I tell you, even the simplest thing like buying plane tickets can be something that God uses to give us opportunities to practice patience and resting in him.
As I believe I've mentioned, we have a friend who we're hoping will be able to travel with me and Owen to pick up Krassi. It will be nice to have another adult, and she is familiar with CP as well as just being someone who I think would be great fun to travel with. ;) There are, of course, many logistics to travel, and the more families you involve, the more logistics there are. The obvious one, that of paying for all those tickets, has been covered by my parents who emailed the day after I took a first pass at ticket prices and said they had already a few days ago decided to give us enough money to cover what my first take was with a little bit left over.
We're working through a humanitarian aid travel agency who is helping us to get better rates on our tickets because of our reason for traveling, and particularly for Krassi's one-way ticket since those tend to be pricier. He found us some very reasonable rates on flights that leave on the 6th and return on the 14th, and leave us even more of that chunk of money left over to put toward hotel and meals for the week.
But, it turns out that my friend can't leave on the 6th, but would need the 7th if she were able to go. And even that is up in the air as her husband has to be out of town through the 10th, so she needs someone to care for her kids while she's gone if she's going to be able to come at all. She is, of course, out of town right now, so is trying to get in touch with people who may be able to cover for her, but in the meantime the clock is ticking, and we have to choose by tomorrow whether or not to secure these tickets that are being held for us, or not, and if so, for how many of us??
This morning I got an email from the travel agent saying he found flights that would let us leave on Saturday the 7th instead of the 6th! Hurdle number one is gone. Now we are asking and waiting for God to move in the next 24 hours before I have to confirm the tickets, in hopes that my friend will be able to join us!
Because as it turns out, we have good reason to want another adult on this trip. ;) (More on that later, hopefully, but I have to keep making supper now while Reu and Rin are sleeping!)
And this is as good a place as any to tag on that friends of ours who we saw spur-of-the-moment yesterday gave us $252 towards getting Krassi. ;) God is so good. I have this funny feeling that we're going to be able to pull this trip off without needing to dip very far at all into our tight checking account, which is feeling even tighter after writing two big checks this week to the framer and the concrete contractor, and knowing that there's a big one for the siding, roofing, trim order that's been delivered over the last few weeks. That's three REALLY big checks in really close proximity.
[I'm adding to this now that supper is simmering and little ones are still napping!]
Way back when this started in April of last year, I remember thinking that it was crazy for a family of our resources to consider adopting. Adopting is expensive! But we were beyond certain that God had directed us to walk that way, so we did. And all the doors were slammed in our faces because...we didn't make enough money. So we took that as a "wait" and decided that when that barrier was gone we would know to keep walking. God took that lull in the adoption pursuit to introduce an even bigger (financially) proposition - even more seemingly impossible for us to accomplish - add on to our home to make room for his mother (and since we're adding on, do it "right" and look forward to what the future may hold for our family), and he was directing us to do it without incurring any debt. Completely insane. And we wavered on that one, and it was only through a technicality that we did not get around to asking Matt's mom if she would lend us the money to do the work before we heard that Matt would inherit a chunk of money after his Dad's passing last summer. (I remember thinking, borrowing from family isn't the same as borrowing from a bank, right, God? and all the while just not being completely settled about it. He had been clear - you do this without debt. But I couldn't figure how we were going to do it. Remember my favorite verse? (one of them) "Anything that does not come from faith is sin"? By his grace he dumped a bunch of money into our laps before we had time to pursue other routes.) And it was mere weeks after that when we learned that our assets could be applied to our income to qualify to adopt.
And that's where we were as we began 2013. On Dec 31, 2012 we took out as much of Matt's inherited IRA as we could for that tax year. We took out more in spring, and just last week took out the last bit we could for this tax year. And I'm looking at that thinking, it's not enough. Not if we want to have a toilet in the bathroom, and sheetrock on any of the walls (even just thinking of the upper level where Matt's mom will be living)! Once we get into 2014, we can take out the last bit of the IRA, and we'll be able to finish most of the rest, but right now every dollar we spend is thinking about that line in the sand: is this a purchase we can put off until 2014? And I have to remind myself that even my attitude in that is a way to honor or dishonor God. He has brought us this far, and has done it in many ways that have been very unexpected to us. How can we think that he's not going to be able to finish the work?
I think God delights in putting us in humanly impossible circumstances because then we get to recognize him more clearly when he works. ;)
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