These Are Days: Leaving it in His Hands ... One Day at a Time

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Leaving it in His Hands ... One Day at a Time

Well, I emailed Yvette at AAI yesterday to find out when the next set of dossier contracts and packets would be mailed out. She did email me back and let me know that Merrily (AAI's Director) is in Thailand at the moment and won't be back until October, so it will be AT LEAST October before the next round of contracts and dossier packets go out. I was initially disappointed, but I'm committed to trusting God's sovereignty so I got over it pretty quick.

One thing that God revealed to me yesterday was that I really, REALLY need to be grateful for what is going on in my life TODAY and for the provisions He's given us for our needs TODAY and not keep wondering and worrying about tomorrow and how all the money and everything for this (and the rest of things that pop up in life like house repairs, landscaping projects that snowball into way more than you were planning for, and buying fall clothes and shoes for four kids) is going to fall into place. I'm SUCH a planner (to a fault sometimes) that I start FREAKING out when I think about what's going to be required (financially, emotionally, physically) and the timing of this adoption. (What if we don't have the money when it's due ... what if we spend money for the adoption and then we don't have money for Christmas ... these are the things that go through my mind). God is really teaching me about HIS faithfulness through this process. I have felt such a closeness to His Spirit this week and am encouraged to leave this, and everything, in His hands ... just for today. And tomorrow, I will leave it in His hands for that day ... and the next ... and the next -- one day at a time.

3 comments:

Kim & Dave said...: You know, Julie, I was thinking the exact same thing today, as I went to the girls' pedaitrician's office to pick up his statemant re. the girls' health. I was thinking he had done probably filled it out wrong & was starting to stress over having to do it over again, & wasting that time.

Then, I realised, "Wait a minute, Kim. You are picking this up on a SATURDAY!!! Have you EVER been able to accomplish ANYTHING adoption related on a SATURDAY???" No!!!! If you get another thing marked off today, that's just a blessing. The Lord showed me that I just needed to be thankful if he did it right, & not get upset over it if he had done it wrong.

I was then able to REST in God's perfect timing. & guess what? He did it right!!!; September 23, 2007 at 12:16 AM
Heather@To Sow a Seed said...: Praying that God gives you the peace to follow HIS timing ... which I know for a fact in reagards to adoption can be hard, hard, hard. We are awaiting placement NOW ... after starting our first adoption 3.5 years ago. Yup--YEARS.; September 24, 2007 at 5:22 PM
K Mom said...: Hi Julie! I know that one thing that God is teaching me through this is to LET GO of our savings account. I have realized what a security blanket it has been to me. Now that such a good portion of it is committed to our adoption, I'm terrified to see it go. I have to remember, it was never really mine to begin with... it's amazing how so much of this journey is about our trust in God. There are many side issues aside from the child herself.

Love, Karen
http://thesinglestep.blogspot.com; September 30, 2007 at 12:26 PM

Post a Comment

Why Ethiopia?

*Ethiopia is a beautiful landscape and a country rich in culture, history and heritage
*Ethiopia is an ancient Christian nation, named in the Bible as Axum
*As a culture, Ethiopians value their children and love them with a love that sometimes transcends our understanding
*One in ten children die before their first birthday
* One in six children die before their fifth birthday
* 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old
* 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted due to malnutrition
* The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years; the average life span is 37 years
* Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school; 88% will never attend secondary school
* Ethiopia has the highest HIV/AIDS population in the world
* There are 4.8 million orphans in Ethiopia; 1.2 million children have been orphaned by AIDS alone
* Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000
* In the 1980's one million Ethiopians died of starvation
* Drought struck the country again from 2000-2002 (1st year no crops, 2nd year no seeds, 3rd year no animals)
* Only 24% of households have access to safe drinking water
* 82% of the population survives on less than 1 dollar a day
* Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002
* Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
* In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports

(adapted from a Yahoo group web posting and Unicef-Ethiopia)

How Much Does Adoption Cost?

One of the most frequent questions we get is: "How much does adoption cost?"

Philosophically, the first answer to this question is that adoption, by its very nature, will have cost our child everything. Our child will have suffered more in his short life than we have ever, and, by God's grace, hopefully ever will. Our child, through the lens of three, four or perhaps five years of childhood, will have witnessed the death of his parents; will have perhaps been forced to wander the streets for food and shelter; will perhaps have been taken in by a stranger and then dropped in an orphanage where there is no familiar sound, smell or smile -- he will have experienced the kind of fear that causes you to close your eyes to shut out the desperate world around him. Adoption will have cost him everything.

I've heard several people comment that our child is so "lucky" to be adopted by our family or how "good" we are to be "doing this." I understand the heart of these comments -- and honestly, I think before I really started learning about children who have been orphaned, I probably would have had the same thoughts -- but when we stop to think about it, NO child is lucky to be adopted, because to be adopted one must first be orphaned.

What adoption is, however, is God's hand of love and grace and mercy on a child who, through no fault of their own, has lived in the depths of our fallen world where tragedy and death are realities. Adoption has nothing to do with US and it has everything to do with God. This is not a story of what WE are doing. It is a story of what GOD is doing. God loves this child SO much that He is giving him a second family. For reasons I do not necessarily understand, God has chosen us to be part of HIS plan for HIS child. As a result, God is putting HIS love in our hearts for HIS child. We will love him as our own. But he is not lucky and we are not good. We are, however, both loved beyond measure by our Father in Heaven and we are being used by Him to fulfill His perfect plan for us.

Now, before you get frustrated with me, I understand that most people are asking about our financial cost, however, and the answer to that question is: "a lot." :-) Since we are being very open about our Ethiopian adoption, I thought I would go ahead and outline how the fees are broken out:

Initial Application Fee: $200

Homestudy Fee: $1400 + $200 for the update we needed

Immigration Fees: $685

AAI Agency Fee: $2000

Ethiopia Country Fee: $6000 (for one child, 7-9 years old; $2000 is paid with dossier submission and $4000 is paid after the adoption is finalized in Ethiopian court)

Travel: $7522

Total: $18,007

As I've posted before we have never had this entire sum sitting in our savings account. To God's glory alone we have had the needed amounts available in our savings account each time a fee has been required. (We have made it through the first part of the country fee.) We have gratefully and humbly received gifts from friends, family and even people we don't know or haven't met! No gift has ever been too small and each one has come at precisely the time when we needed some help to meet one of these fee deadlines. We continue to walk in faith that God will use people, organizations and opportunities to provide each amount as it is required according to HIS timeline.

These Are Days

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Leaving it in His Hands ... One Day at a Time

3 comments:

Promises

Ethiopia

Local Time, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Why Ethiopia?

How Much Does Adoption Cost?

Adoption Related Books

Adoption Related Links

Blog Archive

About Me