Call unto me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33:3
The title of my blog post kind of gives it away. To be honest, it has been a difficult few weeks. We have been waiting for an update on our Mariah since the beginning of January. The only paperwork we have on her is missing a lot of general information. The Chinese doctor did not fill in the boxes on her medical form that included her blood pressure, a neuro-check, her skin, her vision, a few other things. I'm not all that worried, but that information would be nice. Today marks day 37 of the wait for our LOA. They say this is the toughest wait. I pray that we are not one of the unfortunate few that wait 130+ days for our LOA. There have been very few LOA's issued for the past two weeks. I am praying for the floodgates to open on Monday or Tuesday and for ours to be included.
Today, a very dear friend of mine boarded a plane with her husband and two of her children for a direct flight from Dulles to Beijing. She will be spending the next 20 days in China meeting the two newest members of her family. She has three biological sons, the oldest is fourteen.Their first trip to China was in 2010 and they brought home their first adopted son. She will have five sons and one daughter! I am so excited for her! She has been an adoption mentor to me. She has held my hand and walked me through the process and listened to me cry, complain, and rejoice (yes....probably all in that order). I don't think I would have been able to do it without her. So, thank you Kristin! I'm praying for you and your family.
That is the first reason of this week of blessings. Two orphans will be united with their forever family, raised in a Christian home. That is an example of The Great Commission. Personally, I have had a rather blessed week as well. We had sweet friends give us money for our adoption. It was unexpected and very generous. How do you thank someone for helping in such a huge way?
I called Lifesong on Monday to see how our fundraising was going along. I was shocked that only 2 weeks into the matching grant fundraiser, we were halfway to our goal of $2,500. I got a few emails this week of others who were sending their check in to Lifesong.
I called Lifeline (our agency) on Tuesday to ask a few questions. Let's just say that our local home study agency is requiring us to keep up with our foster parent training. I was not happy. WE ARE NOT FOSTER PARENTS! Unfortunately, we are the only family in WV who is internationally adopting from a Hague country (since 2008). Our agency specializes in foster-to-adopt. Their regulations do not accommodate our adoption, so we have to continue our "education". While I was on the phone with Lifeline, our social worker asked if I had heard from the JSC Foundation. This was one of the grants that we had applied for back in February. She shared with me that they already received a check for $9,200! We are overwhelmed and in awe at how God has continued to provide for us in this process.
This frees up a little bit of money to get the house ready. Jeremy's office needs to have a make-over. The back wall will be made into a closet. It is large so half will be shelves for our board games and toys. The other side will be converted to a closet for clothes to be hung and stored. We need a car seat, a toddler bed, sheets, diapers, wipes, baby soaps, clothes, and countless other baby items. We took a huge step completely on faith. We were prepared to use Jeremy retirement, and take out a home equity loan. Now we do not have to dive into those savings or take out a loan.
God called us to be faithful. We had our doubts. We ignored the adoption calling for several years. We thought we had all the right reasons. Money was the number one concern. We knew that Ben's health was another factor in our procrastination. Now that we have taken that leap, the rewards are countless and the blessings keep coming.
Thank you to everyone who has been a blessing to our family! We sincerely are touched by the generosity of our family and friends. Thank you to those that we asked to provide reference letters. Just when you thought you were done, we had to ask for more. Those letters were instrumental for the grants we have been blessed to receive.
No comments:
Post a Comment