Believe it or not, the financial picture got a little bleaker yesterday. I won't share details, but suffice it to say we were feeling rather defeated. So, I went to bed early with my Bible and journal and had a good heart-to-heart with the Lord. I was feeling very much like a pawn in a spiritual chess match: who was I going to allow to move me? I opened my Bible and just started flipping pages until my eyes fell here:
19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. ... 35So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. (Hebrews 10:19-25, 35-37, NIV)
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AAI's Layla House and Wanna House are located in Ethiopia's capital city, Addis Ababa
1 John 4:19 says: "We love because He first loved us." Our hope is that our adoption will not be an event for our family alone. We pray that you will join us on this journey, beginning with this blog, and share in the many trials and triumphs that surely lie ahead. This is a journey that we are only capable of because of the great love our God has for us, and for His children the world over. Welcome ...
Promises
Isaiah 43:5: "Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west."
Philippians 4:19: “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19: “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
Ethiopia
AAI's Layla House and Wanna House are located in Ethiopia's capital city, Addis Ababa
Local Time, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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)
*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.
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.
Adoption Related Books
- The Holy Bible
- There Is No Me Without You - Melissa Fay Green
- The Strength of Mercy - Jan Beazely
- I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla - Marguerite A. Wright
- Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew - Sherrie Eldridge
Adoption Related Links
About Me
- Julie
- I am a 32 year old stay at home Mom, married to my husband of 12 years and with four biological children. My passion for orphans began as a tiny seed that God planted in my heart when I was 14 years old during a two-week trip to Jamaica. On that trip, I saw the world through new eyes and recognized the devastating poverty in which the developing world lives. Since then and especially in the last five years, my heart for orphans has grown from a compassion for the suffering to knowing with certainty that God alone put love in our hearts for a specific child we do not yet know. It is by God's mercy and grace alone that we are brought to experience this miracle called adoption.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress
James 1:27
James 1:27
8 comments:
How wonderful that God gave you those verses!
He is really testing your faith, but "when He has tried you, you shall come forth as gold!"
Hang in there. Give it all to the Lord and trust in Him. You've known right from the beginning that the only way it would work would be if the Lord brought it to pass. I pray you will feel peace in your heart and a knowledge that He is God and you are in His hands.
Now....I need to re-read that paragraph and take my own advice... =D =D
Happy Day after Thanksgiving to you! =)
Julie - God does NOT forsake (or change His mind) His calling...
Adoption is a Calling...a Ministry....
God is RIGHT.
The world is wrong.
Hang on tight friend and perservere....
I'm praying for you and your boy....He needs you and you need him.
Blessings always,
Andrea
aka formyboys in SL land
Thank you, Andrea, Keeley and Kim. I looked over our dossier packet today and decided to order the waiting child video. Many families see their children on this video. We will continue moving ahead, day by day, step by step, praying that the Lord would continue to go before us and prepare the way between NC and Ethiopia to bring us together with our son. Thank you so much for your love and support!
Hi Julie,
Hang in there. God put this desire of a child from Ethiopia in your hearts and I know He will use this to serve him and know that there is a reason and God's perfect timing is in play (so hard to do during those moments but then when it is done you look back and are like God - thanks for being in control). I am praying!
Julie,
It really touched my heart to read your comments over the last few days. I will be praying for you. We hit our own rough patch in this adoption journey in the last month & I know it feels like the wind is taken out of your sails. It will seem like God is working everything out for you & all of a sudden it's all gone & you're left wondering what happened & where you go from here.
But God is faithful...He will watch over His word to perform it. He has given us a word for our families - to adopt - and He will make sure that word comes to pass.
I look forward to seeing God move in your situation & mine. Thanks for sharing the scriptures He gave you - they are an encouragement.
Blessings,
Beth
from CAFEkids
Julie,
I'll definitely be praying for you. We're seeing God do amazing things here as we prepare for our adoption, and yet, the challenges always come. One day I will have perfect faith that God is taking care of everything, and the next, something will happen that will shake that faith so I don't know if this calling to adopt is really from Him or not. But those doubting thoughts are of the enemy, not God. God has made it perfectly clear that He's calling us to this adoption.
Don't let these things like finances and lack of space stop you. It seems impossible now, but with God, ALL things are possible.
A few practical thoughts: Have you considered loft beds for your dd's? This would allow them to have their own bed still, but you'd have more floor space to put another bed underneath, possibly in an L-shape? Just a thought.
Another possibility would be if your master bedroom is bigger, you could use the current master as a kid's room for the 3 girls, and you and dh take the smaller room; as long as your bed would fit, of course.
Don't know if that helps or not, but those are my ideas. ;) Keep up the faith!!!
~Jess from CAFE Kids
Praying for the divine during the difficult. God hasn't forgotten about your needs. He hasn't forgotten the passion He put in your heart and He knows all to well the costs involved.
Its tough to wait. Believe me. Been there. Our loving Father is refining your family in this process, He's refining us too in this process. Its almost exciting to see how HE will provide.
When its all said and done all that will be left will be the fingerprint of God. I'm excited to see what He does for your family.
Blessings my friend ~
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