God's Provision!!

ALL praise, glory, and honor shall go to The Lord Jesus, the One True Most High God!!! Monday of last week we received a call from Bethany telling us that a gentleman had donated $10,000 to our adoption!! We were absolutely blown away!! Then Friday we received another call telling us that this donor had spoken with someone else about our adoption. This person matched the first donor's donation of $10,000!!! We knew that God called us to adoption. We also knew that it would only be through His provision that we would financially be able to do adopt though. We had no idea however, that this would be the way He would provide!! Out of the 13 years we have wanted to adopt, we always desired that our adoption would bring God glory. This is a work that only He could do! Two strangers that have heard of our need and have so generously given. That is the Holy Spirit's doing. Our family has been so excited this week to know that we are one step closer of adding another person to our family! 

Even last night, Tucker and I (Dana) were talking and he was saying how he can't wait to get to move to the next step so we can get "our" new child. I also had someone come up to me at church last night hugging me and expressing her excitement over the donation because Ellie had shared in her college class! It always makes me smile and tear up when my children express their desire for this adoption and to call this new child "ours". They don't refer to this as something that mom and dad are doing. They refer to the adoption as something "we" are doing! That is just another way that the Lord blesses my soul! One thing is for sure... This child will be loved by his siblings!! 

Needless to say, we are ecstatic!! We are so grateful for these two donors! I know that they were vessels that the Lord used in our lives. They have forever changed our lives out of their obedience to Him! I am not sure that we will ever be able to fully express our gratitude to them! But, most importantly, we thank the Lord Jesus! He has truly been our Jehovah Jireh! He has done "far more abundantly anything we could ask or think"!! (Eph 3:20) 

Adoption- Ethiopia

As you all know, Billy and I are in the adoption process. Adoption has been on our hearts for about 13 years. After Major was born, we knew that we wanted more children, but was not convinced that having them biologically was best for us. Through out these years we sought the Lord many times about if the time was right. We have even had meetings with Bethany and many informal conversations with an adoption attorney to gain more understanding and wisdom on the process. However, the Lord never gave us a peace to truly start the process. 

In February of 2013 Major asked us to consider starting the process for adoption since were all back and would be for a while. Our kids have been very aware that we have wanted more children!! Our first thoughts were that it would be crazy to start an adoption process with all that was going on in our family. We agreed, though, to pray. To our surprise, after about a month of praying, we both felt like this was indeed the time to start the process! We turned in the first application. We got our approval within days. We then had to submit the full application. The next step was to have a meeting to discuss the countries that would fit our desires of time frame and so forth. 

Through this time between then and now, we have felt lead to Ethiopia. We knew that we wanted to just maintain our children’s birth order. Other than that, we did not care if it was a boy or girl, or how old they were. One of our deepest desires is to adopt a child that desperately needs a home. A child that is in many ways seems un-adoptable. As we continued to pray about the child that would be ours, our hearts were softened as to what “conditions” we would be willing to take. We knew that we could not take certain types of health issues with the possibilities of going back on the field. Yet, God surprised us once again of opening our eyes to be more open. 

One day, as I was looking at the waiting children for Ethiopia I did not put any age perimeters. I came to the last page for Ethiopia. I came to the last child. I looked at him and wanted to know more. I read his bio and my heart started beating faster. I watched his 50 second video and fell in love! He was my son! I called Billy and asked him to look at this child. I waited on the phone, and when he finished watching the video, he agreed that this was our son! I am not able to go into this child’s story quite yet, as he is not ours officially. But, what I can say is that, he is the child that we have been looking for. He desperately needs a family that will love him unconditionally and not leave him. Despite what ever trials that surround him, he was made in the image of our Savior. 

This is where you guys come in!! We ask that you pray with us. We want to bring our son home as soon as possible! 

Please pray for:

-The fingerprints to be approved.

-Provision of finances. (Right now, we need $1,700 to be able to move to the next step.)

-That the Lord would be preparing this young man’s heart for a family. That in only a way that He can, healing would already be taking place of the hurts and pains he has had to experience.

Our Next Steps

-Once we have the fingerprints approved and this fee paid, we can move to completing the dossier for Ethiopia.

-We are applying for grants from adoption organizations that help families pay for adoption.

-We are praying that God will show us creative ways to earn some extra money to help as well. 

We thank you in advance for your prayers for us, this process, and our son. We will give you guys updates as we receive major new news! We have started a prayer group to come along side of us through this process. If you would like to be added through Facebook or email, please send me a message I will add you. :)