Just wow.

I ask the Lord to do things but I am still surprised when He answers my prayers.  I trust 100% that the Lord will bring in the funds we need for this adoption.  How do I know this? Because He has to.  We feel He is calling us to adopt and if indeed He is calling us to this, we know He will have to provide for it simply because we know we can't. It is a humbling and really cool place to be when you are asked to do something and you are absolutely unable to do it on your own.  The cost of this adoption is several times more than our annual income so if the child is to come home to us any time in the near future it will only be because of God's provision. And once again, He has provided in a way that I can't NOT share with you!

Our next step in the adoption process is to submit our dossier.  We have it together but did not realize that we needed an additional $2400 to be able to submit it (processing and translation fees - the entire huge file has to be translated, what a process!).  We knew we would have to pay this fee at some point but did not realize it was NOW.  This was discouraging because it felt daunting to come up with these funds and it meant delaying our dossier further, which was disappointing.

We were encouraged recently by an unexpected check that arrived at our parent's house for our adoption....it was recently deposited in our adoption account and was a generous start but where was the rest going to come from?

So this past week, I resolved to pray about it (why do we so often wait to come to the Lord?! If only we would learn...!!).  I prayed this week that the Lord would place it on people's hearts to donate. I prayed that He would unexpectedly bless people financially this week and that out of that abundance they would choose to bless our adoption fund.  We prayed and we began some fundraising plans.

This Sunday at Church some friends handed us an envelope and told us it was for our adoption.

Sundays are very busy days and we had to wait until much later that day to have a chance to open their gift.  Of course it shouldn't have surprised us as much as it did that it was a very generous check. We were completely blown away and brought to tears over this generosity and answered prayer. 

In bed last night I was thinking a lot about this....and then I had another thought.

For almost a year we have been stashing away "random" money in our adoption folder (the huge binder with all of our adoption paperwork, letters from people who have donated etc).  If we were given an unexpected gift or had earned a little extra money babysitting, money someone had gifted us or had sold something we didn't need any more, we had been sticking it in a ziplock bag for our adoption....we had intentionally tried not to keep track of this extra money, waiting for "just the right time" to add it up and use it towards our adoption.  Of course this was just that time!

And I am sure you have guessed by now that when I added those "random" gifts and "extra" income up, together with the two recent donations we received, we have the $2400 we need for our dossier sitting on our living room couch.

That's right.  Hello Dossier Submission!

We have all the funds we need to submit our dossier this week.

Wow.

Just wow.

The Lord once again has provided for the next step in this adoption process.  Stay tuned for more stories of Him bringing in the needed funds.  It is an exciting thing to watch happen!

If you would like to be a part of this story and what the Lord is doing in our family and in the life of this soon-to-be-Houser, please check out our donation page here!

Thank you to all who have donated and those who have set up recurring donations and those who will donate again and those who are yet to donate.  We pray often for you, we pray the Lord pours blessings on your head for the ways in which you have blessed us. We pray the Lord provides for your needs and that in your abundance you will help us bring our baby home.  We thank Him for the many ways He is at work and for His provision.  Thank you for joining us on this adventure.

To Be Continued....!