In A Year's Time

I took a "snapshot" of the link above. It really lives along the sidebar and truly counts the days since we sent in our application to Holt. One year. Along with the rest of life, we have invested many hours and much energy to get to where we are. More importantly, in anticipating the arrival of our sweet lil' one since April we have had MANY joys, tears, fears, disappointments, hopes, dreams, answered prayers and victories.

I've been a mom for 12 years now. I also have followed Jesus just a little longer than that. Want to know what I have learned and what I know always will be true?  It's all going to continue - the ups, downs, ins and outs of life as a follower of Jesus and a mom. I wouldn't trade any of it for all the riches in the world.

Speaking of riches, that's one thing we are not unless you're talking about blessings. We are richly blessed from the Lord. Earthly stuff, well, it's just stuff. Got to have some of it to make your way in this world. Like a car -- most of us need at least one to get around. So, it's a necessity to some degree.

When we first looked at adoption, we had sticker shock! Sorry to be so raw with my explanation but it's true. Good grief, we thought. How do people do this sort of thing? Next thought was that we don't generally do debt. We are not "religious" about it, it's just how we prefer to live. So, there weren't going to be any loans either, Lord willing.

And, that's just how we left it. Lord willing. He had to provide the ransom for our child. It took us changing our perspective from "wow, this is going to cost the same as a pretty expensive new car" to "we know this is the ransom for this child's life. If God has called us to this, He will have to provide."

A dear friend who is a much wiser woman of God than I, has taught me: "If you think God is telling you something, make it hard on Him. He can handle it. Ask Him for confirmation, be specific." So, we made it hard and left the ball in His court.

So, how "hard" is hard for God, really? It sounds funny doesn't it. Nothing is "hard" for God. But the point is that in making it hard on Him meant we had to dig our heels in, to seek, to ask, to knock until we got an answer. To take steps as if walking blindly, completely trusting that God is there to catch us.

On September 18, 2009, we mailed our application. Then we waited in wonder at how God would direct our steps.

Keep in mind before we ever set foot on the adoption trail, there were many scriptures, lessons and blessings that led up to that first big step. We aren't going to jump out the window and then yell, "hey, God, is this your will for us?!?"

Wouldn't you know though, that within a months time, God set our path straight before us. He provided a blessing that covered all of our adoption costs to date with some left for travel. We trust that our travel costs will be less than what remains from God's incredible provision,

cause we'd like to

give more, 

bless more,

and

do more

for God's glory.