For all my China friends you will understand my excitement. We were cabled today and my agency has our PDF file!! For everyone who doesn't understand this, let's just say that it is out of my hands now. I just wait as my paperwork is shuffled from this desk to that desk and finally ends up on the desk that issues our Travel Approval!!! We hope to travel at the beginning of March. Oh my gosh that is soon! I have been on the phone several times today since everyone is back to work. I have been busy making sure all my ducks are in a row. I need to now apply for my visa to China!!
I know that the next thing that I am going to share some will not agree with, but it is the reality of the situation we are in. When we were apart of the Nepal program we lost alot of money. We refinanced our house to pay the costs not knowing that we would lose it all. We can no longer do that again with the economy the way that it is now. We are apart of an organization that is non-profit called Village to Village. http://www.villagetovillageintl.com/ If you click on adoptive families on this website you will find us. The concept is it takes a village and if we can find 1,000 families to give $10, we can raise the money that we lost. There is a quote by Bob Pierce on their website: "Don't fail to do something when you can't do everything." $10 isn't much, but together with many people it can help us bring our Renee home. It is very humbling to make this request. I don't do it lightly. The reality is that because it has taken so long to get to this point, so much money has gone out just renewing all our government forms. Again, I know that many do not agree with us making this plea, but it has been a very different journey than I thought it would be and we are at a different point than I hoped we would be financially. I am also very careful what I say about my religious views, not because I am ashamed of my faith, but I know that so many have been hurt by "Christians" encouragement during difficult times during adoption. I have been faced with many things said to me that has made me stop and question just where people get the ideas that they have shared. Some of them are biblical and some of the phrases are not. The ones that are biblical still are hard words to hear when you are in the middle of the crisis. In the middle of things I could not have read the verses from the bible that I will quote soon. But after saying all this, I want to say that God has been faithful to our family and I know that He will take care of us. Habakkuk 3:17-19: 17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.
Thanks for rejoicing with me. I hope that I have not pushed people away from my blog, but I have come to a place as I have journey through this adoption that I want to give praise to God for all that He has brought my family through. Life was never meant to be easy, but God is faithful and has always been by my side. Even during the times I have pushed Him away.
I love LOVE the Village to Village idea to raise the money, excellent! I encourage you to not worry about naysayers or people that might not agree with this. I would turn them towards James 1:27. ;) For real, the church should stand up & help bring the orphans home to their family. I've found that many people in the church don't want to adopt however there are quite a few that are very willing to jump in & help when they know about a situation. I am bookmarking the website for further use for our family as we are hoping to adopt from China in the near future as well. We will be supporting you!
ReplyDeleteWell said! I don't know what you've been through regarding fundraising comments, but I have a family member (non Christain) who blatantly disagrees with our adoption and any ask of money. It hurts that he just doesn't get it. He doesn't get the love of God, the call that He has placed on us to adopt, how to be generous. I honestly find it sadly funny that the people who have the most give the least (or give nothing in his case). Bless you in your efforts and know you are not in the boat alone. We lost Nepal too and have no idea where the funds to get us to China will come from. All our adoption fees are covered but travel fees are crazy! I trust God will provide and He'll bring our daughters home!
ReplyDeleteGreat to be here! I'm so glad you gave me the link to your blog. thanks for visiting Savannah's site. We don't expect to travel until April or May at the earliest. We just sent off our I800A last week, haven't even received a fingerprint appt yet, so we're not even close to doing the I800. :( But at least we know who she is, where she is, and that we are going to get her!!!
ReplyDeleteSavannah is in the Jiangxi Province, in Yifeng County SWI. Where is your daughter?
Good to "connect" this way. God bless! He WILL finish the good work he has started!!!
Jami Butler - Savannah Grace's mom. :) :) :)