Proverbs 3 :5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight." This is the verse that Jon and I had engraved in our wedding rings. It is our "marriage verse". It is posted above our sink so everyday we can remember to trust our Lord. This adoption process has been a true exercise in trust and faith. Back in April when we felt the call of the Lord to move forward on the adoption of Hannah it definitely didn't fit within our understanding. We had been talking about adoption and our plan was to move forward with it in another year when we sold our house - hoping the sale would provide the money we needed. The morning that I woke up with the overwhelming sense that the Lord had a child for us, I didn't expect it to be on the internet. However, that is exactly where she was. The fact that the Lord put the desire for this beautiful baby girl in both the hearts of Jon and I was confirmation that we were to move forward in faith. When Jon said to me, "if one of our children were stuck on the other side of the world and we needed $20,000 to get him/her home we would figure out a way to do it. So if she is the child the Lord has for us we will figure out how to get her home." This was huge because Jon had been adamant about us not moving forward without having the money. We were reminded of the call and promise we had made to each other when we married that we would never let finances stand in the way of being open to life (children), we just hadn't realized this encompassed adoption.
Therefore we moved forward in seeking out more information about the process of bringing this baby girl home to be part of our family. A couple days into the process we came against some pretty major obstacles - we were actually told that we would not be able to move forward with her adoption unless we agreed to change our homestudy agency. Jon and I discussed the options that were given to us if we wanted to move forward, which would have cost us an additional $2500 - $3000 for our homestudy. We decided we wouldn't change things, we would hold fast and trust the Lord that if we were to move forward with this adoption he would remove this obstacle that would cost us more money and the agency would allow us to adopt her. Within 5 days after much prayer and fasting the agency dropped the stipulation and approved our family to adopt Yun-Ha Cha, a beautiful 3 month old baby girl from South Korea. We then received a $3000 reduction in her fees and a $2000 grant from the agency. This was our first confirmation from the Lord that we were moving forward with his blessing and he would provide for our financial need.
We then began researching foundations that provided grants to help families adopt. We came across the Kingdom Kids Adoption Fund which would aid in fundraising by setting up an account to enable friends and family to donate on your behalf and receive a tax-deductible donation for their giving. We applied to set-up a fund as well as applied to several other foundations for grants. We then prayerfully wrote a letter asking for financial help from our family and friends. This is a very humbling experience, asking others for money. I had to continuously pray against pride and fear of judgment. Someone once told us that if you don't ask for help in your time of need you are robbing someone else of the gift of serving Christ through you. I often had to remind myself of this truth and the promise the Lord gave to provide when I became insecure in the face of financial strain, fear and judgmentalism. The Lord provided a very low interest unsecured loan, that we originally took out for home improvement, to enable us to pay the initial upfront costs. As things have moved forward in rapid succession it became clear that we would be traveling soon and we had little money for the $4000 of expenses that we will incur. We had received $300 in support from our fundraising efforts and had heard nothing from the grants we had applied for.
This past Tuesday afternoon Jon and I were riding in the car and I asked him if he had been earnestly praying for the funds we needed to travel and he admitted that he had not been specifically praying for that. So right there at the red light we lifted up our financial needs to the Lord and again that night as we went to sleep, we prayed for our dear Hannah and the money we needed to go get her very soon! Once again the Lord has shown us his faithfulness. By Wednesday evening we received $1250 from family and friends and on Thursday we got a call from Kingdom Kids that an anonymous donor had donated $1000 to our fund. In two days we had gone from $300 to $2550, more than half of what we needed! Once again we were shown God's faithfulness and providence in our lives.
Along with being reminded about trust I have been reminded about faith. A few week back a reading really struck me at church. It was the story about when Jesus went and preached among his own people and they did not believe in him. The passage states that he could not perform the miracles that he wanted to do because of the people's lack of faith. We have free will and he will not force himself upon us but when we turn to him in faith, it frees him to work miracles in our lives. He does not call the equipped, he equips the called - when we answer! I am so thankful that we have been called to move in faith and trust on this adoption - it is so awesome to see the Lord at work. We are so grateful that he has entrusted Hannah to us and we are so grateful to all of those who have answered his call in answering our prayer! You have helped us, and hopefully others, to see the hand of our Father at work in our lives. Thank you also to all of you who have been praying for us and the process of this adoption. Things have been moving forward in record speed with no hang-ups, which is almost unheard of in international adoption. We are expecting to hear any day that Hannah is ready for us to come and get her and bring her home! We are so very blessed! Praise God for his faithfulness!
If you would like to make a donation on our behalf for the additional expenses we need to cover, you can do so by clicking on
Kingdom Kids!
We deeply thank you and appreciate you helping us answer the Lord's call to bring Hannah into our lives! God Bless You!!!
