The Boy with the Bone through His Arm: UPDATE

Below is an update written by Jake on one of the situations we encountered on our recent March trip to Ghana. You can read the original post about this young man here.

Each day as I awake I long to be with the people of Asikuma. Each day my thoughts are consumed with the lives of the people 6,000 miles away from where I call home. There is so much need in this place and every time I set foot in Ghana it seems like God uses me in some incredible ways.

Each time that I pick up my Bible and read the letters Paul wrote to the churches and people of the places God had called him to, he expresses a longing to be with them and desire to see just what God is doing in the places he has been. Since God brought me to Asikuma it has made the words of Paul come alive in my life and since my last trip that longing to be in Africa seems so much greater. It is greater because of the lives that God has thrown into my path.

My two daughters are still waiting on their court date which seems like it will never come. There are two other girls that God has wrapped my heart around - I so much desire to see Adjoa run from me with a giggle and squeal and Yaa melt in my arms. There is the baby in the bush that is now being cared for by Kofi Oppong and CompAfriCare. I know this little boy is doing well but my mind swirls around his mother who is in so much need that she was willing to let her son die in the bush because she simply has no means to care for him. I wonder each day how she is doing. I wonder if God’s Word is entering her heart or does she just need someone to bring the Word to her on this day or that day. Last, but not least there is a little boy not more than 12 years old who came to us on our last visit with a broken arm that was so severe I had never seen anything like it.

 

This little boy had a compound fracture of his forearm with the bone sticking out about six inches and it appeared as sharp as knife. When I asked the little boy how long his arm had been like that he said a little over a year. As I looked more closely at his arm you could see the infection and gangrene setting in. Everyone around him seemed like this was really not that big of deal. When I looked into his eyes I could see his pain and I could see him crying out for someone to help. On that day I decided to make it my mission to help this little boy but I soon learned the realities of hospital care in Africa.

I asked Ken (the individual assisting us in the community) what it would take to get him to the hospital for the doctors to see him and why he had not been there already. Please note that we do have a medical clinic in Asikuma that God called us to build, but they turned him away because they do not specialize in bone care and do not have the appropriate doctors to care for an injury like this. He was told he would have to go to a hospital nearly 70 miles away in a town called Koforidua as they have a specialist from India that can perform the surgery and care for the boy.

Obviously I had an urgency to get him to the hospital and immediately whipped out 100 cedi (equivalent to about $75.00) for the taxi fare to get him to the hospital and for a doctor to see him. In my simple American way of thinking I assumed the doctors would see him and rush him into surgery as this infection could take his life. Actually I got to see the reality of the world we live in.

The boy returned to Asikuma with X-rays of the break and some antibiotics and that was because the only surgeon who can care for an injury like this was not at the hospital. He travels throughout the country from hospital to hospital as there are not enough surgeons who can operate on bone related injuries. My other assumption knowing how Africa works is that the individuals with the most money get seen first which is less than 10% of the country. The villagers who live on less than $2.00/day in most cases never really have a realistic opportunity for medical care and certainly no opportunity for a complicated surgery like this one. As I was leaving Asikuma in March I was told that the hospital would call him back to schedule a surgery. I thought this seemed a little odd but I just kind of went with it.

Well over the last two months there has been no progress in getting this boys’ arm fixed. I have been checking in about every 2 or 3 days to see if we have any news. Finally last week I was to the point of absolute frustration and was going to reach out to anyone I knew.

During my December/January trip I met a missionary who was returning from 15 years on the missions field and was actually a doctor that had helped established a hospital in Ghana . We had a great conversation on the plane and he gave me his email and I saved it on my notepad via my I-phone. I have not ever put anything into my notepad and to this date it is still the only thing in my notepad. This individual is now practicing medicine in South Bend, Indiana. I decided what the heck and I would just send him an email explaining the situation and the need we had to care for this boy. In my mind I doubted that this individual would even remember me, but I guess that God put us on the plane together for a reason.

Cameron,

I know you may not remember me, but my name is Jake Sullivan and I met you and your family on a plane trip home from Ghana in early January. I wanted to reach out to you as we need your help. In the community that we are doing our work in called Asikuma we met a young boy that has a compound fracture of his forearm. We came to find out that this has been the case for the past year and obviously infection is setting in and the boy is suffering. The individual that has been working for us in Asikuma apparently cannot find a doctor who can fix this boy’s arm. I thought I would reach out to you to see if you knew of a place we can take this boy to have the appropriate surgery to fix his arm. If you could direct me to the right people I would truly be grateful.

Thanks,
Jake Sullivan

P.S. I pray that God is blessing your ministry and your impact in South Bend, Indiana.

To my delight, less than 24 hours later I received an email back…..

Hi Jake,

I remember our conversation on the plane last January. Hope you are doing well. It sounds like the boy has an osteomyelitis after the fracture. He will need significant care, likely a surgery to clean out infection, weeks of antibiotics, etc. There is a reputable orthopedic center in Koforidua at St. Joseph’s hospital. That would be my recommendation. There may be other options at either Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra or Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. Hope you are able to help him.

Blessings,
Cameron Gongwer

After receiving this email from Cameron I thought I would take the information and Google St. Joseph’s Hospital, hoping and praying that the hospital would have a website. Let’s just say it is not the greatest website, but it had just enough information and even provided me an email to contact them. Again I did not think I would ever hear a response back but to my delight I was wrong again. The head surgeon as well as the director of the hospital emailed me back immediately.

To St. Josephs Hospital:

Hi guys! My name is Jake Sullivan and I am from the United States of America. I have been to Ghana 13 times over the past three and half years and love the country. To make a long story short we are doing a lot of work in a community called Asikuma. We have had the opportunity to open up a small medical clinic for the community, construct a computer center at the school and some other awesome things that God has chosen to do through our organization. During my recent work in Asikuma in March I met a young boy roughly 12 years who has a compound fracture of his forearm. He needs immediate treatment and up to this point we have not been able to find anyone to help. The other day I met a missionary doctor that has been working in Ghana and he suggested I contact you guys to help. Please contact me as soon as possible and we can get the boy down to the hospital whenever you can set up an appointment.

Thanks,
Jake Sullivan

Dear Jake,

Kindly make available patient's contact number. I will make contact with one of the main orthopaedic trauma surgeons. Dr Abdul Rahman would certainly like to establish the level of injury at least by telephone and a local doctor near Anomabu has to write an official referral if possible if National Health policies in Ghana is to be applied. We know that the policy does not cover implant surgery and the hospital charges will apply.

Thank you.
P. Ofori-Atta President. Motec Life – UK

Later I received another email sent from St. Josephs to schedule appointment and surgery:

See 9am on 30th May. I will leave Koforidua at 12mid day. Eventually will be back to Koforidia for surgeries 11th to 14th June.

Thanks.
Ofori-Atta

So, to my delight we got an appointment scheduled at 9:00am on the 30th of May with the head surgeons and then they will schedule a surgery for mid-June between the 11th-14th. Now it is in God’s hands to see that the appointment goes as planned and that we will have enough resources to care for this boy as hospital fees will apply for his surgery.

Each day when I wake up I wonder how many of these stories exist in Africa. I wonder how many of these stories are in Asikuma alone. I just pray that God continues to use me as his hands and feet here on this earth and I will continue to long to be with the people in a land 6,000 miles away from where God has me now!

Now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
Now that I have held you in my own arms, I cannot let go till you are...

I am on a plane across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
and the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet
Ghana (replaced Rwanda).

-Lyrics from 'Albertine' by Brooke Fraser-

Gift Giver

Justice is our gift giver. :) If you’ve ever read the book ‘The Five Love Languages’ you will know that one way people feel love is by receiving gifts. Well, we’ve learned that one way Justice shows his love is by giving gifts.

Justice has had a good chunk of money saved up from the past few months – Jake’s parents always send the kids money for their piggy banks on holidays like Valentines and Easter. Plus he had won a few dollars here and there at the gym with shooting contests that the kids sometimes do for fun in between practices. Then there are the random dollars that he’s gotten on the tournament trips – like he’s talked the high school boys into paying him a dollar if he stands on their back to crack their backs. :) So, he’s been saving up this money, and the last I knew he had his eye on a butterfly habitat/house that they are selling at Target right now. Justice is really into catching butterflies and he wants to be able to keep them and observe them. He had been deciding if he wanted to spend his money on that, or keep saving. Last week at school the book fair was in town – we saw the slip of paper come home but it was forgotten about under the pile on the counter. A few days later at the end of last week Justice came home with surprise gifts for JJ and Jayla – posters that he had gotten for them at the book fair – using his own money! :)

 

He hadn’t even asked Jake or I for any money for the fair…..and I think that is what makes these gifts feel even more special. For JJ and Jayla to see that their big brother would use his own money, on gifts that he didn’t have to get them is pretty cool. But the better part was seeing Justice’s smiling face after JJ and Jayla were so happy and chattering about their surprise posters (and Jayla showed her poster to everybody who walked in our front door over the next few days)! I know Justice loves the feeling of giving.

Then Friday rolled around and Justice brought out those wrapped presents for Jayla and I. Once Jake told me that he hadn’t taken him shopping I knew he must have somehow gotten us something during school hours, and again with all his own money since Jake hadn’t given him any and he hadn’t asked Jake for any! I tried to get information out of Justice but he just smiled and wouldn’t dish his secret! A little while later I recalled that the school was also having their ‘elephant sale’ this past week. Last year it was more like a garage sale, where everyone brought items to sell and money to purchase things. But this year they had new items on the sale. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was how he got the gifts wrapped so nicely – we didn’t have the polka dot wrapping paper at our house.

Well, that question got answered on Saturday at one of Justice’s basketball games. His teacher came to watch him play in the tournament and as we talked she brought up the gifts. She said he was so excited about buying the gifts at the elephant sale, but then became distressed about how he was going to get them wrapped. His teacher said that, “his heart was so genuine about it all that I told him I would take them home and wrap them and bring them back the next day for him.” So she did. And here are the perfect little gifts he picked out and bought for Jayla’s birthday all by himself and with his own money:

 

Stuffed animal puppy dogs and bears (really nice, brand new TY ones – one of which she took along in her bike basket for her first ride around the town), a coin purse, and a stocking cap. :) And here is the card he gave to her:

 

And you saw my Mother’s Day gift yesterday, but here is the card he gave me:

 

I thought it was SO SWEET that he took the time to give us cards (I don’t even normally give cards with gifts!) and I loved his little handwritten notes and add-ins on the inside! After we had opened our gifts I asked him where he had gotten the cards from. He said that at the elephant sale he had purchased a big box of different types of cards all for $1 – which explains why my Mother’s Day card was a birthday wish. :) Love it! Eventually I asked Justice if within all this shopping he had gotten anything for himself. And, yes, he had…..there was one little treasure that had caught his eye, and after putting everyone else’s gifts first, he had just enough money left for it…..

:)

A Full Weekend!

I had such a great Mother’s Day Weekend – one of my favorites by far! On Saturday I treated MY mommy to a pedicure, something we haven’t done together since high school I think! Jayla got in on the action too, and now all of our cute little toesies are ready for summer!

Jake’s Kingdom Hoops program hosted the tournament locally this weekend, so we went to Justice’s games. His team has had a few months break from tournaments, so he has really been working on his game during the off-time. It was so exciting and encouraging to see some major improvement in him and how much his skills are developing!

We also squeezed in Jayla’s birthday party this weekend since Jake will be traveling to a tournament next weekend which is when her actual birthday is. I am going to save those pictures and her birthday post until next weekend when the big day comes, but here’s a sneak peek from her party….

I know the best part for Jayla was that a TON of her little friends came. When everyone had to start leaving for the night she pulled me into her bedroom, tears filled her eyes and she said, “Why is everyone leaving mommy?” Oh. Break. My. Heart. I told her that everyone had to get home because there was school tomorrow, and all fun parties have to come to an end. “Well, will all these people come to my party next year too?” she asked. “Of course!” I told her. Jayla is my little social bee – she is perfectly content to be surrounded by friends and family (and lots of them!) - that’s all she needs and she is so happy!

On Friday after school I was getting ready in the bathroom when Justice got off the school bus. About 5 minutes later Jayla came busting in the bathroom and said, “Justice says the big rectangle and big square polka-dot boxes are for me, and the small square polka-dot box is for you.” I had no idea what she was talking about. I went out in the living room, and saw three perfectly wrapped presents, with cards nonetheless, sitting in a pile by Jayla’s other birthday presents. Two of the polka-dot gifts had Jayla’s name on them, and one had mine on it.

By this time Justice was off playing outside in the driveway, but I knew that he had just set these gifts out. I had also just set all of Jayla’s presents out that day, so I figured he had been keeping these gifts hidden as a surprise until it got closer to the party. Later that night I asked Jake if he had taken Justice shopping for our gifts earlier in the week. “No,” he said. When I explained the presents that he had set out that afternoon we both just looked at each other in mystery! How did Justice not only buy Jayla and I gifts and where from, but also how did he get them so perfectly wrapped and find greeting cards to put on them?! Well, there is definitely more to this story and it is a perfect fit for another post tomorrow! :) But, here is a glimpse of my sweet Mother’s Day gift from Justice – a little frame with sayings about mothers…

Seriously, how cute is that??!!! Gosh, I love his heart! Jake and the kids also got me a special curling iron for my hair that I have wanted for a loonnggg time!!!! I was SO EXCITED to get it! And to picture Jake standing at the curling iron kiosk in the mall, in an in-depth conversation with the sales-lady about which curling iron was the right one – PRICELESS!

It's always a special day when you get to be with family ~ 3 mothers and 4 generations of girls!  Happy Mother's Day 2012!

 

All weekend long I was thanking God for giving me such a perfect little family. All of my dreams to be a wife and mom have come true. I could not ask for more. ♥

Love Your Enemies

Each time we’ve invited someone new into our home it’s been like a mirror has gone up in front of me. I get to see who I really am. One by one God uses THEM to sanctify and refine ME, and it gets pretty eye-opening. I realize how selfish I am with my time and my things and my relationships. Sin issues are brought out into the light more than ever before. Through these experiences I’ve seen that I love people so conditionally, that I vent my anger like a fool, and that I too quickly forget that I also was once (and still am) a wretched sinner in need of grace.

Until this Rosebud hosting experience came around, we have never hosted someone in our home who has so boldly refused God. Others who we’ve hosted in our home have had some sort of base knowledge or belief in God to start from, and were either interested, thirsting, or at least open to being taught more about Him. Our host student made it clear from the beginning of this journey that she rejected the Lord and our family’s fear of Him. At first we made our family devotionals mandatory for her to attend, but over time, in prayer, we decided that Jesus never begged anyone to follow Him, and we shouldn’t do so either. Her decision to reject was not based on lack of knowledge of the concepts of faith, or because she didn’t understand the scriptures. She is a very smart girl, and conveyed time and again that she had full comprehension of the basics of the Bible and salvation. Rather her heart just said no to God. I am not sure that I have ever encountered someone who has full understanding of the knowledge of Jesus, but has chosen to outrightly say no to the only way of salvation - in order to proceed down the path of destruction so happily. And yet, God has not designed us as robots. He’s given us each the free will to choose to submit to Him, or not. As mind-boggling as it was, Jake and I knew that we needed to allow our host student the freedom to reject. Our hope in that was that someday she would begin to understand and care about the consequences of her choice, and that Jesus would melt her heart of stone.

For me, sharing the gospel with the hope that God will lead a heart towards repentance and belief in His Son is honestly the only reason that I ever open up my home for these experiences. Hosting students for me is not about offering someone a great educational opportunity, the rich experience of learning a new culture, or the challenge of helping a young adult turn their life around. Those things are just additional benefits in my mind to the main purpose: sharing the hope of Christ. That purpose is eternal and the most important. Everything else is just temporary. Therefore, for me, the past two semesters of this hosting experience have been an intense spiritual battle. When I personally came to the realization that our host student was stiff-arming God, not even allowing the chance for Him to do a work in her heart, it became very, very hard for me to want to lay down my life for her. I found it difficult to smile at her in the mornings before school, or to even want to entertain conversations with her. It became a burden for me to give her rides to events, or to go out of my way to show her kindness. As she separated herself apart from Christ, I started to feel the battle lines being drawn. In fact, when I looked at her I saw my enemy. I know that sounds like a harsh word to use, but I was feeling the fullness of what Jesus says in Matthew 12:30, “He who is not with me is against me.” Every day began to feel like war.

I believe the Lord’s desire in this hosting experience was to teach me to love my enemies. I came to this revelation earlier this year. I wish I could say that realizing what God was trying to do in me changed my heart and therefore actions towards our host student. It didn’t. I am sure it would have spoken volumes to our host student if amidst our struggles I would have been the ‘aroma of Christ’ and the ‘fragrance of life’ to her. But unfortunately, I fought this process of sanctification that the Lord was desiring to work in me. I’ll be honest - I began counting down the days until this hosting experience would be over.

In Luke Chapter 6 Jesus says…

But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you….If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:27-28, 32-36).

I went into this hosting experience hoping to play a part in God transforming a life. Our family was offering this particular host student a second chance at being part of this program, and because of that I expected to see a spark in her, a change of heart from her time in the program last school year, a grasping for opportunity, an appreciation of the second chance being offered. But instead I watched a gift of grace be tossed aside, and that made me angry.

But I am also thankful. These past two semesters God used this hosting opportunity to teach me to be a more submissive wife (because parenting strategies don’t always match up when you are in the middle of conflict), to teach me self-control over my emotions, to humble my prideful heart, to open my eyes to just how spiritual of a world we live in, to show me the importance of being prepared to give an answer for the hope that I have in Christ (and doing so with patience and careful instruction) and to teach me to show mercy – something very unfamiliar to my nature.

My expectation going into this experience was wrong – I thought God wanted to do a transforming work in our host student’s heart, but it turns out He wanted to do the greater work in mine. Although this outcome was not what we had hoped for or expected for our host student, God has exposed the ugly areas of my heart that need to be rooted out. And for that I am thankful.

Do not resist or run from the difficulties in your life. These problems are not random mistakes; they are hand-tailored blessings designed for your benefit and growth. Embrace all the circumstances that I allow in your life, trusting Me to bring good out of them. View problems as opportunities to rely more fully on Me. When you start to feel stressed, let those feelings alert you to your need for Me. Thus, your needs become doorways to deep dependence on Me and increasing intimacy between us. Although self-sufficiency is acclaimed in the world, reliance on Me produces abundant living in My kingdom. Thank Me for the difficulties in your life, since they provide protection from the idolatry of self-reliance. ~Jesus Calling~

$howing Up Big Time Part II (Adoption Finances)

In our family devotional time we’ve been talking about 2 Corinthians 5:7 ~ We live by faith, not by sight. Oftentimes people only trust in what they can SEE and FEEL and TOUCH. Afterall, that seems to make the most sense. But over and over in the Bible we see that God teaches His followers not to rely on those principles.

So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out….I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark – you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them (Genesis 6:13-14, 17-19, 21).

Noah didn’t get to SEE the flood coming when God told him to start building. He didn’t get to look up in the sky and see a bunch of nets holding back rain and the ‘floodgates of the heavens’ until the opportune time. He didn’t get to look down to a glass ground to observe the waters rushing around impatiently, just waiting to be propelled from ‘the springs of the great deep’. Yet, one verse later after God gave Noah the instructions we are told: Noah did everything just as God commanded him (Genesis 6:22). For 120 years Noah walked in faith as he constructed the ark, and trusted God, even when he could not SEE any evidence of the ticking time bomb that God said would be coming. All he had was God’s word.

Then there is the story of Abraham and Sarah. Abram said, “O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Elizer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir (Genesis 15:2-3).” For years this couple had remained childless, and now they were too elderly and old to physically be able to have a child. And yet, God was ready to proclaim that the impossible would happen…

Then the word of the Lord came to him [Abraham]: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:4-6).

Then, a few chapters later, after a string of doubts which produced Abram and his wife Sarai to take God’s promise and matters into their own hands, God reminded them with more details of how this son would come about….

God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her… Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety (Genesis 17: 15-17)?”

Then the Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son (Genesis 18:10-14).”

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him (Genesis 21:1-5).

I get chills every time I read that story. Even amidst their doubts, God was teaching Abraham and Sarah to trust Him at His word, even when it seemed that what He was promising was impossible.

Elsewhere in my Bible I read the words of Jesus as He tells me to trust in a bigger thing unseen to my eye – HEAVEN: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:1-6).”

I am confident that I will spend eternity with Christ in heaven when I die. I’ve never gotten to SEE heaven – not even a teeny tiny glimpse. I can’t even fly in an airplane and hope to TOUCH heaven. But I know Jesus doesn’t lie. And so, with confidence I talk with my kids day after day about heaven. We wonder if there will be cake at the big banquet that God will have for us, we can’t fathom what it will be like to be in a place with no sadness and no sin, and it blows us away to ponder that there will be no need for the sun, because God Himself will be the only light that the Holy City needs. Jayla will tell anyone and everyone, “Huxley is not our home. Our home is in heaven.” And though we haven’t ever seen it with our eye, we take God at His word when He tells us in the Bible that ‘heaven is for real’.

So what do all those stories have to do with adoption finances? Everything. It is the same principle. Live by faith, not by sight. I’ve seen these examples, and many, many more in scripture, of people trusting God when it seems He was telling them something impossible was going to happen. Because of that, in my mind, it was NOT indeed ‘crazy’ to trust in God to provide a way for us to complete the task of adoption that He had led us to. In fact, crazier things have happened: a floating zoo that escaped God’s wrath, white-haired and wrinkled old people having a newborn baby, and a Kingdom made of gold and pearls - built in the sky - where my inheritance and a room that my King has already prepared for me awaits. Bringing us $30,000 out of nowhere is a piece of cake compared to all of these things.

But I will follow that with a warning. If you live by faith when it comes to adoption finances many will call you a fool, saying that with money it is a different story – you need to save, prepare, be smart, and not venture into an adoption if you don’t know exactly how you are going to pay for it. But here is the difference: orphan care is at the very heart of God. It is His will that His church would Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow (Isaiah 1:17). and Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked (Psalm 82:3-4). and Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (Isaiah 58:6-9) From scripture it is SO CRYSTAL CLEAR that Christ-followers are to be the ones reaching out to the poor and the needy, and one way to do that is adoption. Would I tell you to trust in faith that God would provide $30,000 for you to go and finish your basement? Or buy a boat? Or take a lavish vacation? Absolutely not, because God doesn’t mention those things in almost two thousand verses like he does with the topics of poverty, justice, and oppression. Rather we read, Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (James 1:27). After reading that, how could one argue that this is not God’s heart? An adoption is not a vain act, and how interesting that orphan care is put in the same verse as watching out that we don’t set our hearts on the pollutions of this world – many that come by way of money. Adoption isn’t something that you are partaking in to make your life better or more comfortable or more cushiony. That is why this financial endeavor is different than any other. That is why I believe if God has sparked your heart to adopt, He will provide a way financially for you to do it, but He may ask you to take the step of faith FIRST before He reveals His financial plan to you.

Because I enjoy freaking people out by saying that, I thought it would be even more of a thrill to keep track of the details on every single transaction that has happened in our adoption fund since I opened it last July. I did this because we had to bank on God coming through for us - to pay for this adoption - and when He did, I wanted to have record of how He did it. :) So, what follows is the evidence of what I’ve been telling you all along. At first glance it may look like a lot of numbers to read through, but to our family, these numbers perfectly show the hand of an Almighty God who brought unexpected and unplanned money to us in many different ways. In fact, there were only two deposits out of them all in which we transferred money from Jake’s regular paycheck into our adoption fund, and one transaction in which we used money from our regular checking account to pay fees. Everything else came from sources outside of Jake’s normal income that we had no idea would be coming when we signed up to adopt – things like speaking engagements, Jake’s individual training side-business, income tax refunds, and of course the MANY, MANY donations from friends and family. If you are wondering how on earth you would ever pay for an adoption, I encourage you to bring what you have, and trust God to do immeasurably more than all you can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within you (Ephesians 3:20)….

July 2011 Deposits
$26.50 ~ Money from items I sold on my grandma’s garage sale
$150 ~ Unexpected financial gift from friends (this gift was intended to go towards groceries, but at the same time we had received a large grocery gift card from someone else, so we put this gift into our adoption savings)
$50 ~ Unexpected financial gift from friends (same reason as above)
$30 ~ Money gift for my birthday
$63.38 ~ Unexpected membership reward check from Huxley Communications (our internet company)

End of July balance: $319.88

*NOTE: This $319.88 was all that we had when we signed up to adopt at the end of August. Upon signing up, we had to send in our application fee which was $300, leaving us $19.88 in our adoption fund. We weren’t sure how we were going to pay for the next fees that would be due soon.

August 2011 Deposits
NONE

August 2011 Debits
-$300 ~ Application fee to Adoption Advocates International

End of August Balance: $19.88

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September 2011 Deposits
$50 ~ Sold Ghanaian necklace

September 2011 Debits
-$30.50 ~ Criminal History Record Checks for homestudy (through Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation)

End of September balance: $39.38

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October 2011 Deposits
$400 ~ Piece of Jake’s paycheck saved from last month - September
$20 ~ Unexpected refund from McFarland Clinic (overpayed co-pay)
$20 ~ Money from items I sold on my grandma’s garage sale
$30 ~ Sold Ghanaian necklace
$10 ~ Cash my grandma had given me for lunch to take the kids to McDonalds :)
$2500 ~ Donation towards our adoption from Living Word Fellowship Church in Knoxville (This is a church that Jake has spoken at a few times. The pastor has a son in Jake’s Kingdom Hoops program, and his church regularly gives to our Ghana projects. When Jake spoke at the church to update them on our Ghana projects, he mentioned our adoption and the money that we needed to come up with. Days later we had received this donation in the mail that was to go to our personal adoption fund!)
$3000 ~ Portion of 2010 Tax refund (IT FINALLY CAME after months of delays!!!!)
$2100 ~ Jake’s newly started individual training sessions -income from September & October (These training sessions have been a HUGE way in which God has provided for our adoption. Jake literally thought to start doing these at the start of the fall as a side-business - he had no idea how big of a hit they would be, but God knew!)
$900 ~ Piece of Jake’s paycheck saved from this month - October

October 2011 Debits
-$3000 ~ Agency processing fee to Adoption Advocates International
-$30 ~ Background checks on our Rosebud students (since they lived in our household at the time of our homestudy)

(For those keeping track of the adoption costs, we also paid $1650 in homestudy fees and pre-pay of post-placement reports during this month, however we paid that out of our regular checking account so it doesn’t figure into the below balance.)

End of October balance: $5989.38

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November 2011 Deposits
$100 ~ Unexpected financial gift from family in Kingdom Hoops program
$225 ~ Donation towards our adoption from church member of Living Word Fellowship Church in Knoxville

November 2011 Debits
-$77.07 ~ Order of certified originals birth/marriage certificates for homestudy
-$890 ~ Submission of I-600A form and biometrics appointment fees to U.S. Department of Homeland Security

End of November balance: $5347.31

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December 2011 Deposits
$100 ~ Donation towards our adoption from friends of a family in Kingdom Hoops program
$75 ~ Donation towards our adoption from friends from our church – Cornerstone Church of Ames
$225 ~ Christmas present donations for our adoption from family members
$200 ~ Unexpected financial Christmas gift from family in Kingdom Hoops program
$500 ~ Jake’s speaking engagement at Morningside Lutheran Church men’s group

December 2011 Debits
-$30 ~ Checking account service charge (not adoption related)

End of December balance: $6417.31

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January 2012 Deposits
$1000 ~ Jake’s individual training sessions – income from December
$60 ~ For Christmas JJ had gotten the same XBOX game from two different people as a gift. We took one back and received cash for it and rather than buying another game he wanted to give the money to our adoption fund. :)
$50 ~ Donation towards our adoption from a family in Kingdom Hoops program
$670 ~ Friends of ours requested that instead of their family buying them Christmas gifts that they give them money to gift to our adoption fund!

January 2012 Debits
None

End of January balance: $8197.31

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February 2012 Deposits
$50 ~ My speaking engagement with a Titus 2 Women’s group at a church in Ankeny
$200 ~ Donation towards our adoption from friends
$325 ~ Proceeds from Valentines ‘Take Heart’ photo sessions held on our behalf by local photographer
$1000 ~ Jake’s individual training sessions – income from January/February

February 2012 Debits
-$23.50 ~ Ordered checks for account (non-adoption related)
-$2000 ~ First portion of Ghana program fee due with child match – paid to our agency
-$5000 ~ Second portion of Ghana program fee due before court – paid to our agency
-$300 ~ Foster care fees for March for our girls ($150 per child) – paid to our agency

End of February balance: $2448.81

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March 2012 Deposits
$150 ~ Jake speaking engagement at Solon School
$250 ~ Donation towards our adoption from family member
$31 ~ Returned cans/bottles
$100 ~ Donation towards our adoption from family member
$100 ~ Donation towards our adoption from a friend
$1100 ~ Donation towards our adoption from friends

March 2012 Debits
-$300 ~ Foster care fees for April for our girls ($150 per child) – paid to our agency

End of March balance: $3879.81

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April 2012 Deposits
$750 ~ Jake’s individual training sessions – income from March
$100 ~ Donation towards our adoption from a friend
$5000 ~ Portion of 2011 Tax Refund

April 2012 Debits
-$108 ~ Pre-pay gas mileage for case worker who will do our post-placement reports
-$300 ~ Foster care fees for May for our girls ($150 per child) – paid to our agency

End of April balance: $9321.81

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That brings us to what we have left to pay. Right now we are waiting for a court date for our adoption case. After court we then wait on the official court documents; once we have those in hand we can submit our I-600 form. With Ghana adoption you can either ‘file’ the I-600 form in the U.S. or in Ghana. With Justice’s adoption we filed it in the U.S. and waited a few months for our approval. This time around we plan on Jake flying to Ghana for a quick trip to file the I-600 there. It tends to be a shorter wait time for approval if you file the I-600 in Ghana – but you just never know. So, here are a few costs coming up in regards to that:

-Jake’s flight ticket to ‘fly and file’: prices range depending on time of year, but will probably be around $1500-$1800.

-The final portion of our Ghana program fee to our agency will be due upon I-600 approval (the total amount for the program fee depends on how many children you are adopting, their ages, whether or not they are special needs, and whether or not they are siblings). The total amount for our program fee is $16,000 of which we’ve already paid $7000. So the balance we will pay upon I-600 approval is $9000. And just take a look at the current balance in our account as of the end of April……SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!! We already have the money to pay this last big chunk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOOO-RAH!

-We will pay $300 in foster care fees per month for our girls until they come home. Most likely we will pay those at least for June, July & August – maybe more depending on our approval time. So that is likely to be at least $900 in foster care fees.

-Once we have I-600 approval then our power of attorney starts working on getting our girls’ visas (this is the step in which we had all the delays with Justice’s adoption). The visa fee is $304 per child. So for us that will be $608.

-After our girls receive their visas, we will then purchase the plane tickets to go and bring our girls home! This is mainly what our church’s adoption grant that we’ve been approved for will go towards (we will use what is left over from the grant for the other remaining fees – foster care fees, visa fees, etc). For those of you keeping track of all the expenses, plane tickets for Jake and I will probably be a little over $3000 total, and then the one-way tickets for the girls will be about $1000 each or less. So a total of around $5000.

So, AMAZINGLY, the two biggest chunks we have left to pay ($9000 for the rest of our program fee, and $5000 for our travel home costs) are seriously already accounted for. Unreal. Thank you Jesus.

We can now also count on the extra money Jake brings in each month from his individual trainings to cover everything else – like Jake’s flight to file the I-600 in Ghana and also some of the preparatory items like bunk beds. :)

Therefore, my friends, basically what I am trying to say is that it is now an appropriate time to let out a WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Yes, you can believe your eyes. This adoption is paid for.

The world’s way of pursuing riches is grasping and hoarding. You attain My riches by letting go and giving. The more you give yourself to Me and My ways, the more I fill you with inexpressible, heavenly joy.  Relax in the knowledge that the One who controls your life is totally trustworthy.  Come to Me with confident expectation.  There is nothing you need that I cannot provide. ~ Jesus Calling ~