I am writing in awe of God's provision for us. Exactly one year ago is when we decieded to adopt again- knowing very well that we do not have more than a few bucks to put to what God has told us to do!
It was a leap of faith that we had no idea what would look like.
Sooo we started w/ lowly tagsale- that took on a whole life of it's own. Once we got the word out- that we were collecting items for an adoption benefit tagsale, we ended up w/ our basement and garage stacked full to the brim- walking aisles only! We had to do 2 weekends for the tagsale because of the mass quantity. Yes, I have already written on how insane those weeks were but hey- $3,500 for a tagsale! (initial fee paid)
6 months later- a Pasta Dinner Benefit at church. This was actually fun. It was pretty easy with not even too much planning involved. We had some good raffles donated. Yes, we had several people helping us but it did'nt take a whole army. One night of fun raised $3,500...scored the 2nd fee's.
There are tons of adoption grants that you can find. We only applied to one of them...and we recieved a $3,500 grant from Steven Curtis Chapmans Ministry 'Show Hope.' (http://www.showhope.org/)
An awesome friend of ours wanted to do something for us, so her small group at her church held an Artsy type of talent show/coffee house one night and raised $1,000!
We sent letters to friends and family making them aware of our adoption journey and we recieved donations through this as well.
When possible, Michael took on certain jobs at work that he would claim ahead of time in his head as, 'adoption money.' We also 'ebayed' some of the better items from the tagsale and set up a really simple shirt and coffee fundraiser online.
So recap: tagsale, pasta dinner, grant, donations from friends and family= yeah, a bit of work, some time and planning, stepping outside our comfort zone but...
it is so worth it!
This process has greatly increased our Faith, it has brought more awareness to the need of adoption, it served as life lessons to our children- they have different mind sets.
Most importanly, I love how this is a real testimony from God that he truly does provide. He takes care of the details. I cant believe that one year ago we set off on this journey with nothing and here we are...the adoption is almost paid for. We only need $5,000. I smile even writing this...
I follow so many others adoption blogs and journeys and there really is a miraculous thread that runs through financing adoptions. Adoption is God's heart, if you partner with God's heart do you not think that he will provide?
Amy say's it in a moving way here...
http://buildingtheblocks.blogspot.com/2010/07/id-choose-you_30.html
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