Not my will, but your's be done.



Monday, October 25, 2010

New Fundraiser!!

I've mentioned before how ever since Josh and I surrendered to God's calling on our life to adopt that God has provided more encouragement and support than we could have ever anticipated. At every turn it seems that God has yet another blessing waiting for us. Monitarily, we are still very far from where we need to be, come travel time, but I can honestly say that I am not worried. God has fully provided for everything we have needed so far, so why would I doubt that he will continue to do so?

Another thing that I have mentioned before is that I am a part of the Reece's Rainbow yahoo group. I have gotten so much information and encouragement from those ladies that it is unreal. About a week ago I got an unexpected blessing in my inbox. I had an email from a lady whom I've never met, talked to, or even heard of. She told me that several months ago she had committed to being Daniel's Christmas Warrior. Reece's Rainbow has an awesome program set up to help raise awareness and funds for the waiting special needs orphans on the Reece's Rainbow website. The angel who committed to Daniel is named Lisa. Lisa has her own little Daniel with Down Syndrome, so that made her burden for my Daniel all the sweeter. She had been praying for Daniel to find a family, and had also come up with an awesome fundraiser idea to help raise funds for his adoption grant! She was all ready to get her fundraiser up and running, when low and behold, she finds out that Daniel now has a committed family! US! So, instead of choosing a different child to raise funds for, she chooses to continue to help raise funds for Daniel!! How amazing is that?! I get an email from a lady I've never met, telling me how much she cares for Daniel, how excited she is that we are adopting him, and that she wants to hold a fundraiser for him!! And wait 'til you hear what the fundraiser is. She is buying a laptop to raffle off!! Uh. Yeah. Seriously. I was pretty much speechless! How generous is that?! It speaks volumes about her heart for orphans that she is willing to go to such lengths to helps a family,(whom she doesn't know), adopt an orphan(whom she doesn't know). Talk about blow me away! Not only is her generosity amazing, but her heart is also! She truly loves Daniel. I think she was more excited to hear that he has a family now, than I was to hear that she wanted to help raise funds! The raffle started last night and is being hosted on her friends blog. I intended to post about it last night, but the evening got away from me and before I knew it it was 11 o'clock and I was beat. So check out the link here, and enter it win a nice laptop! A $10 entry could very well win you a brand spankin' new computer!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Conservation

There is an excellent blog post that I would love to share with you. It is off my sister's blog, and her words have been stuck in my head ever since I read it. I debated a couple of days about whether of not to share this with you, but I can't get her words off of my mind. My first reaction when I read it was, "Oh my goodness, every Christian NEEDS to read this!" The reason I hesitated was because at the end of her post she puts a link back to my blog, and I didn't want anyone to think that I was trying to promote myself. But "Conservation" has so moved me, that I no longer care what people think, I just have to share it with you. So hop on over to Beautiful Chaos, and read what my sister has to say about conservation.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

I'm Paper Pregnant!!!

I can finally announce it!!
This little fellow is going to be ours!!


Isn't he just a little cutie-pie?! I'm sure that 99% of you have already followed the links that I have posted, and therefore, seen his picture. But I just HAD to post it myself! I've been waiting on Reece's Rainbow to give me the go ahead to make my official announcement. But the director was out of town for several days, and then they have been completely updating their website, so our annoucement got delayed a little bit. Better late than never, right?! We just could not be more excited about our new little addition! While I don't think that Ray completely understands, she always gets excited to see Daniel's picture or hear us talk about him. Luke, on the other hand, totally gets it and is TOTALLY stoked! Daniel's picture is on our fridge and every morning when Luke walks in the kitchen he says, "Good morning, Daniel!" He is so excited! It truly blesses my heart to see how excited the kids are about adding Daniel to our family.

There are still alot of unknows with our adoption. We are moving as quickly as we can, but there is still a chance that he will be transferred. Prayer warrior, get to praying!

As for other adoption updates:
-we've faxed all vaccination records for our pets to our social worker
-official copies of all of our birth certificates have been faxed to our social worker
-we've complete the health checks needed for all family members for our homestudy
-Josh and his dad cut apart and hauled off our storage building that was demolished in hurricane Ike and has been laying in a crumpled pile at the back fence for the past 2 years.
-Josh and I re-assembled the dog/chicken pen on higher ground, and our little Chica now has quite a bit of stomping ground
-more faxing, more emailing, more errands, and email some more!


It's all worth it though, to get our little guy home where he belongs! There is a lady whom I met through the Reece's Rainbow yahoo group, that is adopting a little boy from the same orphanage as Daniel! Her and her husband are over there RIGHT NOW and I have been getting daily emails from her letting me know what is going on. She has gotten to see, observes, and even HUG my Daniel! I'm hanging on to every tib bit of information she sends me way! My Daniel and her Timothy even share a cubby that holds their shoes, coats and such. We we both get our little guys home we will definitely have to get the together at some point for a reunion!

Gotta run! As soon as our information on the Reece's Rainbow page is fully updated, then I will post a link to it. I'll also post soon on what life is like for Daniel in the orphanage, per Mel's descriptions. Until then, you are more than welcome to pray for speedy paperwork process and a smooth homestudy for us! Also, there is still a diamond ring raffle fundraiser going on for Daniel here. Check it out, donate, and maybe win a diamond ring!

Monday, October 18, 2010

And the winner is...

ERIN P!!!

Erin, you can email me and let me know if you would prefer the little girl or little boy. You can pick which one you would like to have.

Thank you so much for all the entries! And a special thank you to those of you who blogged, facebooked, and tweeted about the raffle! For those of you who didn't win, please hop on over to Shabby Shae and buy yourself a Cuddly Creature....or two! They are so unique and totally adorable! They would make the perfect gift(Christmas is coming up!). The boy and girl that we featured in this raffle are $18 a piece, but Shabby Shae does custom orders for only $22! You can also give her a piece of a baby blanket or some other similar sentimental item and she can customize with that! Pretty nifty, eh? Can't beat a completely original, kind of quirky, soft and cuddly, ridiculously adorable Christmas gift for that little girl or boy on your list!

Have a wonderful evening and stay tuned, D's story and a new raffle are coming up later this week!

Almost drawing time!

In just a few short hours we will be drawing for the Cuddly Creature! Josh is writing down names and putting them in a big bowl as I type this. Can't wait to see who wins!

Also, we got our passports today!!! Yay!! Hoping to get our first packet of paper work that needs to be sent overseas from Reece's Rainbow tomorrow!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

L'Oreal Preference: Medium Copper Brown

*If you are here for information about the Cuddly Creature raffle, then scroll down to the previous post. Get your name in the hat quick, while there is still time! This post is for those of you who are interested in the ins and outs of the adoption process. I'm sure that most of you aren't, and that's fine, but I have several friends who are wanting to adopt and want to know the details of the never ending paper trail and preparations for adopting. If you aren't one of those people, then stop now because you will most likely be bored to tears.*


I'm going to make this one quick because I've got less than 20 minutes until my hair dye needs to be washed out. My gray and dark blond roots where showing through, and the only thing worse than a blond with dark roots, is a brunette with gray roots! With so much to do and so little time, life revolves around multi-tasking. If I could find a way to fold laundry in my sleep, I'd be set! All that to say, the only time I have to blog is while the hair dye is soaking through my scalp and frying my brain cells. This post will not be in my usual eloquent style*wink*, it is just a quick update from where I left off last Friday. Here goes:

Friday:
-hung the ceiling fan in Luke's room(all by myself, I might add). I did it shortly after I posted it on my to-do list for the weekend, because I wanted to make sure I actually got it done!
-Heard about "D's" upcoming transfer to a mental institution and emailed to find out more information.
-Showed Josh his picture and information.
-Immediately we decided he was ours.
-Emailed Reece's Rainbow and recieved our commitment information and paperwork from them THAT NIGHT.
-Started looking for a homestudy agency.
-Started fervently praying that God would provide the money for us to make an official commitment.

Saturday:
-Emailed several different homestudy agencies.
-Got an immediate reply from one agency, saying that she does do homestudies for independent adoptions from the country in Eastern Europe where "D's" orphanage is located.

Sunday
-Picked a homestudy agency and received all the paperwork via email.
-Talked to Micah about having a Cuddly Creature raffle.
-Prayed.Prayed.Prayed that God would provide the money to make an official commitment to "D"....and he did....while I was praying. Seriously.

Monday
-took the kids to a play at the theatre.(For the record, Luke loved it, Ray liked it, and Kellen did not like it.)
-D was removed from the waiting child list and placed on the "I Found My Family" list. Yipeee!
-Faxed our Criminal History forms to the social worker
-Reece's Rainbow said that they were contacting the orphange to tell them that "D" has a family coming for him.
-Picked out who we are going to do our adoption training classes with.
-Bought "D" a pillow for when he gets home. Wanted to buy him something, but I have no idea what size he is going to be clothes-wise, so I settled for a pillow.

Tuesday
-Faxed our personal history forms to the social worker.
-Cleaned out and re-organized Luke's room to make room for his new brother. Made a spot for "D's" bed.
-Set up our school area in the kitchen, instead of half in Luke's room and half in Ray's room. I do have to say that I am loving it this way. Schooling them at the same time is much easier now.

Wednesday
-Painted most of the porch.(Josh and the kids actually did most of this, I helped very little with this project.)
-Notarized our Reece's Rainbow application.
-Hung a new porch light. (I get the electrician gene from my PawPaw.)

Thursday
-Faxed papers to Reece's Rainbow
(Darn, the hair dye timer just went off.... Be right back.)

Ok, I'm back. No more roots. Back to my list.
-Overnighted more papers and checks to Reece's Rainbow
-Launched first fundraiser

Friday
-did my health check for our homestudy with the doctor
-got official copies of Ray and Kellen's birth certificates
-filed for a transcript of our 2009 tax return
-bought a blanket for "D". Planning on having a family that will very likely be traveling before us bring it to "D" at the orphanage.
-Got to hear Luke say that he was "the luckiest kid in the whole world because we are adopting and it's a kid that I love!" (Too sweet, right?)
-Got to hear Ray say, "There's my brother!!", when she saw a picture of "D". (They love him already!)

Saturday
-church work day. Got my Sunday school class(11th and 12th grade girls) all situated in a new room.
-took apart our old chicken pen and moved the panels to higher ground(our yard is really unlevel and where it was holds water really bad), as soon as we re-assemble it it in the new spot it will be the dog pen.
-Josh and I loaded up a low-boy trailer full of trash and junk that we have been needing to dump. We decided this adoption is the best thing that ever happend to us. It has gotten us highly motivated to do some things that we've been needing to do for a long time.

That pretty much catches us up. This posts was really just a bunch of lists, but I know that there are several of you who are interested in the ins and outs of the whole adoption process. For those of you who are not interested in the adoption process, sorry if you were bored. Can't say I didn't warn you.

Be watching, I'm going to be drawing a winner for the Cuddly Creature raffle tomorrow evening!!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Cuddly Creature Raffle!!

Here we go! Our very first adoption fundraiser, and I could not be more excited! When we first started thinking international adoption, we immediately started seeing dollar signs. International adoption is EXPENSIVE. But it is where God has called us, so in spite of not having the funds to do it, we chose to obey and trust that he will provide. Over the past several months I have done much research on what other families do to raise the funds to adopt and found that there are many different types of fundraisers out there to help raise the funds to adopt. When I first started thinking of fundraiser ideas, I thought a raffle would be great! I follow the blogs of several adopting families who are doing various things to raise funds for their adoptions. I'm always excited to see what they have to raffle off. So once we decided to adopt little "D" I knew that a raffle was in order! But what to raffle? I only had to think for about two seconds flat before I knew the perfect thing! Cuddly Creatures! My lovely friend, Micah, over at Shabby Shae, makes some delightful little creations called Cuddly Creatures.

Check out this snuggly little brother sister combo! Couldn't be any cuter!

Now that you've seen 'em, you just have to have one, right? They make the perfect little shabbied up lovey for your little prince or princess. Or baby shower gift for that special mom-to-be. They even have a little pocket in the front to hide a little treasure, or place a baby tooth in wait for the tooth fairy.



Isn't she a doll! Every little girl needs a lovey like this. Oh, you don't have a girl? Then her wacky little brother is perfect for your little man.
Now that I've got you drooling over them I'm going to tell you how to win one! A $2.oo donation at the ChipIn thingy over there on the side gets your name in the hat. Only 2 bucks! These Cuddly Creatures normally retail for $18(which is a great deal in itself!), but you have a chance to win one for only $2.00!! Not only is it only $2.00 to get your name in the hat, but you can get EXTRA entries for free! Yes, I said for free! If you blog, tweet, facebook, etc, about the Cuddly Creature raffle, posting a link to my blog, then you get an extra free entry. One free entry for every way you posted about the raffle. Blog about it: free entry. Facebook about it: free entry. Tweet it: free entry. Couldn't get any better than that! Make sure you comment and let me know how you got the word out, so I will know how many times to put your name in to the drawing. The winner gets to pick if he/she would rather have the girl or the boy.
Here are your marching orders.
First:Click on the ChipIn and donate $2.00 and get your name in the raffle. Feel free to donate more than two dollars, if you so desire, but it is not necessary.
Second: Re-post about the raffle as many places as possible, and then comment and let me know. Can't beat those free entries!
Third: Hope on over to Shabby Shae and check out her other products! She specializes in turning trash into treasure, but she also makes some other very nifty products. I, personally, have her small make up bag and I LOVE it!
This raffle is only going to be open for a few days, so get your name in ASAP! This week has been a busy one for us, so stay tuned for an update of our progress!







Tuesday, October 12, 2010

A little more official, but not quite there yet...

So while I still can't make our official announcement, things are more official than they were a few days ago. I can't wait to tell the whole story, but right now I'm just going to ask for prayer. We have to be further in the paper process before I can officially announce who we are adopting, his name, and where he is currently located. UGH! While I am frustrated about that part, I am daily encouraged and motivated by the way that God is throwing open door left and right. Every time we hit a barrier, we pray, and almost immediately the Lord has torn it down so we can move right through. It has been supernatural the way God has been working on our(and our son's) behalf. Please continue to be in prayer that the process will continue to go quickly and smoothly. I cannot even began to stress how important time is right now. Time is the one thing our son does NOT have right now. Pray for tender hearts at the orphanage where he is located. Pray that they will have enough information from us to trust that we are coming and that they will not transfer him elsewhere. I'll update soon and with as many details as I am allowed. For now, check out this and this, and then come back and tell me how awesome that is?! There are angels from heaven that have been earnestly interceeding for our child, before we even knew he existed. Very moving, to say the least.
Oh, and we decided to adopt "D" before we knew about the fundrasing efforts on his behalf. THAT is how God works. First, you choose to trust him and obey, and then He shows you how he has been waiting to carry you as long as you were willing to take that first step of faith. God is so good.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Unofficially....

I'm so excited! Big things happening!! BIG BIG things happening! I am so dying to tell you alllll about it, but I can't at the moment, and UGH is it killing me! Trust me, I will be shouting it from the rooftops as soon as we are "official". Until then, why don't you go here and check out this post. Tell me that boy doesn't have CARLIN written all over his sweet face. Did I say too much? Oops. To heck with the rules, I'm a proud mama and nobody can keep me quiet! Details coming soon!!!

Friday, October 8, 2010

This weeks accomplishments...

-contacted Reece's Rainbow, let them know of our intent to adopt and got information on how to start the process

-joined the RR yahoo group(tons of wonderful people with a wealth of information from their own personal adoption journeys)

-found out that one of my sweet internet/bloggy friends is actually a real life kindred spirit kinda friend :]

-went to downtown Port Arthur and got an "official" copy of Josh's birth certificate

-went online and ordered and "official" copy of my birth certificate (I was born in Columbus, Ohio so I can't very easily swing by there and pick up a copy. :))

-had our passport pictures taken

-applied for our passports!!!!

Josh got alot accomplished too!! He:
-pressure washed the entire outside of the house

-replaced two broken T-posts on the chicken pen

-dug a trench for a standing water problem we have in our back yard

-got a water pump and pumped all the standing water out

-did a little bit of research about Ukrainian history and what to expect as a visitor there

I also:

-had an excellent day with my kids, my sister, 3 nephews, and a neice at the Houston zoo

-cleaned off the porch so that Josh could pressure wash it

-weedeated a patch of tall grass and weeds that has been too wet to mow because of the standing water problem. I looked hilarious when I finished! My face was covered in mud sprinkles!

All in all a very successful week! I have a few more things that I plan to get accomplished this weekend which include, but aren't limited too:
-fundraiser research
-re-potting some plants
-hang a ceiling fan in Luke's room
-attend my neice's 2nd b-day party
-make homemade pizza and sugar cookies with my kids
-watch some college football
-have a blast with my 11th and 12th grade Sunday school girls

Every baby step is one step closer to bringing our special kiddo home!

Saturday, October 2, 2010

How the Lord Used the Undies Drawer

*I honestly could not figure out what to title this post, so I went with that. This is a reeeeeaaallly long post, but you gotta hang in there 'til the end to find out the meaning behing the title.*

God is so good. So completely and utterly good. At times, it leaves me speechless. But this is not one of those times. This time is one of those times where God's goodness has me bursting at the seams! I literally can't keep quiet about how amazing it has been to see his hand guide us in the past several days.

It has been almost two weeks since I posted my prayer request post. After I posted that request I stepped my adoption research up a notch. Even I didn't know that was possible. It already felt like I was going fast a furious with it. When we surrendered to the call to adopt, we started broad, considering every possible country to adopt from and method by which to adopt. We didn't want to limit God in anyway, or just assume that he was leading in a certain direction. We knew that he called to adopt special needs, but that is a VERY broad catagory. Not only is it a broad catagory, but there are orphans in every country that the United States is allowed to adopt from that fit into the special needs catagory. So while we had narrowed it down a little, there was still much whittling to do to narrow it down further. After researching different countries, we learned that we are not eligible to adopt from all countries. Each country has its own set of requirements that foreigners(that would be us) have to meet, and we don't meet every country's criteria. Stupid rules, if you ask me. But nobody asked me. So while I'm not a fan of the guidelines of some countries, I chose to see it as God closing that door and narrowing down our search.


I pretty much had ruled out international adoption for now, and narrowed it down to a very awesome Christian agency in Houston, or a CPS adoption through Buckner. We have done the first part of the preliminary paperwork with both and it was time to pick a path and take the next step. Problem was, Josh wasn't completely on board with either.
Ugh.
Every time I tried to get his opinion about which way we should go, he would say he didn't have a peace about either.
Double ugh.

When God originally called us to adopt he did it through our discovery of the plight of special needs orphans in Eastern Europe(GREAT story that I still plan on sharing with you when I get the chance). When we decided to adopt, we knew that we would be adopting a special needs child from that part of the world one day, but we didn't know if that was exactly where God was calling us to adopt from right now. If you know much about adoption at all, you know that international adoption is a different and more difficult process, in many ways, than domestic adoption. And on top of that, adopting from the majority of the countries in Eastern Europe is a completely different ball game. Very early in the research game it was as though that door was quickly shut. The Ukraine and Russia are VERY expensive to adopt from and they require TWO semi-extended trips to finalize your adoption. Plus BOTH parents have to travel for the first trip.

Paying between $50,000-$80,000 to be away from my children for about 6 weeks not only seemed impossible, but I didn't WANT to do it. Door shut. Just can't do that right now. I kept telling Josh that the exorbitant amount of money wasn't the problem. Whether the adoption costs $1000 or $100,000, God is going to have to provide the money. Plain and simple, we don't have it. The scary, and nearly impossible, part of an Eastern European adoption, for me, is the travel. Being away from my children for that amount of time(overseas, none the less) is not something I feel capable of doing. Just can't.


Regardless, that is where Josh's heart was. Even after I laid out all the facts for him about why it just couldn't work right now, that's still where his heart was at. To be 100% honest, my heart was in Eastern Europe also, but I could not fathom such a difficult undertaking at this point in my life. And by "difficult undertaking" I mean, to adopt from the area of the world that I consider to be hardest, at least in my opinon.


We reached this dead lock about a week ago. I was frustrated, to say the least. All my countless hours of researching various countries and agencies and methods of adoption, only to have Josh and I not be able to whole-heartly agree.


Then Josh had to pull a typical "Josh". He said that even though his heart was in the Ukraine, he understood how I felt about traveling there and that he would be on board with whatever method I chose.
Sigh.
Why does he always do that? He just has to be so darn agreeable. Not only did he say that he would be on board with whatever path I chose, he said that he would use virtually the rest of his vacation for the year for us to do the required training to adopt.
Double sigh.


This should be good news, right? But it just felt all wrong. I took a step back to examine my heart and I quickly saw that over the previous week I had been doing much more researching/thinking/planning than I had been praying and seeking the Lord. It was giving me serious anxiety to feel like we were right back at square one. But worry and anxiety are not from the Lord. And not only are they not from the Lord, they are a sin. I should have seen all my stressing and worry and a big flashing red light that I was doing this on my own, and not relying on the Lord. It helped to have a little reminder from my husband that if God calls us to do something, then he will give us the strength to do it. I finally relented. I gave it all back to God, and told him that I'd go where ever he calls me to go. Even if it takes years to get there. Even if it feels impossible.

But luckily, God is not bound by what we consider impossible, now is he? THIS is where the story gets good...

I have an A.W. Tozer quote written on a piece of paper that I leave in front of my computer so that I will see it several times a day. It says,
"God is looking for people through whom he can do the impossible. What a pity we plan only the things we can do by ourselves."
Here I had been working so hard at trying to figure out how we would be able to accomplish what God has called us to do. I was trying to pick the path that I thought was do-able. The goal that I was capable of achieving. Notice all the I's? No wonder I was so worried and anxious. I'm not capable of doing all that much on my own. I had good reason to be concerned about trying to take on something as huge as adopting a child in my own strength and with my own wisdom and resources. So, once again, I surrendered everything to the Lord. I told him that I would stop trying to do it my way and that I would just follow where he leads, in spite of how difficult and scary that may be. Immediately, all the worry and anxiety were gone, and nothing but that sweet peace that passes all understanding. In the days that followed, God gave us a direct peace about pursing an Eastern European adoption. Impossible? Maybe for us, but not for God.
I quit with the hours of research and decided to just sit back and wait for the Lord to direct. Novel idea, I know. Honestly though, that's hard for a person with my personality type. He's already given us the direction, so I'm ready to just barrel ahead full speed. I daily had to choose to spend less time on the computer doing research, and more time on knees seeking the Lord's face. He quickly removed my blinders about my notion of a Ukrainian or Russian adoption being impossible. An independant adoption of one or two special needs orphans in the Ukraine was only going to be upwards of $30,000. Not NEAR the $50,000-80,000 that our first research had revealed. Our first information was on a Russian agency adoption of 1-2 healthy children. Very different from an independant adoption of a child with Down Syndrome or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Don't get me wrong, we don't have 30k just lying around, but that was just God showing us that once we do things his way, nothing is impossible. The Lord chose to keep me blinded to this seemingly simple piece of information because he knew that if I knew it, that I would suddenly think that maybe I could do this thing on my own.
So here we were praising the Lord that we didn't have to raise as much money as we had originally thought, and that the process wouldn't take as long as we thought either. Once we commit to a child, we could have that child home with us in as short as 7 months. That's super-fast in the international adoption world. Here was God starting to open doors, possibly much faster than we had anticipated.
First kink. We don't have passports. That may sound like a simple problem to fix for most of you, but we are folks of very humble means, and we also don't have an extra $250-300 it takes to get Josh and I passports. My birthday is later this month, so I decided that I would use any money that I got for my birthday to get my passport. Half the problem solved right there. Josh's birthday is at the end of November. When I told him that I was going to use my birthday money to get my passport he said, "Great!" What I really wanted to hear him say, is that he, too, would use any money he got for his birthday to get his passport.
But he didn't.
I had looked up info on getting passports, and when I saw how long it takes to get them in once you have applied for them, I got a teensy bit worried. I wanted to ask him if he would consider using his birthday money to get a passsport. But I bit my tongue. Instead, I gave it back to God, and in return he gave me back that sweet peace of his. No worries. He was in control. Aaaahhh. This was much better than when I was trying to figure it all out myself.
Later, that.very.day, I made a very random decision to clean out my jewelry drawer and switch it with my undergarment drawer. This was random for several reason. 1.I have many other much more pressing areas of my house that beg for organization. And, 2. Cleaning out my jewelry drawer and swapping it with my undergarment drawer was not on my cleaning list that I tend to stick too very closely. (Just a tad type A, eh?)
Despite the sheer randomness of it, I got to cleaning anyway. Amidst my underwear drawer what do you think I found...besides underwear, of course?? An unmarked envelope with 300 bucks in it!!! I am so stinkin' serious!! I marched straight in to the living room and held out the money to Josh and told him where I found it. He took one look at it and said, "We can get our passports!" Praise God, yes we can!!
I've always heard that God works in mysterious ways, but I honestly never thought he'd make money appear in my undies drawer. However he chooses to work, though, I'm fully on board!!
Next week Josh and I will be applying for our passports!! This is only our first step of many towards bringing our special kiddo home, but it is very exciting! I can't wait to see how he is going to continue to work and provide as we chose to obey him and walk by faith daily.