But I have been very busy, and with good reason! The Lord has blessed us unimaginably over the last month. We first announced that we were planning to adopt, and we were flooded with hugs, prayers, and support. Our first task was to complete and turn in the adoption application. Seemingly, this should have been the easiest task.. but it was a small chunk of papers, a lot of preliminary information to track down from relatives, employers, and our "important papers" stash. It did lead me, however, to thoroughly organize our important papers into a nice, labeled, page-protector filled binder. (I've been putting this off for about 4 years and 269 days... since we got married.) And with 3 moves in 2 years... it started out as a giant box that felt like the pit of doom. With that done, we were able to quickly get everything together and take it to New Beginnings to turn in. I was pretty excited when our social worker greeted us at the door. It was just a quick reminder of why we wanted to use a local agency. There is just something about being able to look the person in the eye that is guiding you through such a life-changing experience and say, "This is our heart. Tell us what to do next." And she did! We're now on our second small chunk of paperwork, which is slightly more in depth. We basically have to go all over town and get background checks, health records, pet records, and all of that good stuff together. All of this will be for our home study, which is when a social worker digs deep into all of your personal business and tries to learn more about you than you know about yourself. That's what I've been told, anyway.
In addition to beginning our paper trail, we've started fundraising. Unfortunately, even though there are million of babies around the world that need homes, it costs a lot of money to bring them home. Our first step in fundraising was to put ourselves on a pretty intense budget. We've seen the Lord do amazing things with our finances over the last two years, and we are fully expecting that He will do the same thing again. He always shows us that He is in complete control. In our move to North Carolina last January, we had to do some downsizing. We went from two salaries to one and, since our house did not sell, one house payment to two [mortgage + rent]. But we learned to be cheap, we learned to save, and we learned to trust God with every penny. He's been more than faithful, and we learned some really great lessons in finance.
We've also been looking for creative ways to include our friends and family by selling handmade items that are close to our heart. One of the many ways in which God has gifted Mitchell is with the ability to design and create. With every move, he's repurposed our furniture to fit new spaces, created new pieces to fill our home, and made more beautiful pieces than I ever could've imagined. Now, he's using those designs and some new ones to develop commissioned pieces of furniture to help bring home our babies. {Need something for your house? Just let us know!} And I've been selling prints! I've always had a love for words and beautiful handwriting. Never did I think I would be making and selling anything of my own. But when you need to raise such a grand amount of money, you start asking yourself.. what on earth can I do?? The best part about it is that the Lord has stirred in me a love for His Word. I desire to treasure it in my heart and recall it all the days of my life. My hope is that He'll continue to bind His words to my heart and use these prints to do the same in the hearts of others.
I began this post this morning with the title "Fundraising," but over the course of the day, God has once again reminded me of His grace and abundance. As much as we try to take care of things on our own, God proves He's already taken care of all of our needs. Before I could even get this thing posted, God graciously provided the rest of the funds that we need for our home study. So, through happy tears I can type these words: He is our Great Provider!!
We still need to save and raise a lot of money. But we are on to the next step, praise the Lord! Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading this, loving us, and praying with us as we press on. We are so grateful for the donations, the kind words, and encouragement we have already received.
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