Saturday, October 18, 2008

Just Wondering Out Loud

As you may have noticed, I've not done a lot of updating on our adoption. That's because we have come to a painfully grinding halt. There is a sweetheart of a lady at church who brings us 5-10 dollars almost every week where she has sold a couple more of our pizza cards. That's as fast as the money is getting raised. Do the math. Even at $10 a week (and counting the money we've already raised), it will take us 78 YEARS to raise this money. I think we can all agree that I'll be too old by then.

I know our God is in control. I know our God can literally do anything. I know our God still does miracles today...I've personally witnessed a few. I know that if God wanted, He could just add $45,000 to our bank account right now, and I'd find it in the morning. But I also know that God allows His people to have free will. And He often gives people an opportunity to participate in what He is doing. If they choose not to participate, He will either accomplish His will through someone else (allowing them to receive the blessing), or He will allow the mission to go unfulfilled.

Now, when there are 143 million orphans in the world, I can't help but think that if I don't adopt my 2 girls, then there will be two more girls who never get adopted. After all, there is not a waiting list for all children.

I hope you aren't hearing whining here. I'm not. I'm frustrated, yes. I don't feel we've gotten the emotional or financial support that I had anticipated. I still feel the need for more children. I still feel called to adopt. Because of the major lack of financial resources, we are rethinking our adoption plans. We're back at square one, you might say...saying "yes" to adoption but trying to figure out the details. We wanted to adopt 2 girls from Bulgaria. Maybe we need to reconsider international and look at domestic. Maybe a different agency would be less expensive. Maybe we should try to adopt just one (at least for now). How old can we be and still get this done? Should we reconsider the age range or other details of the child we seek?

I'm reminded of a story from the Bible. (I can't give you the reference because I'm doing this off the top of my head. But I think I have all of my facts straight.) Remember when Moses sent the 12 spies to check out the land up ahead. I forget what nation they spied on, but they came back with 10 negative reports. Only two men (Joshua and Caleb) said that the Israelites should move forward and take the city. God's plan was for them to take the city. Joshua and Caleb agreed, but most people were not supportive. Did God go ahead and take the city anyway? Did God send someone else to defeat the city? Did God let Joshua and Caleb take the city and everyone else just missed out on the victory? No, the entire nation (Joshua and Caleb included) were punished by having to wander another 40 years before coming back to this point and taking the city after all. Do you see the correlation? Just because God can cause His will to happen in spite of our disobedience, it doesn't mean He will. Even if He brings us back to this point 40 years from now, it will be too late for us to do the adopting. As I said, I know God can move $45,000 our way in a heartbeat, but if we don't pick up our fundraising participation (or find a fundrasier that actally does all that it claims), it may never get done.

Can I just stop here and turn this into a prayer request? We are praying for clear direction in every step of the process. We are praying for increased income so that we will qualify to adopt two. We were close at one time, but the babysitting ended. Right now I am enrolled in a course on medical transcription. Hopefully this will be one way to work on that income thing. Finally, we are praying for direction on fundraisers. It seems like most of what we have tried so far has not been very successful. We still have more than enough bracelets and pizza cards for sale. We are praying to be surrounded by people who understand our desire and support us. We are praying to come into contact with people who have been moved to help out. I know people adopt all the time. It can't be this hard for every family who adopts.

Tune in next time for a "happy" post. ; )

2 comments:

Bridgett said...

I for one support you emotionally even though we can't financially right now. I often include you in my prayers. If you are truly burden to adopt then I don't think you should change your plans. I know you don't want to have to borrow the money, but if something is truly worth while then borrowing is the way to go. I know when both of our girls were born, we didn't officially own them as I use to kid until they were both about a year old. That is how long it took us to pay the medical bills. We didn't have the cash to do it upfront. Think of adoption the same way. I know that the Steven Curtis Chapman foundation gives grants and such to help with the cost once the homestudy has been complete. Borrow the rest to get the homestudy complete. Get through that 1st hurdle now. Then apply for grants and such, I'm sure there are quite a few to help. You might have to get a home equity line of credit. But in the end it would all be worth it to bring home two precious girls that will forever change your life.

I feel like I have just been rambling, but I hope that anything I have said is helpful. Maybe God wants you to go ahead and then he will provide the means. After all, if any of us waited to have babies until we could "afford" them then there would be alot less people on this planet and my girls would have never been born!

Love and Blessings to you!
Bridgett

AhsMom said...

I have not read your entire blog, so I am not sure what fundraisers you may have tried other than those listed here. Just thought I would share some things that worked for us.

Our biggest fundraiser was a spaghetti dinner and basket auction. While looking for a place to hold the dinner, the local Elk's lodge volunteered to let us use their lodge for free and then even offered to buy and make all the food for the dinner. Even if you don't get someone to buy the food for you, spaghetti is an inexpensive thing to make so it's the perfect food to serve.

We actually set a price for people to get into the dinner but many gave more than we asked. I believe it would probably be better to not set a price and simply ask for donations at the door instead.

For the basket auction we made several themed baskets and had items donated. We had a weekend stay at a nice hotel donated, sports tickets and other things. We had a silent auction going throughout the dinner.

We made $3500 on the dinner and auctions.

If you have any questions or more details on how we did everything just email me. My email is in my blogger profile.

Good luck with the fundraising. There were so many times I felt like we would never raise the money to pay for our adoption. Our son has been home a year and a half now because somehow the Lord provided.