We are halfway there!

We had our taxes done yesterday, and we are getting a return of $5,677! WOW! That puts our savings at about $10,000!!! That's half of what we need, and we have close to a year to save the other half.

I would be lying if I said that there aren't days when I doubt that God will help us figure out how to pay for this adoption. But He is in control of everything! He created the heavens and the earth. God perfectly sculpted each of our bodies. He made every single thing that we see, feel, smell or taste each day. Of course He is capable of bringing a mere 20,000 dollars together!

Anyway, I am feeling very blessed, and very relieved. God knows Bear, who he is and who he will be, and he cares about him. He will work it out and I just feel privileged to be a part of it. Thank you, Lord, for our son, and thank you for however and whenever you bring him to us.

Budget

I thought that Thomas and I did pretty well with our money. We have always made our bills a priority, we've never gone without food, clothes or shelter, we've chosen not to go into debt or use credit cards, and we tithe.

But through this adoption God has already allowed me to learn a ton more about our finances. It's exciting that He is blessing us through this process now, and we only started a couple of weeks ago!

I've started seriously budgeting our money. I mean down to the last penny. My mom sent me the Excel spread sheet that she uses for her budgeting, and I started using it for mine too. Now, this is not to say that it isn't a TON of work, because it is, but I am amazed at how much money we were wasting without realizing we were wasting it. We save so much more each month now than I ever thought was possible on our paycheck. It's AWESOME!

God always provides me with the most wonderful people to help show me His way. I am so thankful!

Looking forward to what He will do next,
Sarah

Roadblock #1

One of the main reasons that we chose to adopt from Ethiopia was because I am so young. Most countries will not allow a family to adopt unless the parents are 25 or even older, so that really limited our options. Ethiopia required only one parent to be 25, but different adoption agencies put their own requirements on top of the country requirements. A lot of agencies won't allow a family to adopt through their Ethiopia program unless you are both 25+, so that limited our agency choices, too. I knew that the agency we decided to work with had an age requirement, so I had called the agency to find out whether they required one or both of us to be 25 before we sent our application in. Thomas is twenty six, and they said that it would be fine since one of us met the age requirement. So, we applied to this adoption agency.

Well, the agency called and left me a message yesterday. Not good news! They said that they had to deny our application because I am only 23 and they required both parents to be at least 25. I was super confused! Isn't that what I had called about and discussed with them before we sent our application in?

When I listened to the message I started tearing up thinking that we would have to wait years before Bear would be home. I was instantly discouraged... it doesn't take a whole lot to discourage me. :) But I got to thinking, this doesn't mean anything! It doesn't mean we can't adopt! It just means we may have to apply to some other agencies. It was a roadblock, but it certainly wasn't one that we couldn't conquer! If we want to adopt, we will make it happen!

I called the agency today and left a message for the Ethiopia program director. About an hour later a woman called me back saying that she was the one who left me the voicemail yesterday. She said that she thought that she had to deny our application because of my age, but she had talked with the other staff and found out that they had given us special permission! I was beaming from ear to ear!

So, needless to say, we are back on with our original adoption agency. I am so excited, and I think that maybe God was just throwing me a little curve ball to teach me a thing or two. If He wants to bring this little boy into our family (and I firmly believe that He does), then He will make it happen, no matter what obstacles we may encounter! He is so powerful, so awesome!!! Like you said, Leanne, I just have to trust that His timing is perfect. It always is!

Patience is a virtue!

Well, we haven't heard back from our application yet. They said we would find out if we had been accepted within a day or two, but the holidays have complicated things! I'm checking my email twenty times a day looking for a reply from the agency... I guess I will just keep checking! I guess I should just calm down and realize that there will be a lot more waiting before the coming year is over and baby is home!