In reference to the Red Letters Campaign question, "How do I do this, moneywise?":
Pray.
Ok, well, to be brutally honest, we were quite shocked when we saw the price of adoption. God laid it on our hearts to adopt, so Jana and I quickly Googled "international adoption agencies" and requested a packet...or, five. A few days passed, and we were coming home from the grocery store. I dropped Jana off at the mailbox and pulled in the driveway to unload the groceries. I look up to see Jana, skipping like a schoolgirl up the sidewalk. She had our first packet in her hand! We raced in to the house, posed for a quick picture with the packet, or the "gateway to our third", and tore it open.
What? How much? Yeah, okay...sure, let me just write you a check for eleventeen billion dollars while I'm at it.
We were awfully discouraged. Plus, I was a student at the time, living on loans with a wife and two kids. We received the other packets and opened them with hopeful hearts, all to find that they were pretty comparable with price. Hmmm, what to do?
Well, we prayed. God continued to urge us to adopt. We weren't at peace with having two children, but we were certainly not going to let Jana get pregnant again and potentially having another pulmonary embolism. Adoption fit with our family perfectly, except for the money part. We prayed for God to show us the way he wanted us to go in finding the financing for adoption.
Phillipians 4:6;
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."Because I was a student and new graduate in a tough job market, our morale was pretty low. I couldn't find a job in town that I wanted and we didn't feel called to leave. I took the only job open because, well, I thought it was a good way to use the education that put us into debt! (Novel thinking...)
We prayed. And God answered. In a big way. Praying with purpose showed us God's awesome faithfulness. Within 10 weeks (I didn't put a timetable on God...that's just how it happened), I had my dream job in an amazing office and our 1st house (our favorite that we walked through but already had a buyer....who backed out last minute!). The only thing we were waiting for was Jana to be eligible to transfer over to my health insurance. Despite the odds, we applied for her to be added, knowing she'd be denied or slapped with a huge rider for her preexisting conditions; not even a fight. God exceeded our prayers.
He placed in our path a great Christian financial planner who worked some things around for us to get us started. Our savings won't be drained (all at once, anyway!) and it allows us to still take care of our monthly responsibilities. We laughed at several ideas which now make a lot of sense: garage sales, bake sales, auctions, letters of support, etc. The money isn't due all at once, so we have some time to brainstorm ideas. All of our ideas have been from blogs, so read them if you're looking for ways to raise money! Make a t-shirt, make jewelry; in the end, TRUST. If your heart is burdened to adopt, MOVE FORWARD. God will provide.
Where there is no risk, there is no faith.
Take the step and pray with expectation; God provides our needs!
In family news, we received our dossier packet. Wow. That's a lot of papers to get together.
Do not be anxious about anything...Oh! We have close friends who have just received word that they made it through the courts today in Ethiopia! A big AMEN because it's almost the rainy season. It's been great because for the last few nights, Jana and I have been creating invitations for a baby shower for them. It's been so fun getting involved with people so close to the end of their adoption journey! Here's the invite:
(Sorry some of the details are edited out; the invite looked cooler with it, but out of respect of privacy for the family, I took it out.)
Have a great night!
