Sorry...this is going to be a LONG post! We are in the Home Study process at this time, and will share more on that later, but first...
Tonight my heart is overflowing with emotion, from complete shock and amazement, to joy and anticipation (it is about midnight and I can hardly keep my excitement contained). Chris walked in the door from work and told me that I would probably need to sit down because he had something to share. He said that today, alone, we received over $6,000 in donations from several families. My jaw just dropped! How amazing is our God!
Tonight my heart is overflowing with emotion, from complete shock and amazement, to joy and anticipation (it is about midnight and I can hardly keep my excitement contained). Chris walked in the door from work and told me that I would probably need to sit down because he had something to share. He said that today, alone, we received over $6,000 in donations from several families. My jaw just dropped! How amazing is our God!
I can't explain the feeling that overwhelms me each and every time someone sends us a check or writes an encouraging note. Over and over, I am reminded of God's promise, "...I am with you always, even to the end of age." Thank you for your uplifting emails and texts. Thank you for supporting us financially. Thank you for believing in our adoption.
God clearly is moving here. I am amazed at His faithfulness! At the beginning of this adoption, I continued to doubt if we would be able to raise the money for even one child, and God has blown my expectations right out of the ballpark!
I feel like God is continually asking and reminding me, "April...do you believe in my promises? Do you trust me enough to know that I know your future? I know the names of your children. I know how many hairs are on their head, and every scratch and scar on their little body. I know the hurt that they have been through and the future hurt they will experience. I know what they need. I know the journey they will take to become your children. I know them! I am with them in the morning when they wake, and I am with them as they lay their head down to sleep. I will not leave them. I will NOT leave you and Chris through this process. I may ask for you to stretch and grow through this journey, but I will be there to give you the strength you need. Do you trust me? Do you believe that I am in control? Are you willing to do as I ask of you?"
God has been speaking to Chris and I through so many different avenues in the past few weeks and He has been answering prayers left and right. Two weeks ago, I told Chris that I felt we needed to get a financial adviser to discuss our future when our kids come home. But it was a passing discussion that we never finished. Today, he met with a friend from church who had it placed on his heart to ask if he could be our financial adviser! God answered our prayer without even a hesitation.
This week God has been using a book, Kisses from Katie, to mold and shape my relationship with Him. I picked up this book and read it cover to cover in four days. Each time I read a chapter, I CRIED (Chris thought I was an emotional wreck)!!! Katie Davis is a girl that has been called by the Lord to live in Uganda, start a child sponsorship ministry called Amazima Ministries that sends orphans and impoverished children to school and provides them with meals and supplies. Incredibly, she has adopted 13 orphan girls. She is ONLY 22!!! I had to think back about what I was doing at 22, and I don't think that I would have been responsible enough to do all she has done for the Lord at that point in my life.
There were several stories throughout her book that ripped at my heart and convicted me. I think that even though I "know" there is a need in Uganda, I don't really know the extreme need that is going on there or around the world until I am to see it firsthand. Until you are to live it out, like she has. Katie explains how she encounters each week, children that are almost at their deathbed from starvation and disease, and how God has been able to use her ministry to serve these children. She explains the lack of medical care in Uganda and how she had to witness a little girl named Happy die because the girl's mom did not have money to pay for medical expenses. How fortunate we are to live in a country that provides some of the best medical care in the world!
And all of this to say, I was convicted of the materialism that I am apart of each Christmas. When I think of what we spend each year on "things" and how, if we were to give that money instead to families in need of life saving necessities such as food, water, mosquito nets, etc., how we could be saving a life!! How much more do I really need? The world and my flesh will tell me I need MORE...more clothes, more technology, more, more, more, but my NEEDS and my WANTS are two very different things. Something that I struggle to keep in check.
More than 16,000 children will die of hunger related causes in the next 24 hours from when I am writing this post. I don't know about you, but this statistic blew me away and I can honestly say that I am not the same person after reading this. When I think about our children, and that they could be one of those statistics, it makes it hard to breath. I know we are only adopting two children, but how many more could we be saving through our financial means? How much can I do as one person? Katie has sacrificed so much and she is changing the lives of nearly 400 children. Yes, it does not come easy or without a price, but because she was willing to listen to God's leading, she is making a difference.
I don't want to give away all of the details of the book (because you NEED to read it), but I will say that one glaring message that was laid upon my heart, was that God wants to use me right where I am. He wants to use Chris! He wants for us "to take up our cross and follow him", no matter where that leads us, no matter how hard and how long the path may be. He wants to "set the solitary in families" and He wants for Chris and I to change the lives of two littles ones that may never be given the opportunity to have parents who will love them. I pray that God continues to give us the strength and grace for each day ahead of us.
And He wants to use YOU too! If you are reading this blog, I want to challenge you to do something BIG this Christmas. Pray for God's leading in your life. Give to an organization instead of purchasing that item that you wanted to buy. Perhaps you have thought about adoption, but are afraid to take that step.
I will leave you with this passage (Matthew 6:19-21) "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth...But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven... For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
This Christmas, we are reminded of the sacrifice that our heavenly Father gave for us, to save us... He sacrificed His only son in order that we might live in eternity with Him. We are reminded that He loves us and will NEVER leave us.
April & Chris
Organizations (here are just a few, but there are many others):
http://www.charlottesvilleabundantlife.org/main/partnersOfCALM (local)
http://amazima.org/
www.worldvision.org
http://www.fh.org/
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/GiftCatalog2011/
