$howing Up Big Time!

Ohhhhh my is God showing up BIG TIME to provide the finances for our adoption!!!!! Honestly, I am not kidding, as I wrote about here when we signed up to adopt back in August we had scrapped together $319.88 into our adoption fund over the summer. Our application fee for our agency was $300 which we paid and sent in on August 26th, leaving us with $19.88 in our account. From there God has been POURING out His grace and filling up our adoption fund in ways that we had never planned. As I eluded to in the above post, between donations from the churches Jake spoke at, to donations sent to us by our blog readers, to friends handing me checks, to our adoption tax refund being issued, we were able to pay the following fees for our adoption between August to November 2011:

8/26/11…$300…Agency application fee
9/20/11…$30…fingerprints for background checks
10/18/11…$3000…Agency processing fee
10/18/11…$1650…Homestudy fee and pre-pay of post-placement reports
10/29/11…$30…DCI checks for our Rosebud students
11/1/11…$70…Order of certified originals birth/marriage certificates
11/19/11…$890…U.S. Dept of Homeland Security for I-600A approval & biometrics

Then Christmas came. And once again, we were blown away by God’s faithfulness. Between a donation by another church that Jake had spoken at to our family and friends giving us money as Christmas gifts we were able to add $900 more to our adoption fund!

Last week when I went to Jake’s gym to pick Justice up from practice one of Jake’s 6th grade girl players slipped me a $50 bill with a smile and said “This is for your adoption fund from me and my sister.” :) Humbled.

Then, on Monday morning Jake went through a stack of mail that had piled up on the table since before last weekend. As I wandered into the kitchen he handed me an envelope and said, “This will start your day off this morning…” I pulled a card out of an envelope, opened it, and a HUGE wad of cash fell out and I caught sight of $100 BILLS! MANY $100 BILLS! In a split second I was tearing up and I started to read the hand-written card….

Hi friends!

So, I made a little request for Christmas this year. :) And boy oh boy did my family come through! Brian and I have been so blessed this year and we received so much for the wedding. I was really searching for a way around receiving more gifts. And what do you know, a little blog post from you gave me just the idea I needed! And so, with my heart overflowing with joy that I get to do this, here is $670 to add to your adoption fund!!!!!! WOOHOOOO!!! My family is so awesome! Praise God!

~Kellee~

WOW!

WOW!

WOW!

As I stood there in the kitchen holding that card and wad of cash I was left asking myself - Seriously, who does this? WHAT SELFLESSNESS! Of course our sweet friend Kellee would never want the applause for this, and in fact after I emailed her a thank you she emailed me back and said ~ “It wasn’t me, it was all because of Jesus, to God be the glory!!!!” How can we not shout an AMEN to the way that God stirs hearts when it comes to adoption?!?!?!?!

And yesterday, one of my blog friends emailed me to share how she wants to contribute to our adoption fund by way of her beautiful photography. Check out her Take Heart sessions just in time for Valentine’s Day….the sessions are just $25. You get digital images that you can purchase or order prints from, as well as 40 mini Valentines. She’s giving all proceeds/donations to our adoption fund. It’s just amazing the ways that God is working through others to bless us….we just had no idea any of these things were coming!!!!!

On top of all this, God continues to bless Jake’s side-business of individual training that he started at the end of September to help fund our adoption. He is putting in lots of extra hours on top of his already filled schedule of practices, tournaments, meetings and office work. But, it’s paying off. The amount varies from month to month, but on average he is making anywhere from $1000-$2000 a month for our adoption fund. We had NO IDEA that his individual training was going to be this big of a hit, but so awesome to think that God knew this would happen.

Yesterday I deposited the recent cash we had received and right now the balance of our adoption account is sitting at $8,197.31. I stared at the number on the deposit slip for a good 30 seconds just marveling at what God has done. Less than 6 months ago that was a two-digit number. God. Is. Faithful.

Our next big chunk due to our agency will be $3000 coming up in the next few weeks, and then $5000 due shortly after that before court. Both of these amounts are part of the foreign program fee which pays for the cost of dossier documents gathered on the Ghana side, social worker’s wages, court appointments, etc. We will also begin paying foster care fees of $150 per month per child once that transition has been completed. The rest of the fees will be due after court.

What can I say? Every day as this money comes out of the woodwork there is just more and more evidence of God’s heart for the orphan - as if His commands in the Bible weren't enough evidence. I trust no one but Him to continue to make a way for us.