God is just showing Himself strong!

Did you know????

• 34% of Christian Families consider adoption
• ONLY 1% actually do it
• There are 163+ million orphans in the world who desperately need a forever family
• If ONLY 7% of Christian families would adopt...there would be NO MORE ORPHANS!

(Taken from http://paynefamilyblessings.blogspot.com/)

So the first thing that stuck out to me when I read this was: why do only 1% of Christian families (out of the 34% who consider it) adopt?  I am only speaking from our experience here, but I am guessing it's mainly because of the money. 

Honestly, probably our biggest hurdle to starting the adoption process was the money.  It is scary expensive.  Like, you-could-take-that-money-and-buy-a-brand-new-car expensive.  But actually, it's more than that.  Because I don't think God would provide money for us if we just sent out a support letter to our friends and family asking for money to buy a new car.  God definitely has an agenda and one of His top priorities is seeing that orphans are cared for.  See James 1:27 if you don't believe me!!!  So that is what He funds!

As I've said before, when we started this process and found out we'd have to pay over half of the total cost by the end of the summer, we were super, super discouraged.  We were stressed and felt like this was basically God's way of saying "no, you got it wrong.".  But boy, were we wrong!  Since February God has provided over 1/3 of the total cost.  He hasn't done it in ways we would think either.  We have received gifts from people who we never thought would give or who have given more than we would expect!  And our adoption agency actually lowered the cost of adoption through a Mother's Day promotion they were doing!  How many times have you ever heard of that happening?!?!?  I know I never have!

And that's just the money we have in hand right now!  In the next month, God has provided two additional, unexpected sources of income for our adoption.  One is some friends who very generously offered to help us fundraise, so we are having a silent auction in June.  SO many people have donated things for the auction, I mean big things, and some from people we don't even know!  The other is that just yesterday Chris was invited to be an AP reader for the AP Chemistry exam, which provides additional money for some fees we have coming up.  According to their website, they first start calling readers in February and if you haven't heard by April, well then you didn't get called that year.  So to be called in the middle of May? - totally a God thing!!

Chris and I were actually just talking last night about how we weren't feeling extra pressure to apply for grants at this point.  We still definitely will as we don't want to assume upon the grace of God and the ways He wants to provide, but originally our plan was to have those totally ready to send out the day that our home study was complete (along with all the other paperwork we should be working on at that time).  But with all that God has provided, we believe He is giving us a little room to breathe, to be able to focus on the paperwork at hand and then apply for grants once our dossier is submitted and we are on the waiting list.  So God has been so good to us through this whole adoption process even in non-monetary ways, giving us strength to press on and get what we need to done without worry about how we will afford it.

I am not saying all this to brag on ourselves or what we've been able to accomplish, but to point it all back to God.  He does care for the orphan and He did call us to this adoption and He does promise to provide everything we need to do His will. One verse that has been a theme since we first sent in our applications is 2 Chronicles 16:9: For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.  Love that, and that's definitely what He's doing.  Nothing so far has been because of us, this is all God!  Isn't He awesome?
I'm linked up with Faith Filled Fridays for this post!