I am always encouraged when I hear of the ways the Lord blesses families through fundraising. When we were going through the adoption process, it was so reassuring for me to see God providing for other families. I'm so thankful to Emily for sharing today about the way the Lord provided for their adoption in His perfect timing!
%2B(1).jpg)
Hello! My name is
Emily. I am a mom of 4, a wife to Owen and lover of Jesus. I have had the joy
of reading Leah's blog and following her Instagram while she and her hubby
welcomed their sweet little Haven Grace into their family. Isn't God's work
amazing? Just about 6 months prior to Leah, we added to our family through the
miracle of adoption. God worked mightily in our lives and hearts throughout our
home study, wait time, fund raising and finally our placement.
Leah asked the
adoption community for some insight on how God has worked in adoption
funding...boy do we have a story! But before I get there, I want to say that we
were in the same boat as most folks--the category that sounds like this:
"We'd love to adopt, but it is so expensive! We just can't afford
it." I totally get it. And you know what? God totally gets it! Even as I
secretly dream of another adoption, that is my very first fear--so I am
declaring this to myself! Adoption is expensive. But as we learned in our
journey, God's plan is perfect. He did not put the dream of adoption in our
hearts just on a whim, but for specific purpose. Philippians 1:6 says, "I am certain that God, who began the good
work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day
when Christ Jesus returns". If you know the Lord is leading you to
adoption, He will work it out!
A
little background, my husband Owen and I had been married for 8 1/2 years and
we had been blessed to have 3 children. They are Clara born in 2007, Judah born
in 2009 and Wesley born in 2011. We knew that physically it was not a good idea
for me to have another baby although we were both certain that our family was not
complete. We were like many Americans at that time (just over 3 years ago)
living in a home that was purchased at the top of the market and had no other
financial options--we had 980 square feet for 5 people. We felt trapped in our
finances with no way in sight to live differently. We are your average working
American family (financially speaking). God knew this. He had a plan and a
rescue. An awesome one! Our in laws invited us to live at their vacant home in
our city--God had moved them out of state for work. We were thrilled to have
more space and quickly began saving for a new house...so we thought. About 4
months into our new living arrangements, Owen and I really started to talk
about adoption. I felt it for NOW and he felt it for LATER. I made an information-seeking
appointment at our local adoption agency and Owen walked out of that meeting
asking where we could sign up. Our home fund quickly became an adoption
fund.
Fast
forward through our home study period, home schooling, being placed in the match
books, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and a half marathon and we had a good
amount saved for our adoption. We felt very ready for a new baby in our family.
But, it was not time yet. God was still working in His miraculous ways to move
and show His faithfulness to our family and teach us to trust in His goodness!
In late January of 2013 long time friends from our small group spoke into our
lives. They asked us how things were going saving for our adoption and a
house. They knew us well enough to know (even though we were unwilling to admit
it at the time) that it would be very difficult to accomplish both of these
financial goals on our own. They encouraged us to let our faith & family
community come along side us. FUNDRAISING? What? We didn't really need that,
you know, we are hard working people who can provide for ourselves--with their
encouragement we did in fact agree that we might need a little help. I was
willing to do something simple, with minimal paperwork (I know adoptive
families understand the paperwork burnout!) Our agency recommended that we work
with a funding agency called Life Song for the Orphan. I contacted them and
began our funding journey.
A
dear friend in a passing comment said, "I bet God is going to do something
amazing! I bet your final bill is going to be like $13.00." I laughed and
said that I could only hope.
.jpg)
In
February I received our package of information and got ready to start
fundraising. We were just going to send out a letter to friends and family and
ask for prayer & financial support. Life Song recommends that we send this
letter out to 200+ people...our scope is just not that big! We made our list
and were stretching it at 80 folks. Yikes. I was filled with doubt. Maybe out
of fear and certainly out of pride, we asked people to help us with half of the
adoption costs. We sent our letters and I kept the funding process out of my
mind for 6 weeks until our "deadline". Just six weeks after our
letters were sent, I contacted Life Song to check in and see how our
fundraising had gone. The sweet accountant said, "It appears that things
went really well for you. You have raised over the amount that you requested in
your letter." Did you catch that? We had raised over the amount that we
had requested. I asked her how many people had contributed, and she said,
"seven." Certainly she meant seventy---I clarified. No. Just seven
people had contributed 75% of our adoption cost. We were dumbfounded. In awe of
God's mercy and goodness. And of course because I was a mama in waiting, I was
convinced that our "CALL" would come the next day. or the next.
The next part of our story
is rather personal, and involves people that I love so much. I need to share it
because it was a HUGE part of our fundraising--not necessarily financially but
spiritually. In May I received a phone call from a family member who I will
protect in this telling. I could tell instantly that this was not going to be
like our regular conversations. There was strong emotion in their voice--the
kind that is scary. They said "I need to confess something to you",
and proceeded to tell me that they had been angry at Owen and I for asking for
money for our adoption. They thought that if we wanted another child we should
be responsible for it and all the associated costs. They said that they had
been upset since they received our letter and just did not know how to manage
this in our relationship. I was very surprised, a little hurt and confused. As
the conversation continued though I realized that God was moving and working in
such big ways. This family member confessed to me that during their quiet time
that morning, "God sent a lightening bolt in their house and changed their
hearts". Everyone they came running to find each other during the morning
devotions and confessed that they were looking at their money and finances in a
godless way. They were convicted on the spot and wanted to give to our adoption
fund. We do not compel people to give to adoptions. It is not our job to
convince people to give, that is the Holy Spirits job! They said that this
moment was continuing to revolutionize how they think about money! WOW. A baby
who hadn't even been born was being used as an instrument to change hearts
towards Christ. Even in ways that we were unaware God was working through this
process
We continued on through the
summer and my heart & mind became weary from waiting. It's something I know
many adoptive families go through. We also learned that our agency was raising
their fees significantly in November of 2013. This was a huge stress to me!
Although our fundraising was 90% complete, a large increase was going to be a
challenge.
As the summer drew to a
close, we knew our time living at our in laws (after 2 years) was also coming
to a close. We (and by we I mean I) began looking at homes in our desired area.
I found "the one" and through a series of miraculous events we closed
on our new home 10 days early. I told our Realtor that the only reason God
would be moving like that is because our baby was coming soon. Little did I
know how true those words were!
On August 28 we received a
call from our adoption agency asking if they could present our file to
birthmom. This was 2 days before our scheduled move. We said YES! The next day,
LifeSong for the Orphan called me and said that they had re-reviewed our file and
they had decided to give us a matching grant--that we neither applied or asked
for. This put our adoption fund at 99%! The next week we entered into a match
and just 15 days later we welcomed our beautiful daughter Julia into our
family. It was a whirlwind for sure, but a perfectly planned one. God makes no
mistakes! He was asking us to trust Him completely because only He knew how to
orchestrate this miracle!
.jpg)
As is custom with our
agency, a few weeks after placement and papers are signed, the adoptive family
goes to the agency for a time to be prayed over and to pay the final bill. Our
final bill was $11.00. Every penny, every need, every detail the Lord had
worked out in his perfect timing. Do you know that our entire adoption was
funded by 12 donors and 1 grant? That's amazing! In all the ways I wanted to
doubt, control, manipulate the situation, God was sitting back and telling me
to trust Him and asking me to WATCH THIS!
**If you would like to read
some of the other miraculous things on our adoption journey, I casually blog atwww.maurermasterpiece.blogspot.com
Interested in receiving more information about fundraising and access to resources to help you fund your adoption? Then working with an adoption consultant might be a good fit for your family. Email me at leah@christianadoptionconsultants.com.
No comments