Embassy of Hope

W

hen Mark was five years old his parents divorced. He stayed with his mother, while his father enlisted in the armed forces. As Mark grew up he occasionally had recollections of the brief time he shared with his father and longed to one day see him again, but as Mark became an adult the thoughts of his father began to subside. Mark was now more into motor cycles, and partying.

After Mark graduated from college he married his high school sweetheart. A year later she gave birth to a healthy bouncing baby boy.

One day when Mark's son was five years old and as Mark was preparing to shave his face, his son looked up at him and laughed, "Daddy you look like a clown with that whipped cream on your face."

Mark laughed, looked into the mirror and realized how much his son looked like him at that age. Later remembered a story his mother had told him of him once telling his own father the same thing.

Mark began thinking about his own father a lot and started quizzing his mother. It had been a long time since Mark spoke of his father and his mother informed him that she had not spoken to his father in over twenty years and all her knowledge of his whereabouts ceased when Mark became eighteen.

Mark looked deep into his mother's eyes and said, "I need to find my father."

His mother commented that his relatives had all passed away and she had no idea where to begin searching for him but added, "Maybe, just maybe, if you contact the United States Embassy in England, they might be able to help you."

Even though the chances seemed slim Mark was determined. He called the Embassy and the conversation went something like this.

"U.S. Embassy, how may we help you?"

"Ahh...hi, my name is Mark Sullivan and I am hoping to find my father."

After a long pause and the ruffle of papers … "Is this a Mr. Mark Joseph Sullivan?"

"Yes," Mark says anxiously.

"And you were born in Vincennes, Indiana, at the Good Samaritan Hospital on October 19, 1970?"

"Yes... yes"

"Mark, please don't hang up." The man makes an announcement at the embassy. "Everyone listen... I have terrific news... Lieutenant Ronald L. Sullivan's son is on the phone... he found us!"

Without a pause Mark hears a roar of a crowd clapping, cheering, laughing, crying, and praising God.

The man returns to the telephone and says, "Mark we're so glad you have called. Your father has been coming here in person or calling almost every single day for the past nine years, checking to see if we located you."

The following day Mark received a phone call from his father. His father explained to him that he had been traveling to the United States every six months trying to find him. Once even went to a home where the landlord had explained that Mark and his mother had moved out just two weeks prior and left no forwarding address.

Mark and his father now see each other as often as possible.

-- David Like, Florida

(This is a true story, though David changed the names and location)