Bountiful

This week has been a bountiful week. I am so grateful for everything and everyone God has blessed us with.

Our washing machine broke (and it is still broken), but our sweet neighbors have stepped up and are letting us use theirs until ours is repaired. This saves me time and money because I don't have to go to the Laundromat in town. You can imagine the grief of not having a washing machine with five kids and about a billion loads to do everyday, but God has provided me with great neighbors and is changing my heart from grief to gratefulness. It has only taken me 35 years to accomplish this and I'm still learning :)

We found out that Caleb's car has a break line problem and it has to be completely replaced and his exhaust needs to be welded. Fortunately, my parents gave Sam a car this summer and since he can't drive yet Caleb will use it. We are selling Caleb's car and putting the money toward our adoption contract. Once our adoption is completed we will give him the money toward a new car. God is providing!

People continue to donate toward the raffle.  We are receiving a donation that once combined with the sale of Caleb's car will cover the cost of our agency contract! It is amazing what God is doing!!!

I am in awe of the sacrifices people are making on our daughter's behalf. You are making a difference and we are grateful! There will be one less orphan very soon!

People have asked us how they can help so here we go:

          -Pray! We need to raise about $10,000 to be put on the waiting list. Please pray that God gives us guidance on how to fund raise and doors will be open for grants and a Both Hands project. Please also pray that we can be good stewards of our money and budget wisely. Please also pray for Everleigh and her family. We don't know the trauma they have been through.

          -Local friends: We will be having a garage sale in late September or early October. If you have items you can donate we will be happy to pick them up!

          -Enter the iPad mini raffle at https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/eZdj8.

          -Post our raffle or blog on your Facebook and other media outlets


Update on the process:

We are continuing to wait on Andy's FBI fingerprints, but once they arrive our home study will be complete!!! Yay!!!

We will sending in our application to USCIS (immigration)  and our application to Both Hands once we receive our copies of our home study.

 

Encouragement

Adoption is one of the hardest most rewarding journey's Andy and I have ever experienced. As the days pass there are so many questions that race through my mind. When will we have enough money to turn in our paperwork? How old will our daughter be when we get her referral? Has she been born yet? Will she have any special needs? What kind of trauma has she and her family been through that results in her being placed for adoption?

You see, in international adoption there is always something traumatic that occurs to the child and their family. Whether it's the death of one or both parents, extreme poverty, abandonment, or rape there is always a reason these kiddos are put up for adoption and it's sad.

The beautiful thing about God is that he has a plan for these precious kids and he's watching over them. I'm often reminded of Psalm 121 when I begin to dwell on the questions that plague my mind about the little girl we are going to adopt. One of my friends, Kristin Haden, shared this with me when we were adopting Grace. She inserted Grace's name into the Psalm and I just have to share it with you.

Psalm 121

Grace lifts up her eyes to the hills-

Where does her help come from?

Her help comes from the Lord,

The Maker of heaven and earth.

 

He will not let Grace's foot slip-

He who watches over her will not slumber;

Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

 

The Lord watches over Grace- the Lord is her shade at her right hand;

The sun will not harm her by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep Grace from all harm- he will watch over her life;

The Lord will watch over her coming and going both now and forevermore.

 

Now it's time for me to insert Everleigh's name into this Psalm. It's so difficult not knowing what's happening with our baby girl half way around the world, but God knows and he's watching and taking care of her. I just need the patience to wait on his timing and remind  myself that she's in His hands. Jeremiah 29:11 also helps me with this.

 

Jeremiah 29:11 (with Everleigh's name)

 

"For I know the plans I have for Everleigh", declares the Lord, 

"plans to prosper her and not to harm her,

 plans to give her hope and a future."

 

God is so good! He sends me encouragement in his Word and through the people I come in contact with every day. I am thankful for all of you who read this blog and give me encouragement. Thank you!

 

Update on our process:

 

We were able to pay for our home study update with donations from some generous donors. Now we are just waiting for Andy's FBI clearance to come in. We are not sure why its delayed, but hopefully our social worker can get it this week. Once that is done, our home study will be complete and we can apply for grants and for a Both Hands project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finances and Fundraising

A lot of people have asked us "How much will this adoption cost?" Most everyone is blown away with our response. "$32,000" we say with a smile. Yep, $32,000. We could buy a nice car with that kind of money or even renovate our three bathrooms for that. We could even help other organizations support orphans and widows around the world, but God didn't call us to that right now.

Why so expensive? There are a lot of reasons. We are dealing with two governments, an adoption agency, travel expenses, transition home care, and medical expenses. Our airfare alone for four round trip tickets to Ethiopia (two trips each for two people) was around $8,000 with our last adoption. That's just airfare. It doesn't include staying in the guest home/hotel, food, in-country transportation, or airport parking. I'm not saying this to gain sympathy or even to complain. We just want to be transparent while we fund raise.

Why fund raise? That's pretty simple. We can't do it by ourselves. We just paid off the airline tickets for Grace's adoption. HALLELUJAH!!!!! We have zero credit card debt, but very little savings at this moment. We know God will provide for this adoption through fundraising and other resources. We were very blessed with so many people becoming part of Grace's adoption story through prayer and financial support. They are part of her story. Fundraising allows people to become part of God's amazing love story for orphans.

What's the plan?

-I am going to start babysitting this week and all of this extra money will go into our adoption fund.

-We are continuing our iPad Mini raffle through September 8th. Our iPad raffle last year was such a success that we thought we would try it again. You can enter the raffle here https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/eZdj8

- Applying for a Both Hands project to help raise money for our adoption and also help a widow in our community. We are VERY excited about this and hope they accept us. Check out the link to see what it's about at www.bothhandsfoundation.org.

- Applying for adoption grants. We are applying for multiple grants.

-Link and Drink- This is encompasses selling hot dogs, soft drinks, and chips at a local business. We are still trying to find a local business to let us do this in their parking lot.

-Garage sale- we are hoping to do this in September or October. If you're local and want to donate your old stuff let us know and we'll pick it up!

-We are saving money and downsizing our cost of living

What's the timeline? We cannot be put on the waiting list for a child until we have enough money for the agency contract ($2,750) and for the dossier paperwork ($8,250). Getting our paperwork together is the easy part right now, but we cannot submit it until we have the $11,000. We also have to apply for our USCIS (approval from our US government to adopt an orphan). This is another $890. After this money is raised, we will be put on the waiting list which should take 4-6 months before we get our referral. Once we accept our referral (our daughter) we will then owe $4650+medical expenses. We will have to pay for our travel, re-adoption, and other miscellaneous expenses after acceptance of our daughter's referral also.

I think this sums it up! We are always willing to answer specific questions about fundraising or the adoption process so please ask if you're wondering!
 

Why Now?

A couple of months ago I sat in my living room holding my sweet little girl in my arms. It had only been 5 months since we brought her home from Ethiopia and we had gotten through the "rough" stuff when it came to adopting from a foreign country. The Salmonella poisoning that gave her several bouts of diarrhea every day, the sleepless nights, and the undiagnosed lactose intolerance were a thing of the past. Life was good. I had my four boys and finally a little girl. I was content.

I find it funny that when I start feeling content that's when God speaks and says "I'm not finished with you." Of course I didn't hear Him audibly, but He spoke to my heart that day. I knew at that moment that He had another daughter waiting for me. I told Andy immediately and he gave me that "your crazy" look. He knew better than to say no, but I read the look on his face and decided to not push him. You see, we were still paying off the tickets we bought for our trips to Ethiopia and we didn't have any savings. Everything was spent on bringing Grace into our family. So how were we going to afford another one?

I prayed for God to change my heart if this wasn't the plan He had for our lives because I wanted to make sure that He didn't put this desire in my heart for another purpose. Maybe start an adoption ministry or possibly an orphan care ministry? I wanted to be 100% sure. I prayed that God would change Andy's heart if we were to adopt again. I didn't nag Andy about adopting once during the next two months. I knew it wouldn't do any good because he's so hard headed :) When it comes to adoption I don't believe God would tell me to adopt and not tell Andy too so I left it to God to convince him.

On July 7th He did just that. We came home from church that afternoon and Andy knew we were suppose to adopt. He looked at me and said "Our family isn't complete." I already knew that, but sometimes he's a little slow :) We both knew that we needed to pay off our one credit card that we had used to purchase our tickets for Grace's adoption. God is so good. Our Adoption Tax Credit would cover it.

We started telling our family and friends that we were adopting again. I must say I was a little taken aback by a lot of responses. We heard "Again? Really? This soon? Why not from the states?" several times. I'd be lying if I didn't say my feelings weren't a little hurt, but God didn't say this would be easy. I can understand the responses because I know what I'd be thinking if I were in their shoes. I'm writing this blog to answer some of these questions.

First, we have learned that when God calls answer the calling or be left out of the blessing. Yep, He can find someone else to do it, but he asked us to adopt.

Second, we are not bringing our daughter home tomorrow. International adoption takes months and often times years to bring a child home. Grace's adoption only took 10 months. This is RARE! Also, we have to raise the money for this adoption. This is not an easy task when we've "fundraised" all of our friends and family out with our first adoption. More to come on that subject in a later post.

Last, we feel God has called us to Ethiopia. We didn't wake up one day and say "Oh, Ethiopia sounds great! Can't wait to spend thousands of dollars and countless hours on ridiculous amounts of paperwork!" I know I'm sarcastic, but the reality is not good times. Don't get me wrong, we are blessed through the process, but it is often times not an easy one.

So there you have it. Yes, we are crazy! Crazy and in love with a God who has blessed us beyond measure and we can't wait to bring our next blessing home!