The Long and Windy Road

A Yiddish saying, "man plans, God laughs".  I find this to be a very interesting statement and

I find that when I planned certain things, these things didn't go as I was thinking they would!

It has also been said that for everything there is a reason and I should add this as well what 

has been said, "that everything is for the good". 

I could go on with clichés but it is proper to say that "hind sight is 20-20"! (I could not resist)! 

I had wondered 22 years ago if this was just a fad. I was seeing more and more people

coming out of idolatress religions and searching for God's Truth, deeper meanings, and finding

Judaism to be the answer! 

Let me start here with my story. Perhaps you can relate in some way.

I was adopted when I was 3 years old. My adopted parents never hid that fact. As a teen I

wondered who my "real" parents were. Finally, when I was about 27 years old, I found them.

I had called up the town library in which I was born and the librarian helped me by looking 

up old newspaper birth announcements. She found two birth announcements for the day I was

born. One a girl and one a boy. Simple, I was that girl. She also gave me the names of the 

baby's parents. In those days there weren't any personal computers or internet. I called the 

long distance operator and asked for the names. Only one was found and it turned out to be

a sister! Well, she cried with joy and excitement and told me that she would inform our

mother and she would have her call me. Several months later I took a bus out to meet her.

This story will show you how I left Christianity.  But, first, I will mention how I was

raised. My parents who adopted me were wonderful parents. They made sure that I had 

everything I needed. They took me to church even though they were not really church goers

per se. They dropped me off to Sunday school most of the time. But, by the time I was 

in junior high, I put up a big fuss in going to church. However, by the time I was in high 

school, I was asking myself questions and tried to make sense out of the Bible. It was all

very confusing. So, there the Bible lay, collecting dust. In my mid twenties is when I had the

"born again" experience and studied the Bible like crazy. 

Leaping forward to 1998 while I was living in Oregon. Divorced and raising my youngest

daughter, I was doing some online genealogy research on my biological mother's side of

the family. In my search I came across quite by accident Messianic Judaism. What?

What the heck was that! The one sight intrigued me. A woman named Shoshannah had

written beautiful articles about Judaism and the Messianic movement. I read these

articles and the more I read, the more I had something wake up in me. I remember when no

one was around I stood in the living room and I demanded from God the Truth! His Truth, 

not man's Truth! I was so serious and told God to show me, now!  And He did!  

I had such a fire lit in me! I was reading everything I could about the origins of the 

Christian religion. Who was who and what was what! My mind was blown away and

my brain and my soul soaked it all up like a sponge! I wanted to know more and more!

It took me nearly 5 years to peel off the layers of all the lies that I had heard all of my 

life about Christianity and during that time I fell in love with Judaism more and more.

Tell you the truth, as a kid and young adult, I already had a love and curiosity for the

Jewish people. 

I have to quickly mention here that in 2003 I had a horrible event that happened to me.

I don't want to get into details but this event really shook me to the core! So much so

that I lost a lot of what I had. It really tore me apart. I drove to Minnesota where I had 

grown up with my adopted parents. It was in Hopkins, Minnesota where I made an 

appointment with a conservative Rabbi. I did Hebrew classes and I did the conversion

classes. It was in November of 2004 I formally in front of a Bet Din converted to Judaism.

Now, this is where it gets a bit tricky. Forward time to the last few years. 

I have been struggling with this conversion for several years. Life didn't take me to where I

would have liked to have gone. No, not at all. The more I wanted to be a part of the 

Jewish community, the more it seemed I was taken away from it. For health reasons, I left

Minnesota for awhile. I had cancer. When I came back, the Rabbi I knew was gone and the

synagogue was no longer the same. It was bought by Orthodox Jews and turned into a

yeshiva. 

I was still experiencing the first horrible event, this was ongoing at that time. I worked and

tried my best. But, lets just say after all the days of research and learning and trying to

observe, it just wasn't working for me. I must have contacted a dozen rabbis to ask them 

what I should do. I finally came to the conclusion that when I went for the conversion

I had not thought it through as much as I had should have. I was not in my right state of

emotional mind at the time. I took on more then I could chew, as the saying goes. 

Funny how things work out. I didn't know about the 7 Laws of Noah until about 6-7 years 

ago! Never heard of it and no one mentioned this to me! 

Well, no matter. I am here now and that hind sight? It's beginning to make a bit more sense 

to me now. 

I truly must tell you the story of the man I met at a garage sale I had who presented to me a

interesting ring! Stay tuned?