Well, here we are! We have officially been in the process for one year. When we started this, they told us it could be anywhere from 9 to 36 months! As we sit at month 12, we are thinking that we are more than halfway done and have expectations to travel before we hit the two-year mark at the very least :-) we could always be surprised and it could be much shorter or longer than that… Adoption is full of crazy twists and turns.
We claimed the verse Ephesians 3:20 for our adoption process and even put it on the shirts that many of you purchased. It says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.”
I want to tell you about an “immeasurably more” moment that we experienced over the past couple of months. A friend of our family who has also adopted called us one afternoon and told Moose that he needed to talk to him. Moose called him back and honestly had no clue what this friend would have needed. He explained that his high school where he works, Powdersville high school, did a spirit week fundraiser every year. They chose different organizations or things to support with this fundraiser. He went on to explain that this year, they would be supporting internationally adopting families because he as well as a few other teachers had adopted and they wanted to raise awareness and support in this way.
He then said that they wanted to support us! You guys, when I say we were shocked even after the description, I mean we were shocked. We had talked about the fact that really outside of T-shirts, we were not going to solicit donations for our adoption. It was our choice, and we knew that the Lord would provide for us. However we also decided that if someone reached out to us and wanted to give to our process, we would not say no because we certainly would not want to rob them of a blessing or deny the Lord‘s work in our adoption. All in all, we just knew that this was a gift from the Lord.
We were put in contact with their student government representative, we got to visit their pep rally and share a little bit of our story, and we got to watch firsthand as the student body did exceedingly and immeasurably more than we could have ever imagined.
Y’all! They raised over $16,000 for our process. We told them that we would need somewhere between $15,000 and $22,000 to cover our final payment, travel, and other in country expenses. Would you believe that they hit right in the middle of that number? Coincidence? I don’t believe so. I think that the Lord’s hand was all over that number.
I pray that this student body was made aware of the many children that need to be adopted across the nation and the world. I pray that this student body and community saw the light of Jesus shining off of our family and the faith that we have in him through this process. I pray that this fundraiser was so much more than a fundraiser, and that it was an opportunity to share God and His gospel in a public setting.
We are so grateful.
We are so excited.
The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Psalm 126:3
