Three summers ago, I received an email from
another home schooling mom that Wheel of Fortune was looking for contestants. I
had signed up to be a contestant several years before but was never contacted. My
husband had always urged me to try to get on the show because I was so good at solving
the puzzles. I went to the website and found out they had a new system called
the Wheel Watchers Club. Each time you watched, you would enter the bonus round
puzzle on your account and you received points. There were other activities you
could do to earn more points. After reaching a certain number of points you
were entered into the contestant pool. I did this for about a month until
school started when I found it difficult to keep up. Nevertheless, in November I received an email inviting
me to audition in Los Angeles 2 weeks later. I started watching as many shows as I
could, played online versions and searched the internet for tips on being a
contestant.
I was so nervous at the audition. First we had
to stand up in a room of 200 people and say our name in a loud projecting
voice. I am so thankful for all of my church choir and high school drama performances! Then we were called on to
try to guess a letter and solve the puzzle like in the game. I guessed a couple of letters and solved and
I won a Wheel of Fortune tote bag!
Then we had to take a written test. It had
different categories with puzzles with only some letters showing and lots of
blanks. It was quite difficult. Then we were given a break. They would consider
our test score plus our game trial performance and narrow it down to 40
contestants. Well I made it through.
Then we were called on to stand in the front with 3 other contestants and
pretend to spin and compete. I don’t think I did very well on this part.
However about 2 weeks later I received a
letter saying that I would definitely be on a show in the near future. Most
contestants wait years, I only waited 2 months! I amped up my studying and
often stayed up late. In January I received a call asking me to come down the following
week. It helps that I only live two hours away!
During this time the idea of adoption kept
coming up. We already had three children and were thinking our family was complete.
We had always talked about adoption before, but it seemed impossible under our
circumstances. We lived in a small two bedroom apartment with no yard or patio
and all three kids were crammed into one bedroom. We had just read about George
Muller and his orphanages. It was such a challenging book for my faith! Then I
saw the movie The Blind Side. It seemed like the theme kept popping up
everywhere. My heart kept feeling stirred. I was afraid my husband would think
I was crazy, so I just prayed that God would make it clear what we should do.
We started praying about my appearance on Wheel
of Fortune and that whatever the outcome, God
would be glorified. Sure some extra money would be fabulous, but we know our
happiness is not in wealth or possessions, but comes from our salvation in
Jesus Christ.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay
up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and
where thieves do not break in and steal. For where
your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-20
The
Wheel of Fortune show taping
This was one of the hardest things I have ever
done. My nerves were out of control! Six shows were going to be taped in one
day and I was going to be on the third one.
During the show, it was hard to concentrate. They kept saying stand this
way, look this way, spin the wheel harder, speak louder, clap all the
time.
Wheel of Fortune Part 1:
So the show started and three
puzzles went by and I didn’t win any money. But I kept praying and later found
out that my husband was sweating bullets and praying for me the whole
time. Then all of a sudden something
happened. I kept landing on big money
and I kept getting multiple letters. And it was the Prize Puzzle. I actually
didn’t know I had landed on $3500 because they told us not to look at the
wheel. I almost said another letter but quickly realized there were more “D’s”.
That landed me $13,800. Then I solved
and got the Prize too- a two week cruise for two to Hawaii! From $0 to $20,886
in 2 minutes!
Wheel of Fortune Part 2:
The third puzzle was going well and then my
mouth repeated the last letter I said, even though my brain was thinking another
letter. (Yes, lots of people have
reminded me of my mistake, so you don’t have too. J). Although I missed the third toss-up, luckily I got another chance.Just as I was getting into it, the timer buzzed and we would have to do speed round. While Pat
spun the wheel and explained the rules, I had about 20 extra seconds to study
the puzzle and that’s when I figured it out.
That moment seemed divine. I had
been doing so poorly- then all of a sudden it just seemed like things were rolling. (I'm not sure why Pat had such a hard time pronouncing my name- it's Gen-try, not Gent-ry)
Last was the Bonus Round. Before my taping, I
sat in the audience and watched the two previous tapings. I did not figure out
the bonus round puzzle nor did the contestant.
I was a little intimidated, but kept praying. The theme for the week was
Going Green so I had that in the back of my mind. I had a strategy for picking the letters
depending on what letters would come up. Once the letters in the puzzle appeared, I
definitely knew the second word was atmosphere. So it was easy to choose the
letters that I knew were there, plus another one just in case. I knew what the
puzzle was as soon as all the letters came up! I had told my dad the night
before that the category “THING” was the hardest because they always do
abstract concepts, not an actual thing like a chair. Then Pat opened the envelope and I had won $30,000
more! $57,236 in less than 20 min! It felt so surreal.
What
do we do with the money?
We
started praying about what to do with the money but we mostly were hoping to
move into a bigger home. My husband was doing laundry on Saturdays
because I couldn't walk down the street w my 3 little kids toting a
heavy laundry basket and with lots of back pain ( I had back surgery several
years prior). We didn't have a yard or even a patio for my kids to
play outside.
On one
drive out looking at houses my husband all of a sudden said maybe we are
supposed to adopt. I couldn't believe it but I also knew those
words must have been inspired by God because it was so much on my heart. But
during our search we quickly realized that Santa Barbara CA real estate was way
out of our price range. We even looked at mobile homes and we couldn't even
afford that!
In the
meantime we also attended an adoption conference. There one speaker encouraged
us to not be afraid of what God might be calling us to do because of financial
reasons. You see we knew we could either buy a house or adopt internationally
(which we had always felt called to). So what were we supposed to do? We began
looking into foster care/adoption but quickly found out that because of our
current housing situation and because our youngest was not old enough, we did
not qualify for their program. We also started researching international
adoption. My husband is from Peru and we had always thought about adopting
there. It just seemed to make sense. We spoke the language and knew the
culture. As we began looking into the program we found out Peru was only
allowing special needs adoptions. That’s when we became open to special
needs orphans. I had worked in a special education day class and because of a
back injury had to quit. But I loved that job and loved working with children
with special needs.
So we
began to contact agencies that work with Peruvian adoptions. Through one
of the websites, we found Reece’s Rainbow and their grants for special needs adoptions,
specifically for children with Down syndrome. When I started browsing the
website with all those faces and profiles my heart was broken and stirred. Who
has the right to discard these babies; precious children made in God’s
image? I would browse those web pages for hours. There were two girls and
one boy that stood out to me in particular. But since we didn't have
a house and we had just received the money (after waiting about 7 months),
I wasn't sure if the timing was right.
After a
couple of months I felt like God was challenging us to step out in faith.
George Muller did it. The money was sitting there. We knew if it was God’s will
He would provide the funds for a house and for the adoption. We didn't know
how, but we were ready to be surprised by Him again!
~Watch the Changing Lives segment at the end of Wheel of Fortune tonight to see what happened after I won!~
Read Part 2 here
~Watch the Changing Lives segment at the end of Wheel of Fortune tonight to see what happened after I won!~
Read Part 2 here
