Where God Guides, He Provides...

We got an email on Friday from Trudy at Hand in Hand Christian Adoption with the final numbers on our matching grant. We will be receiving $12,950 toward our adoption! We had no idea we would receive SO much! We are amazed at the Lord's provision and overwhelmed by the generosity of those who donated!

Austin and I spent some time on Sunday afternoon crunching numbers, and with the money received from the grant and the garage sale plus the adoption tax credit we'll get back after the adoption is complete (~$13,000), we have a little over $6,500 left to pay in estimated fees! Isn't God so good?! In less than 6 months He has provided over $23,000 through various means to pay for our adoption!

When the Lord called us to adopt, the financial aspect of adoption (our total costs are estimated to be about $50,000) was one of the scariest things for us. Even though we knew the stories of how God has provided for His children from the very beginning, we were still afraid. But we stepped out in faith and proceeded through the adoption process even though we didn't know how it would all work out financially. The Lord has provided for us every single step of the way and mostly in ways we would have never imagined and through people we didn't expect. Seeing the Lord take care of our needs in His way has been one of the most amazing experiences for us and has grown our faith in Him so much more. It makes us wonder why didn't we just trust Him from the beginning?

1 John 5:14-15 says, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him."

We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord has called us to adopt, and seeing Him at work in our adoption process each step of the way just reaffirms that we are doing exactly what He has called us to do and that He is completely in control.

Lord, as we continue to wait on Your timing for us to meet our daughter and to bring her home to us, help us not forget how You've provided for our needs so far. Let us set them as "stones of remembrance" in our hearts and mind. Help us to remember that You will continue to give us exactly what we need along the way. Thank you for Your faithfulness, Father!