Thus Far #3

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.” 1 Samuel 7:12

It's been awhile since I've done one of these posts, but God has been doing some pretty cool stuff, so it's past time for me to share!  You can also go back and read #1 and #2 to see how God has led and provided all along our adoption journey so far.

Just last week I posted about how God has given us such a peace about staying with Ethiopia, even with the uncertainty that surrounds international adoptions out of there right now.  So, this month we started the process of updating our homestudy and all the updated documents that go along with that.  We have to do this every 18 months because our USCIS paperwork (the paperwork that allows us to enter the country with our daughter when we bring her home) expires every 18 months.  There are new expenses that go with that, but God's faithfulness to provide above what we above and beyond what we needed before (in the summer of 2012 when we were very heavily fundraising) has provided within $20 of all the fees we have due at this time!  Isn't God so perfect?  It's just amazing!!  And to top that off, the week we write all the checks and pretty much empty out our adoption checking account, we are in the midst of one fundraiser and a sweet friend from church offers to do another one!  I mean seriously, sometimes I just have to laugh at God's perfect timing, something the world would call a coincidence.  

The fundraiser we are doing right now is by a lady who makes unique jewelry for mother's and grandmothers.  Her website is A Nest by Design and there is also an event on facebook that explains all about it as well (you don't have to be invited to the facebook page to place an order).  Basically every order placed on her site during the month of January, we get 20% towards our adoption!!  I already know a couple of my friends who have ordered and their necklaces have turned out so great!  These are just an example of the pretty necklaces she can make!  I want a "pea pod" one someday when our family is complete!

And then, about a week ago, I receive an email from a friend, offering to do a Thirty-One fundraiser for us.  This is not all completely planned out, but it looks like right now it will be a combination of an in-home party on March 8th as well as catalog/online sales, all of which will be added together and she will donate 20% of sales towards our adoption as well.  I love Thirty-One products, they are high quality and so cute! So keep your eyes out for that, and leave a comment on this post with your email if you want to know more specifics as it gets closer.

Besides providing for our monetary needs through these awesome ladies, God has also led us to change our parameters a little.  With AGCI, our placing agency, we are required to maintain birth order, which means our Ethiopian daughter can be no less than 10 months younger than Ashten at the time of referral.  When we first did our homestudy, our age parameters were listed as 0-2 because Ashten was only 2 at the time.  Well, now that she is almost 4 and will be past 5 the next time we have to update our homestudy (pray with us that it doesn't come to that!), we have chosen to increase our age parameters to 0-3.  What this really means is that on the day of referral, our Ethiopian daughter could be anywhere between 1 day old to 3 years, 364 days old.  The "3" in 0-3 means all the way up to the day before to their 4th birthday.  So, we could very likely be bringing home a toddler or preschooler from Ethiopia.  This is exciting an a little scary all at the same time, but we trust that since God has led us to do this, He will provide what we need to do it, which probably includes extra patience and lowered expectations.  It might be that this mama who has said she will never homeschool might have to for awhile to catch up our daughter to grade level since she will most likely not know much, if any, English, let alone be at grade level knowledge of math, English, etc.  We are excited though, to think that our daughter is probably already born at this point though.  And we are excited to think that Ashten and K could be closer in age than we thought.  

So those are just some of the ways God has been leading and guiding and providing lately.  We don't want to forget the ways He has sustained us all along, it's so easy to forget all the good things God does for us!  Thank you, all of my readers, for your prayers and support of our adoption thus far, you are a blessing to us!