The Bigger Picture

I have great news to share-Kalina's package is here! We're thrilled! The story is quite amazing. My mom sent the package through the US postal system. They said it should arrive in 8 days. It didn't come, and nobody could figure out why. Every day we asked Someira if it had arrived and how we would know when it came. Usually the procedure here is that a messenger brings you a notice that a package has arrived for you. Then you go to that place such as FedEx or the post office and pay a large tax to customs, usually about $80 US dollars. Then in a day or so you get the package.
We never even received the notice of this package's arrival. We even called about the package. Nobody could give us help here or in the US to track it. Finally yesterday we got a message that the package was in Bangladesh. We had to go to the post office between 9-10 a.m. today to pay the tax. (They make an appointment time.) Nadeem got up early after having little sleep again last night to go pay the tax. Traveling anywhere here is very stressful due to the heavy, crazy traffic and chaos. When the driver and Nadeem got to the post office, they told Nadeem that the package has been here for days. They actually delivered it to the apartment building, but the guard told them Hasan's dad (whose name is on the box) had gone to America. (In fact he's in India but that's beside the point.) They took the package back to the post office and were preparing to mail it back to America! When Nadeem tried to get it, they argued with him, saying it's not addressed to him. He showed them his business card from home and said that package is from his mom. Finally he was able to pay the tax and take the package with Kalina's supplies. When he arrived, we gave her a bottle of delicious, nutritious milk (Nadeem said I sounded like a commercial.) She gulped it down and cried for more. Hooray!
All of this could seem like a frustrating experience, just something that happened like irritating things happen in life. However, we know that there is a bigger picture. There is more to life than what we see in the physical realm. There is a spiritual world.
Last night we went out to eat at a Thai restaurant called Voot which means ghost in Bangla. During the meal, all the lights went down and this spooky music started to play. Workers there started this eerie chant about a ghost coming. Around the elegant restaurant there are weird paint marks on the walls and gruesome heads to make the place seem haunted. Then a "ghost"-a man in a Halloween costume-came through the restaurant trying to scare everyone. I thought someone had great imagination to create that theme. We then had a discussion about ghosts.
I don't believe in that sort of ghost, but the Bible does talk about demons and evil spirits. There is clearly a battle of good versus evil all through the Bible. Just look around. There is evidence in our world, our stories, our movies, etc. During our journey to adopt Kalina, we have felt that battle like never before.
In regards to the missing package, you could say that packages sometimes get missing. Stuff like this happens in life. Consider another possibility. We know that "the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy." John 10:10 The same verse tells us that Jesus came to give us abundant life. Doesn't this look like the work of the thief, our enemy? Preventing a baby from having her proper formula and supplies and creating doubt and anger in her parents and others following this story doesn't seem like abundant life but more like destruction to me! Please know how important your prayers are. The package could have been returned to America! Instead we have it. What the enemy meant for evil God has used for good.
"He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." -I John 4:4