Thursday, April 1, 2010

Nothing is impossible with God...

Even before we actually began the adoption process I dreamed of taking all four of our bio kids to Ethiopia to pick up our adopted children. To see the type of life their new brother and sister are coming from, to witness the poverty, to smell the smells, to see the level of need that will be all around them, to recognize that Jesus loves the whole world just as much as He loves them, and to ask, “Why me? Why do I have so much when others have so litttle?” and to add, “Thank You, God” when they begin to grasp the truth about the life of privilege they live every day would be a priceless turning point in their lives. Not only would it be helpful in the amount of compassion and understanding they would show toward their new siblings, but it would hopefully also carry over into the lives of those they are yet to meet (and, who knows, maybe they would even begin to show more “compassion and understanding” to one another!)

That’s been my "secret" dream…
but I have just dismissed it as an impossible whim. (I confess that I didn’t really pray about it, I just “thought” about it - and knew I didn’t have the power to make it happen).

Until now...
I am praying. God has the resources. I believe it is within His will for me to ask this. I believe it will be good for our family. However, this will mean approximately $10,000 - $12,000 more in travel expenses, because we will not only have to take our four, we will also need to take someone to be a “nanny” (or a "man-ny"!)during the times we will have to have meetings, etc. Just typing those numbers makes me a little doubtful, I must say. But I am going to confess, “I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.” (Mk. 9:24b)

I know God CAN do it. I guess my question is, “Is that what You want for us, Lord?” If it is what He wants, He will do it. If it isn’t what He wants, He won’t. And I am fine either way. I see “potential benefits”, but those are just my imaginings of what would be the outcome of the kids going with us. Only He knows what is best, so I am praying that He will make His desire clear and provide whatever is necessary whenever is necessary however is necessary.

We would love for you to join us in praying about this.  Thank you.

6 comments:

Melinda said...

Yes, we bought those loaves of bread in the picture just to feed birds at a park. Even the "birds" in the USA are blessed.

Never let us forget how blessed we are and that we are called to help others. And that when we help those in need we are helping You.

Matthew 25:40 - "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

(And the bread was from the bread outlet, but still...)

Unknown said...

Melinda, I will be praying for this aspect of the adoption, as we are praying for the entire process. I check your blog often and love reading the updates. What a blessing you are to us! Keep us posted!!
-Lindsay :)

Melinda said...

Thank you, Lindsay! I hope you know you are all such a blessing to us, too. So glad you like the blog!

settlemoir said...

Melinda,

It's Jon again. Thanks for your great blog posts. I have been praying for God to supply so that our three boys could go with us to Ethiopia as well.

When you have time, I would love to hear about your fund-raising stuff on your site. What has worked, what hasn't so much. How did you set up the CBD one? Thanks so much, take care! Jon

settlemoir said...

Melinda,

It's Jon again. Thanks for your great blog posts. I have been praying for God to supply so that our three boys could go with us to Ethiopia as well.

When you have time, I would love to hear about your fund-raising stuff on your site. What has worked, what hasn't so much. How did you set up the CBD one? Thanks so much, take care! Jon

Melinda said...

The CBD thing was not too complicated, but took a little while to get going. First, you have to apply at Christianbook.com to be an affiliate. It took about a week for them to get back to me. Then, you have to be able to put their html code into your blog. Not too difficult – I figured it out on my own, but it took a little while. (At least I learned something new, and it helped with the PayPal thing, too!)

T-shirt sales have been very good so far – the best thing we’ve done - especially the Southern Belle ones, since SB T-shirts are very popular around here. (It’s a regional thing.) We also have them in one store in the town where we’re from and have had an inquiry from a local store. Putting the PayPal cart on the blog also required adding the html code.

Having an adoption fund at our church is great for a few reasons:
1) donations are tax-deductible for giver
2) we submit expenses (or receipts) to the committee who approves release of funds for us to use for the adoption (which makes it non-taxed for us)
3) after our home study, we will be applying for a "matching grant" from LifeSong for Orphans which can be for up to $4000 and will essentially "double" gifts given to the fund.
Of course, the fund is not designated for us specifically, but since we are the only family in our church currently adopting, all funds are available to us upon committee's approval.

All funds received through the Chick-fil-A night will also go to the church's adoption fund. We've invited the entire church, our kids' soccer teams and all teams practicing on that Thursday night, all the local home school groups, the dance studio, and everyone else we can think of. We also had some little invite cards made up to pass out. We’re getting everyone who has t-shirts to wear them that night and also having t-shirts available for purchase that night.

The coffee hasn’t done well (sold 1 bag = $5), but it was practically no effort to set up and cost us nothing, and it may do better later on. Also, the person who ordered it had nothing but great things to say about the coffee, so I was pleased with that, too.

We also plan to apply to “Both Hands Foundation” after our home study and hope that will help a lot. If you are not familiar with it, go there and watch the videos. We’re really excited about this possibility and expecting great things from this one. (http://bothhandsfoundation.org/)

Soon after we began praying about the kids going with us, we had a couple of unexpected and exciting things happen that confirmed that it really is a very good possibility. (I’ll probably wait until we know for sure that they are going before I share those on the blog, though.)

I know this was long, but I hope it helped....