A Testimony to God's Provision

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us while we were gone! The Lord heard your prayers and we all arrived safely home in one piece and without any major medical conditions. Thank you for caring so well for us!

This most likely will be one of our final blog entries on this blog (turns out there isn't as much time to write these days!) and we think it fitting to give as much glory to the Lord as possible for providing the money we needed in order to adopt. So let me share with you how the Lord has provided every dime we needed to bring home our four kids...

Our adoption journey started a few months after Dave and I were married. We lived in a 450 square feet apartment, had $40,000 in student loans, weren't making enough money to pay our bills, and Dave was still in college. But dear friends of ours adopted and they told us about how destitute their little girls were before they adopted them. They told us that many girls who age out of the orphanages go into prostitution and how the orphanages simply did not have the resources to care for the children so that left them very sick. Feeling very moved by what we heard, on our way home from our friends' house, we decided that we would for sure adopt no matter what.

About a year later the Lord gave us very high paying jobs which allowed us to pay off all of our debt and the next big expense was to save up for was our adoptions. At that time were were going to adopt two children through Vietnam which would cost about $80,000. The week we turned in our application to adopt, both of us were laid off of our jobs and Bush announced the recession. But we decided to still go ahead and pursue the adoptions knowing that the Lord had a special place in his heart for the helpless and that he would provide.

So we got new jobs and made probably 10% of what we were making before. To top that off, both of us were full time Masters students and were only working part time. But we just kept praying...

Vietnam closed to international adoptions which led us to Ethiopia. So instead of $80k in fees, we would only need to come up with around $30k. We are pleased to say that the Lord provided every single dime we needed:

• Friends and family contributed to our adoption fund
• We received thousands upon thousands of dollars in grants
• Our new employer reimbursed us $16k for our adoptions
• Friends threw us a wonderful shower which took care of all the baby items we needed

We got Kaden and Makyra home and even had some money in the bank. We praised the Lord for his provision and thought we would move on...

However, soon after we brought them home we really felt as if the Lord was leading us to adopt again (See previous blog if you want to read about what led us to this decision) but this time I wasn't working and we didn't see any realistic way to fund the adoption. So, at first glance, this looked like a "closed door" but we just prayed that the Lord would provide.

And PRAISE THE LORD, even though for this adoption we received very few grants, He decided to use other means to provide this $30-$35k. Such as:

• Dave's employer again will reimburse us $16k
• There is a significant tax rebate for families who are adopting this year
• Friends we hadn't seen since college heard we were adopting and decided to mail us their tax return.
• A couple in our church got married and instead of asking for presents at their wedding, they asked all their guests to contribute money to adoptive families in our church.
• Our church also helped us financially.

So, in sum, the Lord provided around $65,000 within the span of a year and a half for two people who started off as full time students working part time jobs.

We write this because we want everyone to know that the Lord answers prayer and that the Lord is not limited by finances. His Word is very clear that he cares deeply about the orphan, widow, world missions, and so on. He is committed to these causes and he has all the resources in the world to see to it that the orphans are cared for. Often he directs these resources to those who will care for them.

Unfortunately, the orphanages in Africa and the streets of Africa are still full of children that need to be adopted. So if you are thinking about adoption, but are hesitant because of finances, let the testimony of how the Lord has provided for us compel you to adopt. It is not irresponsible to look to the Lord for provision, it is faith.

"For from him and to him and through him are all things. To God be the glory forever. Amen."

Romans 11:36

P.S. For future family/ministry updates, please visit our blog at haretranslation.blogspot.com