Jehovah Jireh: The Lord Will Provide

I don't want to miss a single chance to give God the glory as we walk through this adoption process once more.  He has already caused us to sit back in awe of His hand in the process.

As we began praying about the potential of adding Lilly to our family, as I shared before, God reminded us that He is faithful and He has shown us His faithfulness.  He simply asks us to obey.  Sadly, for a moment our faith failed us as we questioned what we both knew He was asking us to do.

 

Our biggest fear in pursuing the adoption of Lilly was not where we were going to put her or if we could love another child with special needs.  We have another seat in our car and a spot at our dinner table.  We have a place for her to sleep, siblings to spoil her and more love than she has probably ever experienced all just waiting here for her.  Our biggest fear was raising the funds to pay for the actual adoption process and the travel to get her.  We are completely capable of caring for her and providing for her, but the cost of the process is steep.  The crazy thing about this fear is that we have seen God diminish this fear in our previous adoption!

  I had the honor of being a guest on a friend's blog a few months ago and I was able to share about how God provided throughout the adoption process with Endale.  He was there at the beginning from providing my desire to love a child with Down Syndrome all the way to getting him home.  You can read it {HERE}. 
We have certainly seen God provide.

Weeks into this process, God has already showed up and I want to share with you and give God the glory.  Matt and I decided that we would sell our pop-up camper, so we would have money for some of the initial payments to the adoption agency.  Matt listed it on Craigslist.  In less than 5 minutes, his phone rang with a potential buyer.  The family asked if they could come see it that afternoon.  They came, loved it and made an offer on the spot.  Now, like any good business person, we listed it high knowing we'd most likely get a lower offer. The family made their offer.  It just so happened to be the next fee amount that we owe our adoption agency!  And, it was $1000 MORE than what we initially paid for it!!  To make this story a little sweeter and more laced with God's goodness....the family had two adopted daughters from China.  Goosebumps.

We also launched our "Adopt An Envelope Fundraiser" this week to help with our adoption costs.  It allows anyone to be a small part of caring for an orphan who will soon have a family to call her own.  We have been floored as we've seen God's faithfulness through people--some who have been a part of our lives for years and some only a short time--take part in loving a little girl they've never met.  Tears flowed down my cheeks as I read messages from dear friends just wanting be a part of this.  Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good."  We have seen His goodness over and over again in our lives. Our journey to Lilly will be no different.  We can certainly taste and see His goodness this week.

Where we are at is a terrifying but beautiful place to be.   We are fully relying and depending on God to come through for Lilly.  To quote a dear friend of mine, Dr. Allan Sawyer:

"God challenged me to do things 

so far out of my comfort zone 

that if God doesn't show up,

then we are going to utterly fail." 

The amazing thing is....we KNOW He will show up!  We are His vessels and get to be used by Him in the process.

Meet our girl!

Lilly Rao Ann

Lilly Blooms In Our Hearts

 Adoption has changed our lives.  It has changed our family.  We have been praying for several months asking God what He would like us to do next.  Since we met Endale in Ethiopia, we knew we would adopt again. We looked into all sorts of options being completely open to wherever and however God led.

Once again, He handpicked who was supposed to be in our family.  He opened our hearts to a little girl named, Lilly, in China.  Lilly has Down Syndrome and is 2 1/2 years old just like Endale.   We fell in love with her through pictures.

As God nudged our hearts, we pushed back.  The process of getting to her seems daunting after just recently completing an adoption.  Matt and I begin to seek the Lord's wisdom.  We prayed.  We asked the kids to pray and ask God to even lead them as to what we were supposed to do.


With the whole family feeling like we were supposed to adopt Lilly, Matt and I started looking at timelines, fee sheets and all of Lilly's medical files.  We knew what we were supposed to do, but how?  As fear crept in, it was if God gently reminded us both...

"Have I not already showed you My faithfulness?"


God has showed us His faithfulness in adoption already!  He is worthy of our trust.  Hebrews 13:6 says, "The Lord is my Helper. I will not be afraid."

People will think we're crazy--although they probably already do.
People will question what we're doing--but we've received our orders from God.
People will ask how--our God says, I am faithful just keep your eyes on Me.

God has called us to live radically for Him and we are ALL IN.  This is the calling on our family and we all know it.

So we boldly say, "YES".

Proverbs 3:27 says, "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act."

So now, we long to bring Lilly home.

This blog will serve as a way to share God's faithfulness as He writes this chapter in Lilly's story and joins her into our family.