Something unexpected

I've struggled with whether or not to post about a particular recent happening in our lives, but I finally decided after much prayer that God needs to be glorified for the work He's done. Without giving away too many details, I will try my hardest to tell a sensible story without too many holes in it.

One of my earliest posts was in reference to my fear regarding the financial side of our adoption...and that after much prayer and just daily laying down my fears and struggles at His feet, I came to place of peace. I was not sure how the finances would come about, but I knew that God had spoken this to us...therefore He would provide.

I have tried many times to make this work out according to how I thought it should go. Jason and I had made the decision when I got pregnant for Bayli that I would stay home with her. The end. It was absolutely important for both of us. When we decided to adopt, I figured I would go back to work to help fund the adoption; and then would stay home again after Gracie came home. But we knew that I only had a few short months until Bayli started K-4, and neither Jason or I felt that it was fair to Bayli for me to go back to work now- just to fund the way for another child to come into our lives. I automatically assumed somewhere in the back of my mind that God would just send an angel with a check written from The First Bank of Heaven to the tune of $20,000. Well, we waited...and it didn't happen.

After much dragging our feet and gnashing of teeth, we did something we did not want to do...we got a loan for the adoption. With the intentions of after Bayli started school and got settled, that I would go to work part-time to pay this loan off.

I sought counsel from 4 or 5 different people regarding this decision. They were people that I really trusted, and whose opinions I value greatly- and most importantly they were people who I really trusted would give us Godly counsel. They are also people who are good stewards of their money and don't have a lot of debt, if any at all. They all had slight variations on their opinions, but all basically agreed that it was ok to get the loan, so long as we paid it back quickly. I had peace about this, but still really struggled with whether or not this was the right thing to do. I wanted to trust God for the finances, but I also didn't want to put a time-limit on Him, but then I didn't want to do things on my own accord. So, we continued to pray and fast and felt a release to get the loan. We figured that if God felt the need to bless us unexpectedly with monitary blessings, we would just apply it to our loan and pay it back that much quicker. We also went into it with the understanding that we'd pay for everything we could out of pocket, that the money from our loan would be there for the bigger payments that we didn't have time to save up for.

With all of that said, I had gotten to a place of peace with the way that we are paying for the adoption. It wasn't my ideal of what we'd do in a perfect world, but I was ok with it. But we were still believing for all of the blessings that God felt should come our way. We have sowed seeds, continued with our tithes and offerings above our tithes. And I thanked God that I had found a job that I could do 3 days a week while Bayli was in school to pay this off. It was all good.
Then, all of a sudden, out of the blue...the unexpected happened. God had impressed upon someone's heart that they should bless us with a specific amount of money towards the adoption. They said, "It's not much"...but it was plenty. Not just the dollar amount, but the whole package...the kind words, the hugs, the prayers, the fact that they were obedient to what God had instructed them to do. And, last but not least, the reassurance to us that God really certainly has ordained this time in our lives. And we were at a point where we needed another confirmation to that fact.

The best part was, we had to make a payment Friday when we sent off our Dossier. We also had to pay quite a bit for all of the apostilles, and for the shipping fees. And everything was covered with our unexpecting blessing.

Our Pastor just shared with us Sunday night at a Leadership Meeting a quote that goes "if it's God's will, it's God's bill"...

Father God, we were content but still asking and praying for bigger, for more. Thank you for not allowing us to make due with just making it...thank you for giving us more than we hoped and asked for. We continue to leave this all in your hands...the rest of the process, the rest of the money that we'll need, the waiting, the everything that goes along with it. Thank you that you speak to your children, and thank you for making our hearts soft to listen and obey.

Face for Grace