Financial Update

Hello everyone! It’s been a few weeks since I posted an update about the financial part of the adoption process. Like so many other parts/pieces of this adoption, the blessings of God regarding the finances are in a simple word – GREAT. Through God’s blessings, He continues to confirm to us that we are living in His will regarding this adoption. He is working in others to give so generously to helping bring Natasha, Alona, and Makc to our family. It is awesome to witness God at work in providing the necessary finances daily. I praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Give generously, for your gifts will return to you later. Ecclesiastes 11:1 NLT

Let me try and give you some idea of what the estimated total expense is, what we have received from numerous friends and family so far, what we have been able to pay from these generous gifts, and what expenses are left and when.

The total estimated expense to bring Natasha, Alona, and Makc home - $40,000
Monies given so generously as of 12/29 - $14,725
Monies still needed - $25,275

Here is how the cost breaks down:
$5,500 agency fee paid!
$1,500 home study paid!
$850 immigration paid!
$1,250 dossier preparation money in account!
$18,000 foreign adoption fee $12,375 still needed
$8,000 airfare $8,000 still needed
(2 adult roundtrips / 3 children one way)
$5,000 in country expenses $5,000 still needed
(lodging / food / in country transportation / misc.)

We need the $25,275 to be in hand before we travel. March is the soonest we could travel because of the children’s availability for international adoption. Please join us in this prayer – God, please provide the remaining $25,275 before March 1, 2009.

Thank you for your prayers and generosity, they are needed and appreciated! If you would like to help us get Natasha, Alona and Makc to our home so we can continue to share the love of Jesus with them, you can send a tax-deductible donation to:
God’s Waiting Children
c/o Borden Adoption
1865 Herndon, Suite K125
Clovis, CA 93611

Please make sure you write “Borden Adoption in the memo of your check.

Blessings <><,

David

Quick Update

Thank you for praying regarding the home study. So many of you asked about it and let us know you were praying. I could tell! It went wonderfully well. We will meet the social worker again next week to wrap up. The social worker is delightful and said she will try to get the home study complete by Christmas. (The social worker is in the final process of adopting twin 3-yr-old girls from Ethiopia). The next step will be to mail it to immigration and pray immigration moves quickly to give approval. We've heard of some quick turn-arounds lately, but it can take around 8 weeks for immigration to approve. So, please thank God for the home study moving along so well and start praying over the immigration employees :)!

As you pray for our kids and situation, please remember and pray for the 7 families from this summer's hosting program who are in Ukraine as I type adopting! Other families are in the paperwork process as we are. What amazing work God was doing this summer (and continues to do)! God is alive and active! Plans are already underway to bring another group of orphans to our area this summer for hosting.

We love you! Jenny

Prayer regarding home study

We have our appointment with the social worker Monday. After this meeting, we will meet one more time with her, and then hopefully our home study will be complete. I spoke with the social worker on the phone and she seems delightful! Please pray it all comes together quickly. We need the home study complete to send on for immigration, another piece of the paperwork pie.

I just have to share a little epiphany I had in the Taco Bell drive-thru yesterday. I know this blog is designed to keep you updated on the adoption. I don't mean to indulge myself with other reports, but these posts are part of the adoption for me. God is teaching me so much through this. I pray as I share it, you might be blessed. Anyway, for the past year or two I have often paid for meals of those behind me in drive-thru lines and Chipotle lines (I've spent a lot of time in a Chipotle line :)). I usually just buy the meal, and tell the person or ask the clerk in the drive-thru line to tell the customer that "Jesus loves them". I've had some AMAZING experiences doing this! God has blessed me like crazy with this. I seriously could write a quite interesting book just on my Chipotle-food-buying experiences! My friend Tonya could testify as she has been with me most of the time!

Lately I haven't been eating out as much. I found myself in the Taco Bell drive-thru and a car pulls up behind me. Immediately I think, okay I need to buy their meal. Next thought is that I can't do that because I need to be careful about spending money. We are in need of like $25,000 and that's just getting started right?! Then I'm reminded by the Spirit that all I have been given is given by God. Surely He's not going to stop giving because I am seeking to show someone He loves them. I was reminded that you "can't outgive God". I don't know who to credit with that quote. I think my husband has said it several times, but maybe I heard it in a sermon??? Anyway, the point is God gives in abundance. Look what He's given us! He wants me to give abundantly! He is an abundant, extravagant giver. I know it because I've experienced it. Why would I want to possibly keep someone else from knowing that (for like $2.80)?? Shame on me. End of the story...I bought the meal, I looked in my rear view mirror to see this 20-something year old kid with a HUGE smile on His face. Not to mention the 50-something year old clerk's expression when she was like why would you do that and I said "just tell him that Jesus loves him." Oh how I pray that you and I will live the abundant life Jesus has for us! With love, Jenny

"But she has given...everything she has" Mark 12:44

I hope you've had a wonderful Thanksgiving? We did. We are so thankful for our family. We tried to call the orphanage to talk with Makc, Alona and Natasha, but were unsuccessful. We are going to continue trying to reach the orphanage by phone. Please pray God will give the kids a sense of peace and an attitude filled with expectation and hope.

David and I have been blown away the past few weeks by some of you! We so often see selfishness and greed in this world, but I want to share with you that God's desire for His people to love and to give sacrificially is very much alive.

Here are a few stories from the past week:
1. A friend (stay-home mom) whose husband has lost his job calls. She's heard that we sent out a letter asking friends to consider praying and/or giving to be a part of this journey. Her family didn't receive a letter, and calls to see if we will send her one. (note: we did send one, but for whatever reason they didn't get it). Even though they have no known job possibilities right now, they want to give so that we can get the kids here.
2. A family calls asking when the next chunk of money is needed. Their family has talked about this (2 teenage girls and parents) and if they need to forgo giving Christmas presents to one another so that they can get the kids to our home that's what they want to do. They say that if it's after the first of the year they will save to give, but if it's now they are more than willing to make that sacrifice.
3. Some dear friends mail a very generous gift to us. They have 3 kids themselves and work hard like all of us. The note on the check says, "Bring them home!"
These are a FEW stories. I gotta tell you...God is blowing me away. I'm learning so much about Him. I feel like I'm seeing those that have dedicated their lives to Him in a whole new way. How beautiful the body of Christ is. Thank you for blessing me. I pray you see God's working and beauty in a whole new way this week.

Thank you for your prayers!

Paperwork and Money!

Paperwork & Money. We're trusting God with both of these. I pray you know our God does not disappoint! He is providing just what we need and when we need it. Of course we don't know God's timetable, but right now the paperwork is moving right along. If you're into specifics, David and I have physicals next week and we're waiting on marriage certificates and birth certificates to come in, and then we can schedule our home study appointment. This is a huge step to finish. Once the home study is completed, we can hopefully move quickly to complete the rest of the needed paperwork. Our dossier could be over there, Lord willing, in January. This gives us an opportunity to travel in March or maybe summer. We just won't know that until soon before it happens. So, we're doing all we can to get the paperwork finished and over there, and then we trust the Lord's timing is perfect. (Feel free to remind me I said that if you catch me sounding anxious)!

Another great thing about a completed home study is that we can begin applying for grants. There are some great non-profits offering grants to adopting families. As soon as that home study is complete, we'll be applying for as many grants as we can. We are so thankful for the initial money that God has provided allowing us to do this paperwork. We know that He will continue to provide money through grants, through friends and strangers alike whom He calls, and well whatever He pleases! We are trusting God to provide the $25,000 that is still needed.

I ask you to please pray faith-filled and boldly with me that: 1. God will provide all that is needed 2. that all those, including us, who the Lord wants involved in this mission will listen and respond with an open heart. I believe and have already seen that this endeavor is so much bigger than our family. The Lord is doing a big work through this! I believe He's calling some to pray, some to give, some to encourage, some to help, and perhaps even others to adopt through this. Most importantly, I believe He's showing His power and glory, allowing all who are involved to grow and surrender more to Him.

I listened to Casting Crown's Lifesong cd for the first time in quite a while today, and was so struck by the song "In Me." I so relate!!! I had to get a laugh because some of the lyrics talk about the power of Christ making me strong. In the first half of our hosting Makc and Alona there were times when I was quite overwhelmed. The Lord gave me this verse: 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Whew, those became MY verses. I wrote those words on an index card, and that thing went everywhere with me. I would feel overwhelmed and pick up that card reading it aloud. I kept the card and it is folded and bent...let's just say it looks well used!

God is so good. He brought me to a place of delight. I pray as you read the lyrics to the song below, your heart will be touched at God's generosity of wanting to use us, even in our weakness.

"In Me" by Casting Crowns

If you ask me to leap
Out of my boat on the crashing waves
If You ask me to go
Preach to the lost world that Jesus saves

I'll go, but I cannot go alone
Cause I know I'm nothing on my own
But the power of Christ in me makes me strong
Makes me strong

Cause when I'm weak, You make me strong
When I'm blind, You shine Your light on me
Cause I'll never get by living on my own ability
How refreshing to know You don't need me
How amazing to find that you want me
So I'll stand on Your truth, and I'll fight with Your strength
Until You bring the victory, by the power of Christ in me

If You ask me to run
And carry Your light into foreign land
If You ask me to fight
Deliver Your people from Satan's hand

To reach out with Your hands
To learn through Your eyes
To love with the love of a Savior
To feel with Your heart
And to think with Your mind
I'd give my last breath for Your glory

With love, Jenny
"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8

Dossier starting soon!

Let me start by confessing that this blog stuff is hard. For those who know me, saying things quickly and succinctly isn't always my strength. So forgive me if I go on too long!

In order for Jenny and I to manage the adoption of Makc, Alona, and Natasha, we needed to divide and conquer. Jenny would be mostly responsible for the paperwork and I would be mostly responsible for the finances. So, in the last few weeks, I have been focusing my prayer time around the financial needs, seeking God's guidance in this matter. The question of "How are we going to afford it?" is being answered. It's not "us" that is going to afford it, it's God that's going to afford it and fulfill His plan. We have faith that God will provide as evidenced by a few of the things that have have taken place in the last few days around the financial support.

Within a few days of officially announcing our call to pursue adopting Makc, Alona, and Natasha, we received word from the school that because I had volunteered to coach the girls middle school basketball team, they were going to tear up the $55 check we wrote to cover the fees and they would be supplying Keely with shoes! Money straight into the account. Gas prices falling to levels half the cost compared to a month ago... saving money now! A check that came in the mail with a note saying that the senders were praying for the adoption and to use the gift towards the home study expense, and many more examples. Through the gifts and prayers of so many, we were able to start the home study, the first phase of the process costing almost $2,000 in the first few days, not in weeks or months. God is good.

If that doesn't show how awesome God is, then how about this. Today, we learned that enough money has been given towards the adoption that the dossier can be started! The dossier expense is over $8,000. That's right, over $10,000 has been given towards the adoption of Makc, Alona, and Natasha in a matter of a few weeks, not months or even years!

If all goes well, we hope to have all our paperwork (that's Jenny's job) complete before the end of the year! We know that there will be lots of challenges ahead, like the $25,000+ needed by the time we are invited to travel (maybe spring!). We also know that God is bigger than anything we will face.

When we started seriously talking about the idea of adopting these precious children a few months ago, we kept asking a lot of "how?" questions. We know how - God. We will continue to hold onto the knowledge that God has called our family to adopt Makc, Alona, and Natasha and have faith that His plan will be accomplished.

Thank you for you prayers and support. They are greatly needed and appreciated. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Blessings <><,

David

Paperwork needs to be in Ukraine by January

We found out some very important information last night! We found out the kids will be available for international adoption in March 2009. We weren't sure when this date would be in 2009. We also found out that the orphanage director assumed we are adopting the kids and went ahead and told them this information. We hadn't planned on sharing this information with the kids yet. Oh well! The news is they are so excited about this, and they talk about us every day. The facilitator's exact words to adoption agency were, "Tell them to hurry up and get over here and get these kids!" As much as I was wanting to move at my own pace in this process, I'm so thankful that the kids do have hope and are eager about their future. Our timetable to get over there in March 2009 means we need to have all the completed paperwork (dossier) in the Ukraine by the first of January! We want to be one of the first dossiers over there in January, so we can get that early date in March. Please pray for the money to come in quickly so we can get all of the paperwork started.

It's Official

We officially have a blog! The purpose of the blog is to keep you updated on our adoption journey. This is the place where we can share more of the practical steps of bringing Makc, Alona and Natasha into our family, but also our heart in choosing to do so.

Adoption began to make its way into our hearts when several couples adopted a few years back. As we prayed for them, we recognized that God might be one day calling us to join in caring for the many orphans of this world. David and I have prayed that when the time came, God would make it clear to us. Little did I ever imagine He would bring 3 children into our lives at once! Isn't that just the way--selling God short?
We hosted Alona and Makc from the Ukraine this summer for six weeks. While they were here, we learned they have a 5-year-old sister, Natasha. Makc and Alona are precious children. Before they came to us, I continually prayed that their hearts would still be soft and open despite their harsh reality. Wow! Did God answer my prayers. It was nothing short of amazing to see how tender their hearts were and how well-adjusted they were. They enjoyed their time being a part of our family, and our family loved having them. There were certainly times when it was so hard, particularly for me and our middle son Max. Is change ever not hard? Even during those times, there was a real joy and peace of knowing we were pleasing God with our efforts. After the first 2 or so weeks, our entire family was in love with them. They integrated into our family in such a beautiful way. Our hearts were stretched and I believe our faith grew during those 6 short weeks. After Makc and Alona left, our 3 children, Keely, Max, and Isabelle miss them and have shared that they felt like they were a part of our family.
The reason to adopt for us is simple. We were once lost, afflicted and spiritually poor. God chose to call us and woo us, rescuing us. Our lives were remarkably changed. We realize that God chooses to rescue Makc, Alona and Natasha as well. He's giving us the opportunity to join Him. What a blessing!
There have been many small and big confirmations that have led us here. I won't take your time to share all of them, but know this was not a quick decision for us. We recognize that the world would say we are crazy...lack of money, time, etc. etc. We have seen firsthand that our God is so much bigger than all of that! As He has called us, He will provide. We also recognize there are going to be hard days ahead, but freedom lies in saying "yes" to God. Our children are going to see and participate in being the hands and feet of Jesus. What better life lesson is there?
Currently we're praying, starting some family counseling to prepare our family for the changes, and waiting for God to provide the initial $10,000 to start the paperwork.
If you have questions, please leave a comment. This blogging thing is new to me, but I will try to respond to comments and answer questions, as well as keeping you up-to-date with all God is doing.
With love, Jenny