Thursday, May 24, 2012

Donations

As many of you may know, we are not ones to ask for help. Not many people like to ask for help, even when they need it. As we are going through this adoption process, we will continue to have many fees and expenses along the way. I have faith that God will provide for us and have not worried too much about the financial aspect of this process.

If you would like to make a financial contribution to help us with the adoption, you will see a donate button on the right. This link will take you to Paypal where you can make a donation to our adoption savings account. You can donate any amount, no amount is too big or small. We really appreciate all the support we have had already, whether it is words of wisdom, prayer, donations, etc. We are very appreciative to everyone!

We will be having a local fundraising event on Saturday September 8th (the weekend after Labor Day). Please pray for the planning and preperation for this. We will post more information as it gets closer to the event.

More good news!

     It has been a busy week, Brock and the kids are off for the summer now and the older kids have several camps they want to attend along with being in baseball/softball and soccer, swimming at the pool and more!
     We have had some good news so far about our adoption! We have talked to the adoption agency and have been told that once they receive the paper for us to commit to H and they approve it, we will be internally matched with him. Which means they will still show his photo on their website but they will have a label stating he is in process of being matched and they will not give other families his file. We faxed that letter in yesterday!
     We have our first visit with the agency that will be doing our homestudy on June 7th and we have let her know our urgency in this process as we are concentrating on a specific child already. We will be doing our marriage assesment when we meet her along with bringing many of the required documents. Then, she scheduled our home visit for June 15th! I was very happy about this as I didnt think we would get a date for another month or two. We are also attending a training at the end of  June. She said since we are able to cover many of the necessary steps in just one month, hopefully it will speed up the process of the homestudy!
     We appreciate the continuation of prayers and support and will keep things posted on here as much as we can.

Beck
   

Sunday, May 20, 2012

God's plan


Everything happens for a reason…. And GOD is always in control.  It is just easiest when we allow for Him to be the ruler of our lives and live out His will without struggling.  This is easier said than done.  This leads up to what is happening in the lives of the Paul family at this very moment. 

Beck has felt the Lord’s calling for us to adopt for quite some time now.  This has drawn her closer to GOD than she has been for a long time!  I perhaps was the biggest skeptic and ignored this myself until lately.  After much thought, prayer, and listening to what the Lord has planned for us.... I am not ignoring God’s plan for our family .  The Lord has led us to a little boy from China.  He recently turned 3 years old and he is a cutie!  He does have some problems with his right leg, but it just adds to his character and the doctors  here in the states should be able to help improve this condition. 

Many of you know I can be pretty easy going, but those closest to me know that I can be a worrier….So this had me worried the other day and had me once again being a little skeptic of God’s plans.  Yeah, kind of questioning God.  Not good huh?  At that moment while I began to doubt and worry, the song “Who will love me for me” came on the radio.  OK, God, I will quit worrying about what you have laid ahead of us.  Plans for us and our new to be family member to prosper and grow!

Now backtracking to even a more miraculous GODLY event that should have eliminated any doubts or questions.  I had drug my feet about opening up our adoption savings account.  AKA this won’t be cheap and we don’t have the money. So we will need to raise most of it!  I opened it on Tuesday May the 8th.  I deposited our first $100 dollars to begin this account.  Keep in mind that it cost $3600 to get the ball rolling for the home study we would need and initial application fees.  We felt a reasonable goal would be to raise this by the end of the summer! 

That next morning, Beck was visited by a former computer student.  An older lady whom she had in previous computer classes who was aware of our possible adoption and an obvious prayer warrior who had been praying for us.  This woman explained to Beck that we had been the focus of her morning devotion and prayer time and after lengthy prayer and meditation with the Lord, she was told to donate a significant amount of money for our adoption. This voice was from the Holy Spirit, and this woman didn’t question or doubt and explained that was why she drove to her work.  The generous gift from the Lord through this woman was the exact amount needed for our first steps of the adoption.  So, it was then clear what GOD had in store for us and that we were supposed to bring this little guy home.

This is a very timely and expensive process in which we will need support of all kinds from our friends, family, and acquaintances.  Not everyone is called to support these types of situations with a monetary or gift donation, but prayer and or moral support.  Please know that we were nervous and scared to begin with, but this IS GOD’s WILL and we are not to question this.  Know that the last month has not been circumstantial, but God’s perfect timing and planning.  Please pray for us on a regular basis and know that all of our family appreciates it but no one more than this 37 month old. 

He may not know us yet, but we know that God is working on him and his heart to prepare him for us as well.  We hope to soon be matched with him internally through the agency, and eventually through the country of China.  We were told that nothing is for sure until he arrives in our home hopefully within the next 9-15 months.  We are certain that he is the one that God has for us and pray that this is carried out.  We understand and accept that we are not guaranteed him until we have him in our home, but we will do our best not to question God’s plan again.  We are jumping in head first for a very long swim, and if you are reading this, please help us swim, or feel free to swim right along with us!