Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

It is amazing when God clearly gives you direction in your life.  We have felt that way in the past about a few "big" things, seasons where God was leading the way and we just knew we were following his will.  Once we started thinking about summer travel, we immediately started praying.  We asked God to lead us, that we would follow his will and not our own.  Then we listened.  Now, believe me we are not the type of people who see signs everywhere.  But once we asked, we just felt like they were coming our way.  It almost became comical... mis-delivered mail address to a man named Miguel came to our house, the Rosetta Stone Latin America edition went on super sale, favorite websites were suddenly all about Ecuador,  Twitter feed links showed up to Ecuador travel recommendations, National Geographic Kids featured an article about the first new species of mammal to be discovered in 35 years... where... you guessed it, Ecuador.  But, like I said, we aren't ones to think everything is a sign... and I know that once you open yourself up to an idea you begin to notice it more.  But still... it was fun to watch it all unfold.  There was just one hitch... we were having a lot of trouble communicating with Miguel.  He and Kevin tried to plan a time to Skype, but it wasn't working out.  Kevin sent messages via e-mail and Twitter that went unreturned.  We didn't know if there were connectivity issues (it is Ecuador, right?) or what.  We began to feel unsure.  Was this not a partnership that God wanted at this time?  So finally one day in late November I woke up resolved to seek God and follow his plan for our lives, so I prayed.   I prayed that God would make his will obvious (I might have used the term stupid obvious since we were feeling so conflicted), so we knew if we were following his will.  I didn't expect a direct answer, maybe something more like a open road.  But that was not what we got.  That afternoon as I talked with Kevin after a long day at work and our daughter's Daisy investiture ceremony, Kevin told me that he had finally connected with Miguel on Skype.  They had not planned to talk that day and in surprise my jaw literally dropped.  He asked,"What?" and I told him about my prayer that morning.  Now I knew our prayers had been answered.  We were heading down a path led by God.  Now we just had to find out, where would the journey lead?