About a month or so ago, God pressed into our hearts that his desire for our family was for it to start growing again. I posted about that time how God had pressed into our hearts, but didn't share it with too many until we opened our hearts and God's heart to our family. We also started praying daily...even through out the day...for God's provision to even get started. Let me rewind a bit and share with you what I wrote about a month ago...
In the midst of the doctors appointments and changes in our life, God has decided to press into our hearts to start the process to adopt again. We have been praying for at least 4 months, now, about God's timing and believe that our time is here to start the paperwork rolling to bring our next little one home. I, personally, knew this was going to happen sooner than January, because my heart started aching for something I couldn't define. After going to the Lord about this ache and this "missing piece," He showed me the pieces missing were his children longing to be in our home. I talk to Jon about this and felt that this ache and longing wasn't going to go away on it's own and that God was going to fill it with his love and with our children. I told him, "Jon, God is not done, yet, and He wants us to move now." As you know, Jon has been very hesitant, because, I am staying home now and he is consumed in his job (which God called him out on, just last night). After praying together, discussing, and listening to each other and the Lord, we decided it was time to take a leap of faith and watch God move.
The scary thing, we have no idea how the funds will be there, but again, God says, "move over, I'm in control here. Wait and trust me. " We were told to make the first steps of contact and now we are waiting on the Lord for his provision. He has to provide, because we are unable to do this on our own. We know this is His voice, not ours, because who in their right mind starts an endeavor like this under the circumstances we are in? Paperwork sits next me, filled out and ready to send to our consultant, but the check is empty, waiting for God to fill it in so we can fulfill his desires for our family.
"Lord, this is in your hands. I release it, fully and completely into your hands. You know the exact amount needed to begin this process and You know exactly where it's coming from. You have our children picked and ready for your kingdom and our family. We wait for you, Father. My heart continues to ache as the Father aches for his children to come home. They are waiting for us as we are waiting on you, Lord. We are ready to bring them home, but only in your timing and under your hands."
A little over a month later, we are ready to share with everyone God's heart for our family and how God has started moving. Through this past month, God has reminded me that He holds our hearts and our children's hearts in the palm of His hand and to keep trusting Him. We continued to ask the Lord, "Father, we know this is your will, please give us wisdom as we start getting paperwork started, home study done, etc. and Lord, you are our provider and will provide in your perfect time." We clinged to His promise and His Word.
Jon and I were nervous, yet excited to come before our parents to share God's heart for us and the new adventure that God has us on. As I told my dad, he was very happy and excited that we were expanding our family once again. Whew...relief! We, then told Jon's parents on Thanksgiving weekend and opened our hearts that this was going to be completely God! I know that when God calls you into something impossible, not only will He make it possible, but He will be glorified all the way through it!!
Even after telling our parents, we still continued to pray for provision, because we still had to come up with the finances to pay our consultant and our case worker. We had begun working on a fundraising idea, but weren't sure how we were going to accomplish our idea. The week after we told Jon's parents, we pressed into God's heart and truly just released ourselves into His hands and God came through! God blessed us with our consultant fee through a forgotten about annuity Jon had and our home study fee was provided through extra income this past month from Jon's hard work at his job. Well, that's a start and God moved! When we completely trust Him and step out in Faith, God will always answer and fulfill his promise!
So our home study has been complete, minus the FBI checks and some straggling references, but it is one step in the right direction. We will be connecting with our consultant this week and working on updating our profile. When we have completed this, we will focus on fundraising and trusting God for provision before jumping onto agencies' lists.
We struggled to figure out how to help begin to raise money, yet I had an idea and a t-shirt design that might represent our new journey that we could sell, but not a screen printer. Well, just recently, a client of Jon's offered to screen print our shirts so that we could sell them to help with our adoption costs to bring home our next little one. What? God's timing has been so incredibly perfect that I cannot take credit for any of his work!! This brings me to our shirt that we are starting to sell this week:
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So where does this come from? Remember above what God impressed on my heart?
Through this past month, God has reminded me that He holds our hearts and our children's hearts in the palm of His hand and to keep trusting Him.
This is a reminder that God is holding onto our hearts and our children's hearts as we wait for them to come home. We would love for God's hand to impress into your heart, which will turn around and impress His heart and hand into our next child. If you would like to purchase one of these shirts to support our next adoption, please e-mail me (jontiff01@yahoo.com) with your shirt size. They are $16. I will put orders in about every week and a half.
We are so grateful for the ongoing love, support, and prayers that our friends and family have sent our way through this ongoing journey that God has our family on. Thank you so much!!
