Financial Needs

I'm going to try to be completely honest in this post, but I also want to make it known that we are fully and completely trusting in God to provide for the financial needs we have with our adoption!!!!

I'm already finding that it's hard for me to know what I can and cannot say with this adoption. We have had a few possibilities thrown our way that haven't gone farther than a possibility and I don't want to say something and have people think it is a sure thing when it isn't. So I have chosen to simply not say much.

But that makes it hard to share the financial needs with people. We do not have the money we will need to complete a domestic adoption. Honestly, the financial costs will probably be close (if not more) than Nathan makes for a full year of work. We can scrimp and save and Nathan can work overtime and I can take any temporary part-time work that comes my way and still not be able to save the money we need all by ourselves. We need God's help and provision and we honestly feel like that might be one of the reasons that God has put adoption in our lives. To make us trust in HIM instead of being able to do things by ourselves!!!!!

We have a new possibility that has come our way in the past week and we are actively pursuing it. God has put people together in this situation in a way that only He could do, and it's making us sit up and take notice.

It would be a long story if I tried to share it all, so I'm going to try to only include a few details :-).

We are applying to be a "Tier 2" family with Iowa Lutheran Family Services. A "Tier 2" family is already home study ready (apart from LFS) and submits an application and their home study and has a meeting with someone from their agency along with submitting a family profile book, and then that family is on a waiting list. If there is a birth mother that is looking for a specific family or situation and none of the current LFS families meet those needs, then LFS will move to families on their Tier 2 list.

The woman we are working with at LFS is the same person who did our home study for Maya K's adoption. She also did our post-adoption visits and we consider her a good friend. What a blessing to have her helping us through this process. We have a meeting scheduled with her for this coming Thursday!!!!

(This does not mean that we will not be signing on with Christian Adoption Consultants. We can be involved with both organizations. Click HERE for the information we shared previously about CAC.)

Financial Needs

Here is where I'm having trouble knowing how to put into words what I want to say.

There is a small possibility that a certain situation may require us to need a large amount of money very soon. As in less than a month!!!!!

If we are matched with a birth family through the Tier 2 program, we will need $5,000 at the time that we accept that match. At the time of the baby being placed with us, we will need an additional $6,500. 

There may be other fees that arise during this time, but these are what we are focusing on right now.

We knew when we started this process that we did not have the money that we would need. We stepped out in faith knowing that God will provide as He deems best.

Again, I don't want anyone to assume that I just announced a definite of anything!!!! We are joining the Tier 2 program. That is all that is definite. But if we are matched quickly with a birth mother, we will need $11,500 in a very short amount of time!!!!

Will you please join us in praying for these financial needs? We are fervently praying that God will show us how He is going to provide and that we will continue to trust in Him through all of this!!!!!

Fundraisers
We currently have two fundraisers that we have up and going. Would you prayerfully consider helping us with one of these???

Puzzle ~ We are looking for sponsors for pieces of our puzzle!!! For $10 you can sponsor one puzzle piece and we will put your name on the back of the piece. When the puzzle is completed, we will glue it together and frame it. Our child will be able to look at the back of the puzzle and see the names of many of the people who helped us bring them into our family!!!! Please click HERE to see the announcement of this fundraiser and to see a picture of the puzzle we will be putting together. If you are interested in participating, please leave a comment or e-mail me (hearts 1982 @ gmail.com - no spaces!!)

Soda Cans/Bottles ~ We are asking for your empty soda cans/bottles!!! We will recycle them and use the nickel per bottle we receive to put towards our adoption expenses!!! If you are not in the area, but would like to help us with this fundraiser, feel free to recycle in your area and send us the money you receive.

THANK YOU for all the support and encouragement we have received already through this adoption!!!! Please continue to be praying!!!!!

Bragging!!

I'm going to brag on my daughter tonight. I know I probably shouldn't. But I'm just so crazy proud of her!!!!

She has loved books ever since she came home. She can sit for a long time just looking at books. The library is probably her favorite place to go and she sprawls out in the aisles looking at books.

I started teaching her how to read in Kindergarten this year and she did a very good job. But she doesn't like to stick with working hard at it for very long. She gets impatient to know what is happening in the story and just wants me to read it to her. Or she is content to just look at the pictures.

But the past few weeks, she has been starting to look for words that she can read in the library books we bring home, or as she looks at books that we own. I have started bringing some easy reader books home from the library and just putting them in her library book box for her to "find" during quiet time. I know that she is reading some of these books during her quiet time, because every once in a while she will bring one to me to show me that she can read it :-).

Tonight, at storytime, she brought me one of the library books and told me that it was her turn to read the bedtime story to me!!! :-).

The book she brought to me was a "My Turn, Your Turn" book of the Gingerbread Man. It's designed for a parent to read the left page and then the child reads the right page. We went through the book this way and the pages Maya K read were along these lines......

"Run, run as fast as you can.

You can't eat me.

I'm the Gingerbread Man."

"Moo! Moo!

Stop, little Gingerbread Man!

I want to eat you up!"

She did a great job reading these pages and I was happy that SHE was excited to be reading them to me!!!!

But wait. It gets better!!!

The last page for the parent to read is about the fox, and as I started to read it, Maya K quickly (and rather forcefully) stopped me and told me that SHE wanted to read that page. I told her that I was happy to let her try if she wanted to.

Here is what she read........

But the sly fox said, "Bark, bark! I don't want to eat you. I want to be your friend."

Soon, the little Gingerbread Man came to a river. The fox said, "I'll help you cross the river. Jump onto my tail." So he did. But before long the fox said, "You are too heavy on my tail. Jump on my back." So he did. After a while the fox said, "You are too heavy on my back. Jump on my nose." So he did.

Then, that sly fox quickly tilted back her head and opened her mouth. SNAP! And that was the end of the little Gingerbread Man.

I was AMAZED at how accurately and smoothly she read it!!!!!! She needed some help on the words "friend", "river", "heavy", "after", and "opened", but other than those words, it was all her!!!!!

She had practiced reading that page during her quiet time, so it wasn't a "first" read, but I'm still so super proud of her for all she has learned. It is starting to all come together in her brain and she is reading more smoothly and ENJOYING the process of reading!!!!!

So, that's my bragging moment of the day.

(Just remembering how 21 months ago she didn't speak any English and now she is READING causes me to sit back and thank the Lord for everything He has done!!!!!)

"Okay, God."

This past week, Nathan and I got busy about focusing on our next adoption. I have done more research, we have a plan, and we started a couple fundraisers to work toward our first financial goal. I asked for people to pray for us as we get started AND as we work hard to save the money we will need for expenses.

This past week, Nathan was given the option of working some overtime. He will be doing that this next week and any other time the opportunity is given him. God is providing through Nathan's overtime.

This morning I woke up with a cold. I stayed home from church because I'm not feeling well and thought it would be a good idea to get a little extra rest. This morning I received an email offering me another scoring job for the next week and a half!!!! God is providing through giving me some extra side work.

I am getting ready to start the training and qualifying process for this scoring offer, so it's not a sure thing right now. I have to qualify first. But we are looking at it as an opportunity that God has sent for us to be able to save a little extra for the adoption. Even if I don't qualify for the job, I still get paid for the training :-).

We are looking forward to seeing in what other ways God will provide!!!!! "Okay, God. Whatever You ask us to do, we will do."

Fundraising Time!!!

It's time to start fundraising for our next adoption!!!!

If you missed the announcement, please click HERE to see it!!!!

This new adoption journey is going to look very different than Maya K's adoption from Ethiopia. The process is completely different and we don't have specific amounts of money that we know we will need for different "steps" in the process. Additionally, we have less income coming in (since I am no longer teaching) to be able to set aside for the agency and legal fees. We are confident that God has led us to begin this journey, and we are confident that HE will provide the money we need at the exact moments we need it!!!!!

Our first financial "goal" is $3,430. We are planning to sign up with Christian Adoption Consultants, and this is the amount we will need to begin the process. This organization will help us throughout the domestic adoption process and we are very excited to use their services. We are praying that this will also allow for a quicker match with a birth mother who is looking for a family for her child. However, this also means that we need to be proactive about raising/saving the money we will need for expenses and legal fees.

Soda Cans
We did this fundraiser for our last adoption and while it was not the most "money-producing" fundraiser, it definitely had the most participation :-).

If you live in our area, we will gladly take all your soda cans and bottles and redeem them. The nickel we receive for each bottle/can will go straight towards our adoption expenses.

If you do not live in our area, but would like to participate, simply save and redeem your bottles/cans and send us the money you receive.

Puzzle
We also did this fundraiser for our last adoption. (To read about it from then, click HERE.)

We are looking for people to "sponsor" puzzle pieces for $10. When a person sponsors a piece, we will write his/her name on the back of the piece and add it to the puzzle. When the puzzle is completed, we will glue it together and frame it. Our child will be able to look at all the names on the back of the puzzle to see how many people prayed for and helped us bring him or her into our family!!!!

PLEASE be praying for us!!!!! We have a journey ahead of us that might be long or it might be short. We honestly have no idea how God is going to provide financially for this process, but we are trusting that He will do it as He deems best. We know that we will be stretched emotionally, financially, and physically, but we are looking forward to the end result!!!!!

Questions

Maya K asks questions. A lot of questions.

Even as I type those words, it seems to be a huge understatement.

We had a moment in the car the other day that really gave me a glimpse into what goes on in her mind and how frustrating it can be for her.

As we were driving down a country road, we saw a fire burning in someone's yard. I didn't see exactly what they were burning, but it was probably some brush or something along those lines. It was a pretty large fire with some big flames shooting up.

(These questions were all rapid fire with basically no pause between them.)
Maya K: "Mommy, why do some people.......? Is is okay for them to........? Why would they want........? Why is it so big? Will the people.......? What makes it look like......? I want to know.....? "Does it make smoke because......? (insert a longer pause) ........Mommy, I saw a fire."

This is what goes on in her little mind all the time!!!!! She literally has so many questions about every little things she sees or hears that she can't get all the questions out and they never stop coming.

This time, she ended with a simple statement. "Mommy, I saw a fire."

She couldn't get the questions to slow down to be able to sort out what she really even wanted to ask me.

I don't know if I could handle that much going on in my brain all the time. It's exhausting to me to try to keep up with her questions and know which ones to answer. But she has to process all those questions. I don't envy her!!!!!!