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Floodgates Update - via cash, cars, clarinets & peanut butter tubs!

I sent a $5,787.76 check to Bethany Christian Services today with "Florida Family Adoption" in the memo line.  Sent chills down my arms!!  This thing is real!  All these papers, checks, prayers and checklists WILL turn into a sweet little person in my arms someday....ok, just added a lump in my throat to the chills on my arms!

Sorry it's been so long without an adoption update....it hasn't been because God's stopped working, He's like the energizer bunny!  It's because I keep waiting for the perfect creative, stress-free moment to craft an update that's all packaged up pretty with a ribbon on top.  Not waiting anymore...you're gonna have to be happy with whatever I can slap together in the next 20 minutes while trying to keep "messy house ignoring" blinders on!!

The update can be summarized like this...."It's pointless to keep wearing mascara because God keeps doing stuff that makes me cry!"  Today Ginger saw me tearing up and asked in a concerned 2 year old voice, "Mommy, are you crying?"  I assured her that they were only happy tears because of good things.  She snorted and said I was silly...

We got the bills in the mail - the first big chunk to pay to Bethany before we go any farther.  We owe Bethany $9,600 and then right after that we'll need to send a check to the State Department for $875.  So $10,475 is the number to be praying over with your hands raised in expectation today!  (Thanks for teaching me to pray that way Laura C!!  I'll never be the same!)

Well, the floodgates haven't shut....they're still open above the Florida house!

Our family members handed us a check for $2,000.....just handed it to us like it's no big deal....for them to hand out checks like that or for us to receive them....  $2,000!! That's is big deal!  A very big deal!  That's a big chunk towards the bill sitting here on my desk!  Praise God for His abundance and for family that's walking with us so completely!  They also gave us a van...to either keep or sell for adoption money!  Turns out, this van has more seats than Scott's car so we're planning to keep this van and sell Scott's, since large cars seem to be our inevitable fate!  Anyone in the market for a nice little silver Taurus??  All proceeds will go to the "Florida Family Adoption!!"

We've been getting cryptic emails, phone calls and facebook messages lately.  Things like, "What's your address, we need to send you something."  "Watch for me at school, I've got something for you..."  I can't believe how far and wide God is speaking and how you people listen....it's so humbling and encouraging!

An old friend from high school....we went to high school over 20 years ago ya'll....was one of those messages.  We gave the address and not too long later got a sweet note and check in the $160 check in the mail....like it's no big deal!  Such encouraging words too...
"It's so much fun when the Lord lays something on your heart and you follow His leading. 
Your adoption was immediately on my heart. 
I talked about it with my husband and here we are! 
God is truly amazing isn't he?!?
Looking forward to seeing pictures when your new family member arrives!"
Words like that are priceless to me.  They give me so much strength as they keep it obvious to me that God is doing something and it's not just some little scheme of Lori!  Thank you dear friends, for the words and the check, they both were just what we needed!!

A peanut butter jar made me cry in the school parking lot!  A family with 3 gallant young sons in my girls' classes have been very supportive of our adoption.  We talk a lot in the halls, field trips and parking lots and I've felt a lot of "kindred spirit bonding" kind of stuff happening when we're together.  Their boys are the kind of kids that make you do a fist pump and yell "yes" when you find out that they're in a class with your daughter.  This family is raising kind, strong men that stand out in a crowd.  Their mom, my friend, handed me a gift bag in the parking lot the other day.  When I opened it, this is what I found...



...with $75 in it.  Very. Big. Deal!

And then today....  I teared up mightily at the computer as I read a message from a sweet church friend.  We were working out a deal for me to buy her clarinet for my 5th grade new "band-ie."  Instead of the asked for price, she sent me a message expressing her excitement that God had answered her prayer for a way that she could help with our adoption.  She decided that her clarinet should come to us as a gift so that we could put the money we would have spent on it toward the adoption.  I am so amazed at the creative ways God does His thing....I mean, could I really have thought to pray for that?!  Thank you friend, for meeting the needs of more than one of my children with your clarinet!

So that's how the floodgates have been opening these past few weeks.  We're nearing the end of the first big milestone....just $3,422.24 away from having an approved homestudy and immigration clearance.  The next step after that will be sending our dossier and next big payment on to Ethiopia to get ourselves on that waiting list!  Maybe by Thanksgiving??  We hope, but God knows! 

We've still got a looong way to go but these are steps worth celebrating!!  Between the $1,265 from the Ordinary Hero fundraisers and the check I sent today, God's taken a $7,052.76 sized bite out of the financial piece of this adoption!  He said He would....let's keep believing!





Comments

  1. Thanks for such a wonderful blog to keep us posted. You always manage to make me cry! I often see God as being in this box and your blog is a great reminder that He's so much bigger then I could ever imagine. Thanks for being such an encouragement when you should be the one being encouraged at this point in your life.

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