Crazy Love

Pam ~ Do you know what I have found that I love about blogging?  Any guesses?????

I have found that I love getting to reconnect with old friends/accquaintances and follow the story of their lives.  They are spread out around the USA and around the world living lives that I am not there to enjoy with them.  Via blogging, I can keep track of where they are, what they are doing, the pains they are going through, and the ways that God brings them through their trials.  I also love the pictures!!!!!

I have also LOVED getting to know new friends.  As we travel through our adoption journey, following the stories of other adoptive parents who have been where we are has been such a GREAT encouragement to me.  I'm not always the greatest about leaving comments {which is horrible because I personally LOVE to get comments!!!!}, but I almost daily check my blogger "dashboard" and read any new blog posts from my new blogging friends.

A blog that I just recently found and started following is "A Place Called Simplicity."  Why don't you go on over and visit them {click here}?  On Wednesday, her post was entitled "Crazy Love #5 - Dance With Me!"  She is working to encourage families who are adopting orphans.  As she says it, "I am sensing that this Crazy Love Challenge has got to be for the orphan....those who cannot speak up for themselves...."  She recently got a GREAT deal on something she had spent several months looking for and she is wanting to pass her savings off to an adoptive family!!!!  Isn't that a WONDERFUL and very sweet idea?!?!?!

She has asked that we share some of our adoptive financial needs in a new blog post, so even though I know that most of you have already been following our financial needs and goals, I am going to share them again today.

1) PRAYER!!!!!  We need your prayers, support, and encouragement as we travel this adoption road.  We know that there are many of you who cannot help financially and have shared with us that you would really love to help but that you just can't.  We completely understand, and never want anyone to feel that they have to financially support our adoption.  Our God is GREAT and He has a perfect plan for us that includes our adoption finances.  He will provide in His perfect timing.  But we NEED your prayers.  Prayer is powerful!!!!!!
2) Post-Adoption Fees.  This is our current goal.  We are currently about $200 short of the money needed to pay our post-adoption fees.  We have to have paid this before we can begin our Home Study visits.  As we have stated before, our goal is to have this money saved by the end of August.
3) USCIS Fee & Update Fee + Fingerprinting.  I am a little fuzzy about this one.  I am pretty sure that it is a step we have to take after our Home Study is done, but before we will be able to send our dossier in.  Our paperwork shows that this is $830.
4) Dossier Submission.  Once we have all our dossier paperwork completed, we need to have an addional $7700 in order to submit it.  I have to admit that this amount looks staggering to me, but I know that it is tiny to our GREAT God.  He will provide it when it is His time, and I will not waste my time worring over it.

There are many more costs & fees after these, but these are the closest financial needs we have.  We have been sooooooooo very blessed by how many people are gifting us their soda cans, and sponsoring puzzle pieces!!!!!!  God has blessed us with family and friends who truly love us and care about our adoption.

Nathan is working over-time again today!!!!!  We have been amazed at all the little ways that God is providing for our adoption needs.  We are working to cut back on as many costs as we can at home, God is giving Nathan over-time at work {which has RARELY ever happened to this extent before}, I've been given lots of summer work hours, and there are so many more examples of God's provision.  What a GREAT God we serve!!!!!!!