Our Father LOVES adoption!

If there was ever any doubt in your mind, whether or not the Lord loves adoption...just take a look at our story.  The Lord is providing for this adoption in ways we never could have imagined! If you go over to our "How you can help" Page (link is at the top), you will see that our fundraising thermometer has made quite a jump overnight:)

Yesterday, I was on my lunch break from work with a friend. We were driving back to work, and I almost caused her to wreck with the SCREAM that erupted from my mouth! I recieved an email from the JSC Foundation informing me that we had been chosen for an adoption grant of $11, 600! We applied for 2 different grants and were not expecting to hear anything back until the middle of February. I called Brian (who had not seen the email yet) and my mom, both of them not quite sure what I was screaming about at first.  I was literally shaking for about 3 hours after that.....which is not great if you were one of my dental hygiene patients:) We were not expecting anywhere close to that amount. We were hoping to get SOMETHING.....in my mind I was hoping for maybe $5,000....but I was still just hoping for ANYTHING.

I had started to fill out an application a couple of weeks ago for an interest-free adoption loan. But then,  Brian and I had a conversation last week about how we both just felt that we were not going to need a loan. The Lord has continuously provided for us EVERY time we have needed money in this process and we were confident he would continue to do that again! Brian told me that he felt by applying for a loan, we were saying WE could do this. WE can eventually pay off the loan. In the back of my mind, Satan kept telling me that we needed to have that loan ready on the back burner, IF the Lord did not provide. But Brian and I did not feel a peace about applying for the loan. Thank you, Lord for providing!

When we receive our referral (get matched with a baby girl) we will write a check for $10,000.  That check has been looming in front of us. That is a huge chunk of money! Donations have been coming in left and right from our dear family and friends who have chosen to take part in Brian's sister's fundraiser. She sent out bags for people to collect change in for the next few months to go towards this part of our journey. She challenged 100 people to give $100. Alot of people have not been taking the 3 months to save up the money though....every few days we get a check in the mail for $100. Its been amazing to see the Lord work in this!

Through all of our fundraisers, our family and friends have donated $6,927!! And donations are still coming in....PRAISE THE LORD! We are ALMOST THERE! All of our funds add up to $23, 527 and we will need close to $30,000. That seemed so far out of reach even just yesterday morning, but we are close! God is using our family and friends to bless us like crazy!