If you have followed our story since the beginning, you may remember that it all began with another story. God began stirring my heart towards adoption after reading Mary Beth Chapman's (Christian singer, Steven Curtis Chapman's wife) book, Choosing to See. After I read the book, I flipped to the back where it listed the website for the Chapman's organization, Show Hope. One of the wonderful things that Show Hope does is offer grants to families who are adopting to help offset the expense, therefore making it possible for more orphans to be in families.
I opened my laptop and found myself on Show Hope's page. It was like I got there without even realizing what I was really doing. I had a moment of confusion as I stopped and asked myself "Why are you looking this up, you don't have any plans to adopt?" Ha! As many of you know, when you tell God you are not planning on doing something, many times He has it planned for you to do just that. So, be careful what you say!
From that point on, adoption was EVERYWHERE and eventually, God brought both Evan and I to a place where we knew that adoption was exactly what He wanted us to do. You can take a look back at our adoption video from a couple years back by Harmonic Films that recounts some of this HERE (that feels like forever ago).
Fast forward to February 2015. We had been in the adoption process for 2 years and God had made it clear to us that he wanted us to switch from the Ethiopia program to the special focus program in China. We had made the switch in January and were matched with our precious son. His file had little information in it, but, based on a picture in his file, I recognized the orphanage floor as being a Show Hope sponsored floor from a random blog I had run across a while back. Our son was now in a foster home, but I wanted to know if he was ever in Show Hope's care at some point.
I contacted Show Hope, hoping they may have some information for me, but knowing the chances were bleak. I gave them our son's name and birthdate and waited. I received an e-mail soon after confirming that he was indeed in Show Hope's care at some point and they had him in their system. Once our adoption was complete, they would be happy to send us any additional information & pictures that they had of him from his time there. I was so elated and it was yet another reminder to me that God's hand was all over this. You can read that full story HERE.
In the beginning of this process, the thought of raising the funds to cover our adoption seemed daunting. It was a HUGE amount of money and pride got in the way many times as we planned fundraisers. But, God has always been faithful and through our village (that's YOU), He provided EVERY TIME, sometimes even to the dollar amount of what we needed. He was so faithful, that I stopped stressing about the cost, knowing that even if it was slow, even if we had to do a million fundraisers, He had this! All of you have been such an amazing support and encouragement to us through these fundraisers and through your generous giving. You continually blew us away! Thank you!
Once paperwork slowed down, we decided it would be wise to apply for some grants. I always knew that Show Hope would be the first grant that we would apply for because of the history there. So, we filled out our grant application and got it submitted one day before the deadline. We prayed over it and knew that God was in control. My specific prayer was this "God, you know who needs this grant. Give it to whoever needs it most. If it is us, wonderful, if not, we praise you for whatever family is blessed by it." After we did that, I just had this gut feeling that we weren't supposed to apply for any other grants. I often questioned myself as to if that was wise, seeing as how we did still have quite a bit of money to raise. But I just did not feel the urgency to apply to any more.
We were told we would not hear anything for 90 days while the board reviewed applications. We were also told that while many families may qualify, there are limited funds and not every family would receive a grant. So, we waited...
This past Tuesday, I was cooking dinner and baking cookies while listening to the new Asian Dreamland kid's CD that I got from the library that day in honor of Maverick. I like to do little things like that to keep me connected to him. Evan walked in from work and said "We got a letter from Show Hope." My heart stopped. I knew this was going to tell us if we received the grant or not. Before we opened it, I said "God, regardless, you will provide. You know best." I knew I would be ok either way, but the excitement of possibly receiving a grant had my heart pounding. It reminded me of how I felt when I opened college acceptance letters.
The letter was long and our eyes scanned quickly trying to find an answer. Suddenly, Evan's eyes caught it. "We are pleased to inform you that you have been awarded an adoption assistance grant."
AHHHHHHHHH! Tears streamed from my eyes as we read it over and over. Like many times, before, we praised God in our kitchen (there is something about the kitchen) and stopped and told the kids the good news. Around the table, we all prayed and thanked God for Show Hope's generosity and His provision and faithfulness once again.
So, it is with GREAT pleasure to announce that our adoption is now FULLY FUNDED. Over 2 years of fundraising and saving and we are finally DONE! Phew!!!! It has been a long road, but a good road! God has never ceased to amaze me with every fundraiser and every generous person. But gracious y'all, the thought of not having to fundraise anymore...THANK YOU JESUS!
So, what is totally cool about this besides being fully funded? This adoption started with Show Hope, we connected with them in the midst of finding out who our son is, and their generosity rounded out our funding. SO COOL! Only God could work out such amazing details like that! We are so grateful to Show Hope and as always to our Heavenly Father, who has been faithful from the beginning.
To God be the glory!
Your praise will EVER BE on my lips, Lord!
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