We’re nearing the end of the home study process. The paperwork trail is coming to a close… we think. It’s only a matter of time before we’re working on our Dossier and paying the first chunk of $.

We don’t have the money yet, but we’re optimistic, idealistic and perhaps naive. And we’re doing our first fundraiser (details later in case you’ve missed it).

Asking others for $ (aka: fundraising) is something that didn’t set well with us in the beginning. Our main reason for initially being hesitant to jump on the intercessory missionary train was that we didn’t want to ask others for money. God we’ll do anything for You, but leave us our pride. We were really, really bad at support raising, but God showed Himself so gracious even in that weakness.  Still, we breathed a sigh of relief when we once again joined the “normal” world of 9-5ish, regular employment.

But I’ll tell you this: I LOVE being able to give towards other people’s adoptions. We have tried to do so for the past few years, depending on our current income. Sometimes it’s a small amount, other times we’ve been able to give larger sums. The amount doesn’t matter as much. The beyond cool thing is, by helping someone bring a child into their family via adoption, we’ve gotten to stake a claim into their destiny. We get eternal reward and we get to play a part in every single life that child will touch. We get to partner with God in the great miracle of redemption. What can compare with that? We could go out to a nice dinner or we could reap an eternal reward with lasting implications. Seriously? We GET to do this. It’s so exciting. God’s economy is so different from ours. The returns in eternal investments blow my mind. But, there is a cost. There’s always a cost.

How much did your redemption cost?

Oh yes, the life of the Son of God. Talk about blood, sweat and tears.

We can talk about how wrong it is that adopting costs so much. There are so many crazy fees and why in the world are things so complicated. Surely there have been abuses in the system, but what would it mean if it was all cheap and easy? It wouldn’t be a very good reflection of our adoption into God’s family. He made us children of God. And it wasn’t cheap and easy.

I don’t understand the timing here. There’s this whole swirl of troubled times coming and in my limited, earthly understanding it really doesn’t seem like the best time to be attempting to gather $30,000 together to bring a child from Ethiopia to St. Louis. But we truly believe this is what God has called us to. We’ve asked again and again and we feel His prompting to do this thing that’s been on our hearts for so long. And my understanding is just that: limited. We have to bring ourselves back to the fact that God is in complete control. All finances are in His hands. He is the God who provides. He is not worried or stressed. His economy is oh, so different than ours. Ours says you’d better hold on to what you’ve got or you will be empty handed when you really need something to get you through. God’s economy says to LET GO. Give where and when He calls You to give and trust Him to provide your for your needs when they come. He is so faithful.

So many times He’s called us to give away that last $20 in our bank account and we have NEVER so much as gone with out one meal because of it. Have we gone without something that we may have liked to have? Yes. Have we gone without something that we needed. NO! He is so good. So faithful.

All this to say: Give us money.

Okay, that’s *partly* a joke. We’re doing what we can. We’re going without a lot of stuff that most people in America wouldn’t know how to go without. We’re looking at reasonable, normative things that we could do with our money and saying “Harvest is more important”. We’re not expecting someone else to pick up the bill. We ARE expecting God to provide, and throughout the ages He has used other people to do so.

Our first fundraiser is our adoption T-Shirts. Jack Whitney has come up with some great art for us. We’re taking ads for the back of our t-shirts, so if you have a small business or know someone who does, it would be a good opportunity for a walking advertisement. (suggested donation: $75). We’re also taking signatures (suggested donation: $25) because it’s FUN. Yes, people can give without getting their signature on our shirt, but it’s more fun to see all those names and see how God uses His body, working together, to accomplish His purposes on earth. We’ll also sell the t-shirts for $15.

Whether you’re in town or not, please consider joining with us by giving us your signature (on a plain white note card with a fine point black sharpie – out of towners can mail it to us, just let us know it’s on the way) or purchasing a t-shirt.

If this is all offensive to you and likely to come in between our friendship, then please feel free to just ignore it. God brought water from a ROCK and He is able to redeem this life without your money. The only one who will miss out on anything is you. If you’re okay with that, I’m purposing in my heart to be okay with it too.

Regardless, we appreciate your prayers. Many don’t understand why we’re doing this when we’ve got 4 children of our own and are not struggling with infertility. I can’t really explain why besides the fact that when God puts something on your heart, you do it. I’ve written about adoption. I’ve prayed for adoption. We call ourselves pro-life. We are now going to walk out what we’ve written, said and prayed. God is raising us a people who have His heart for the fatherless. We want to partner with Him. We want our hearts to beat in line with His. We want to be His hands and feet. We want to go as far with Him as He will allow. We want to help bring Harvest to America.

Advertisement