses – literally. It was a reminder to me to enjoy, thoroughly enjoy, life and the small things that make life worth living.

Don’t look at road blocks as a negative thing! Sometimes, many times, they are what force us to move in a different direction and it’s the detours of life where God teaches us invaluable lessons.

- Elaine