Waiting in Anticipation

Our adoption journey began with a simple step of faith. We had sensed God's call in our lives to adopt for around 2 years. We waited, prayed, considered, read, prayed, read some more and finally we knew it was time to act. When we began to walk forward on what we knew to be God's very clear call we did so with very little means of our own, financially or otherwise. We saved the amount due for the formal application. That was it. We believed God was calling us to this task and we believed he would provide. Then before our application could be officially processed we were told the first payment (and a few other misc. costs) of around $3,000 dollars would be due as well. My heart sank and basically I started to panic. What?! Where in the world would we get $3,000? Days before I was full of faith, believing in God's provision and at the first payment due I panicked.

I realized quickly that the walk of faith began the moment we said yes to this call and I had better start living that way and believing in his provision. So I prayed. I prayed for a miracle. I fully believed God could drop a check on the counter (though I think he is usually more creative and surprising than that!) and I also began asking him what could we do while we waited for a miracle. What could we sell? What odd jobs could we do?

 Exactly 2 days after I first prayed this prayer, God answered. Dan had missed a phone call from a close family member the week prior. They finally got a hold of him 2 days after I prayed for the miracle to let him know that if we ever considered adoption they wanted to help. Dan let them know we actually were adopting! They asked what did we need at that moment, Dan told them, and they gave generously exactly what we needed! 

God had already worked in their hearts before we even knew we had a need. This couple had talked weeks earlier, they had tried to call Dan the week before! He had already answered my prayer with a miracle before I even asked. 

He is good. What He does is Good. What God calls us to he equips us for. 

Since that time another loving family member called asked what exactly we needed at that moment and generously gave just as we needed it. 

As throughout the entire adoption process there are always current financial needs/deadlines. While we wade through paperwork, paperwork related tasks, and other family commitments the financial deadlines creep up on us. 

We are doing one small fundraiser now and selling things on craigslist and saving from our regular income but adoption is expensive and stretches us still. 

I started to feel a little anxious over the course of the past week. We had a deadline for our final home study payment. Our homestudy cannot be completed and turned over to us until this payment is met. We cannot move forward with any other part of the process until we have the homestudy. So how do I respond? Even after seeing God provide miraculously for every financial need thus far? Anxiety, fear, a bit of panic. 

In spite of my sin- my lack of faith-  how does God respond?

This week a different close family member hands us a check for the exact amount due to our homestudy agency for the finalization of our home study! 

I am humbled and amazed once again. I am thinking on God's provision this week and my own lack of faith. 

Before we began our adoption journey I believed that the entire process was going to be a deeply growing season for us and that we were going to see God move and work in our lives and the lives of others in ways that we had never known before. I anticipated these things because of the witness of the other families I had followed as they went through their own adoption journeys and answered God's call. 

I also believe that adoption is for the whole Church. I believe God desires to use all followers of Jesus to meet the needs of the orphan. I think that in his creative plan he has different roles for how each member of the body does this. Most of us can sponsor children financially. All of us can pray for the orphan. All of us can educate ourselves on the lives of orphans world wide. Many can foster children. Some adopt and others help them adopt. 

We are getting to see his beautiful plan for including others in the adoption of our future children. God will include many of his people to bring these 2 little ones into our family- not just us. I don't think it was ever in his plan for it to be, just us. His people work beautifully together to bring his little ones into families. 

I believe that we are going to see God supply us with everything we need to follow him. I pray that at the end of this journey we are people of deeper faith. I pray that we begin to live in such a way that we  anticipate God's provision and are not continually surprised by it! 

Each answer to prayer, each financial need met, every area of growth in our own hearts, remind us of his purpose in all of this. They demonstrate his sovereignty and very real presence in every single aspect of this call. We are being filled with confidence as we walk forward holding his hand as he leads us to a place we do not know. 

I have been reflecting on Israel and their 40 year journey through the desert before entering the promise land. God supplied all of their needs every day but he did not give them an abundance, only what they needed for that day. There was no self reliance in this but a daily trust that He would sustain them yet again. I feel like God is calling us to trust him every single step of our journey, to trust him to provide just what we need when we need it. 

It is my prayer that as we go along my response will increasingly be more Christ-like. That my responses to financial needs, to long waits, to all of the unknowns will be driven by faith and not fear. I pray that God would use this process, the financial trials, the paperwork, the waiting, to make us more like him and to see him and hear his voice more clearly. 

So I purpose to walk forward into each new trial anticipating his provision. I will stop asking "How in the world can we every do this?!" and start saying "I wonder how God will reveal himself this time?" 

Witnessing this reality in our lives right now:

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:19 

Levi's Take On Bringing Home His Brother/Sister Next Year

Our First Fundraiser!!!

We are so excited to announce our first official fundraiser in our adoption process! We are partnering with a Christian non-profit organization called "The Apparent Project:. The Apparent Project seeks to help and empower women in extreme poverty in Haiti care for and provide for their children! We will be selling bracelets made by women in Haiti. A specific portion of each bracelet goes directly to the Apparent project and the women in their artisan program. The remaining portion of the cost of the bracelet goes directly to our adoption. We are thrilled with the chance to partner and help women keep their children, thus preventing more orphaned children, while at the same time bring home 2 orphans into our family! We believe this fundraiser is a chance for our friends and family (and yours) to care for orphans and widows in 2 vital and equally important ways!

Attached to every bracelet is a picture and a short biography of the very woman who made your bracelet! We really hope that you will use this opportunity to put your money toward something that has such a life changing impact for these mothers and for our two children we are working to bring into our family! We also believe this is a great opportunity for families to give their children chances to get behind something that is meaningful and lasting. Each person who buys a bracelet will have a picture and profile of the woman who made it. Families can pray for that woman, and pray for our children in Ethiopia every time they wear their bracelet!

Here is the link to the Apparent Project Website:
http://www.apparentproject.org/

Here is another adoptive mother who describes this fundraiser in a great way:
http://www.walkingbytheway.com/blog/favorite-adoption-fundraiser-ever/

Part of the mission of the Apparent Project:

"This is why we are called the "Apparent Project". We are trying to help mothers and fathers in poverty be A PARENT to their children. We are educating and taking care of street kids who don't have A PARENT. We are using media and the arts to make the needs of Haiti APPARENT to those who can help, and we are doing this all with the hope that the love of God will be made more APPARENT to those we humbly serve and that He will be known as A PARENT to the parentless."

You can buy these from us in person or we will ship them to you. We are selling each bracelet for $9.00. We will ship any size order for an extra $3.00. You can email me at amandaborgelt@yahoo.com to place an order or if you are local call or ask me in person! 

Please pass on a link to this page to anyone you think might be interested! Share it on Facebook or through email with your friends and family! Also, if you think that you could sell some to your friends and family or at your place of work feel free to ask for some and we will pass them on to you to sell for us! If you would like to host a bracelet party at your house with your family and friends for us we would be thrilled to bring along bracelets!