So, I know that I need to sit down and write up how we got to this place of our newest adoption, but I just can't seem to get there because all this other cool stuff keeps coming up and I just have to share it all. Or at least as much as I can fit into my little bloggy thing before it gets too long for anyone to stay awake and read. Ha!
As you know we have really jumped into this thing trusting the Lord to provide the finances. I have spent many years telling people the story of Jolene's $500 - the money we started her adoption with and was still ours when I unpacked our suitcases after bringing her home, but this time we really don't even have that. With four children to feed and clothe, our recent journey to freedom from debt (thank you, Dave Ramsey!), and my now stay-at-home status, there just isn't much extra money sitting around in our bank accounts these days. Don't get me wrong, we are very blessed - Dan makes a good living and we have a comfortable home-life, we just don't have a few extra thousand sitting around for an adoption. But here we are anyway, in with both feet and flying with no safety net, other than faith that is. But for those of you who have known us a while, that probably doesn't surprise you. We've been known to do what the world considers crazy before and the good Lord has yet to let us fall. And it seems this adventure is no different.
As you may know, last week I spoke with the applications contact person for CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International) who happily informed me that our family would be able to receive the returning families discount even though we had not adopted through them before simply because we were "returning" to China. That was fantastic news! In that one little comment we were saved $500. A coincidental number? I think not. But that wasn't the only good money news we received last week. While speaking with our homestudy agency, America World Adoption, I learned that because they will only be doing our homestudy and not our full adoption, our application fee with them is only $50 rather than the normal $250. Another check in the good news column. Then there was the acquiring of said $50. Merely out of curiosity (and I'll admit a bit of desperation), I posted several items for sale on the Fort Meade For Sale page of facebook. What did I sell? Several small things, all totaling up to a $50 profit. Once again I ask you, a coincidental number? Nope, not going with that this time either. Then there was the next miracle. We had been working on our CCAI application all week trying to track down numbers from investments, find W-2's that hadn't been unpacked since moving, etc. and though I desperately wanted to get it all done and in the mail I also knew that I didn't have the $200 I needed to pay the application fee so I convinced myself that the delay was some sort of good thing. Of course, that was followed promptly by a friend from church sending us a check for more than half of the amount needed. And now we come to today. We finally finished up our application paperwork and last night I wrote a check that I knew was for more than I had actually come up with to cover the fee. But I wrote the check anyway and the girls and I took the big envelope to the post office this afternoon. On the way back we stopped by our mailbox and what did I find? A refund check from our utility services for $53. It took me about two seconds to realize that I had gotten a similar check last month and in a split second more I had done the math. The two checks together made up the exact amount we needed, down to the dollar mind you, to cover that $200 fee. Creeped out yet? Kinda spooky, ain't it? I couldn't even wait until we drove the two blocks home to call Dan so I broke the base-wide hands-free only cell phone rule and called him from the car. His response? "Not creepy, Cool!" Cool indeed.
And I haven't even told you all of it yet, there is still more! While putting together our virtual bake sale I heard through the grapevine that homemade baked goods aren't actually allowed in the Wounded Warrior units because of sanitary and safety issues. I was totally bummed. But I was also hearing from a soldier that the Wounded Warriors love getting homemade food, so I kept saying I was going to do it and continued to try to find the "right" person. Turns out I found her, but not by any of my own doing. When I called Walter Reed the switchboard chose to put me through to a colonel's voicemail and that simple act put me in touch with a woman who told me most people spend years trying to track her down. My reward for someone else's switchboard choice - finding the "right" person. We now have permission to hand out as many homemade items as we sell at our very own table at the Wounded Warriors Oktoberfest event on October 23rd. And we ended up with a similar situation here at Fort Meade where my request resulted in our being asked to provide our fundraiser purchased muffins as the baked goods needed for the Warriors in Transition family picnic on October 27th. And here I was worried that we wouldn't be able to deliver on our fundraiser sales. Ha, silly me! I'm not quite sure that amazing word is going to be good enough for what the Lord is doing here. But "something crazy" is definitely a good theme. And I cannot thank the Lord enough for all He has provided.
Psalm 100 reads: "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into His presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is He that made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations." It is here that I find my solace and here that I will draw my strength. There is no way we could do this on our own, and there is no mistake that He is with us. I will give thanks to the Lord, and I will bless His name for GREAT is His faithfulness!
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