An Amazing and Humbling Experience
The whole process of adoption has been a humbling experience. So much is out of your control and you just keep wanting to take the reins and go but your told to stop, wait, and wait some more. It makes for a lot of time to be in prayer. We are constantly praying for our little papita and there are so many things that we see and do that remind us that he is there and we are here. It makes for some frustration but that just means more prayer time. This has been the case with our home study. We now know that there are a lot of I's to dot and T's to cross when it comes to a home study. A very simple mistake can cause a week or more delay. For example, I, Caleb, needed a background check from the State of Virginia because I did some training there for about three months. We filled out all the paperwork and sent $7 cash only to find out six days later that Virginia will only take a money order or cashier's check. Luckily, this was taken care of and our Home study will be complete this week!
One especially humbling thing has been our fundraising. It's a major part of our lives now. Everywhere we are we are thinking about what our next fundraiser should be, how much we are spending and how can we spend less, what are creative ways that we can earn more money without sacrificing too much family time. In our last post, we talked about some of the fundraisers that we had started for the months of November and December.
Bre's gift wrapping was a huge success. Twelve families donated wrapping and/or had their gifts wrapped, some just two or three gifts, others 20+ gifts for their whole family and friends. We were truly humbled and extremely grateful for their generous financial gifts of over $600 from these families.
Finally, our bottle banks have also been a great help to us. We have three or four families that have a bank and they have graciously put their coins in them for us. Every few weeks, we get a call from someone to exchange their full bank for an empty. Each time we are overjoyed because we know that with each bank we are one step closer to seeing our son. In addition to the families, there are a few businesses that have bottle banks on their counters that customers can put their change in to donate. Last Friday I drove by one of these business to exchange the banks and I was surprised with a bank that had several paper dollars in it. I was very happy so see so much green but wasn't prepared for what I saw when I turned the bottle just a half turn……A $20 bill.
I was overwhelmed that a stranger was willing to give so much to a family that they didn't know. I immediately prayed for them. Thanking God for humbling me and putting so many people in our lives that are willing to help, some that we don't even know. It helped me to know that God really has the reins and He is placing people in our lives to bless us and He will bless us beyond our imaginations. And that's just something I can't rush.
We ask that you continue to pray for us in this process. Pray for us, pray for our son, but also pray for the people that are blessing us every day.
