My heart overflows with blessings from the Lord

What a week of blessings we have experienced here in the Shaver household! Our God is so good and so faithful! My heart is just overflowing with how the Lord is showing His love and kindness to us. He is Jehovah-Jireh, and we stand in awe of how He is already providing for our needs!

This week I had to take my car in for its big service/maintenance, which was going to be $200+. I am extremely diligent about maintaining my car, and it's in great shape, so I hated to spend that kind of money, especially in light of all of the adoption expenses we are already incurring. I talked to the service advisor, Mike, who waited on me (little did I know that the Lord had this divine appointment already set up for me). I explained to him about my car and about our adoption, and we settled on just doing an oil change this time. I had a coupon, and with Mike's help, I left paying $25 and change. As it turns out, I learned that I needed some new filters for my car and a few others things more thoroughly checked, so I called Mike back 2 days later and asked if we could do the full scheduled maintenance. I told him that I found a 15% off coupon and asked if I could use it...he agreed and gave me an estimated cost of $140 for the service. I took my car in, and again, we talked more about the adoption and the Lord's work in each of our lives. He told me that he was going to try to get the cost down a little more, and I thanked him since every penny we can save is going toward our adoption. Mike came to get me after the service was finished. My total bill was less than $75.00 even after tax. Praise the Lord! I'm pretty sure I had tears in my eyes as I thanked Mike for helping us out. This service advisor showed such compassion to our family and allowed the Lord to use him to be God's hands and feet that day...and words cannot express the gratitude I have for what Mike did for our family by helping us save money to bring our little girl home.

On Saturday night, Austin and I went to the annual Hope Resource Dinner in Knoxville. And again, the Lord had a divine appointment waiting for us. We soon learned that the couple seated at the table with us are adoptive parents of a little girl from Guatemala. It was so encouraging to hear their story and we were truly blessed by their words. AND...as if this isn't all enough for the week, we learned from a friend whom we rarely see now that there is a girl in his small group at Church who is about our age that is from Moldova. Seriously?! How cool is that? We're hoping we might have the opportunity to meet her in the future and learn more about her country.

Thank You, Jesus, for putting people in our lives to extend Your love and compassion and to encourage us as we move forward in this adoption process!

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. - 1 John 4:14