Faithfulness

David here. I just want to share God's faithfulness in our lives during this process. One aspect of adopting is the financial component. With Olivia, God moved in amazing ways to provide the money necessary for us to pay for the adoption without going into debt. During our decision making process for Josiah, for me, money again became the crux of the issue. Seriously, four kids, do you know how much that costs? College? Ouch! Is our house big enough? Nope. Cars? Getting old and small..... Cost of adoption $25k. You get the picture. Eventually God worked in my heart by helping me remember that He has always provided in tough times, as long as we are working in His Will. So started our journey towards bringing Josiah home.



As our blog demonstrates the many milestones, I wanted to provide some financial ones too.
April worked hard to provide some extra money through cutting back on spending (even though we are pretty frugal already), ran a marathon (and raise $175), and did some babysitting (1,900).

Family, friends, and church members provided another 3,100 in donations.

We also applied for a number of grants, which we never really thought we would receive. The Gift of Adoption Fund (see link on sidebar), provided us with a grant which propelled us from the "how in the world can we make this work" to " wow, look how cool God is". This was a big moment for me, as leading up to our notification, I was really really stressing about how we were going to afford it without going into debt or borrowing money (just ask my wife... I was not a happy person). It was in this moment that God put His finger into our lives and made it clear. You and your family are part of my plan. You are doing and in My will. I have provided. I am providing. Much like Joshua, I put a stake (Joshua used a altar of rocks) in the ground in my life to never forget the amazing provision God can and will provide.

We also made the decision to bring our son, Joel, on our trip. This added to our cost and we started to wonder if it was the right decision, even though we had prayed about it.... we started to second guess ourselves, especially as over the last month (Nov/Dec) we had a number of medical bills and procedures which were unexpected and really started adding up. And the car broke.... how easily we forget God's provision sometimes and allow worry and money to so impact our lives. It put me in the position of, okay I know God will provide BUT we only have a few weeks (2) before we leave.... How in the world will this work out? Through prayer and conversations with family and friends we knew it would work out.... but... but...but... yah you get the picture.

Last week we were notified that we received another grant from Show Hope (see sidebar) which covers the cost of bring our son, the extra medical bills, and remaining balance for the adoption.

In all, it demonstrates the provision of God, and a constant reminder that we are in His will as we add to our family.