Before too much time passes

The last week especially, and the last few weeks generally have been challenging. I made reference to this briefly Sunday night. As much as we've said from the beginning that this is God's work and we are relying on him to supply what is needed to complete it, it is so easy to drift into trying to figure it out on our own. And we've finally hit the point where it is very much in our faces that the numbers as we have it figured do not line up. Even if we push completion off into 2014, there are certain things that need to be done yet in 2013 (pay the framer for the remainder of his labor and materials is a big one, and get the flat roof installed is another, and paying to rent the lift and for gas service to the house) and we simply don't have enough money to pay for it.

I'm saying this now trusting that God has things in store that we can't anticipate on our own, and in that trust, are trying to give you as our reader a glimpse into the impossibility we now face. Because my primary hope in sharing our life in this way on this blog is to open up a venue through which others may stand in awe with us at what God has done and will yet do.

And I sure can't tell you what that is going to be.

But, on a much smaller scale than the house, I do have something I want to share with you that has kind of blown me and Matt away over the last few days and weeks.

Anyone who's had anything to do with international adoption knows that it is a costly endeavor. I laugh sometimes at the insanity of the fact that the adoption is the "small" and "easy" thing that has been set before us this year. But look at how amazingly thorough God has been in providing what we have needed to bring Krassi home. I shared a few weeks ago about how neatly and tidily the money ended up settling out as we made the last major purchase (new plane tickets). Even there, God surprised us with more than we needed.

Since that time, we've had money given to us for Krassi in the amounts of $252, $350 and $500 as well as the steady $30/mo that was promised back in the spring and has been coming faithfully since then. (Wow, I'm just now noticing as I type those up that each one is bigger than the last!) The $500 check came in the mail the day after I wrote this post. The dear people who chose to share with us in this way had NO WAY of knowing the challenging place we were, and yet God moved on them to send it at just the right time to encourage us at a low spot.

We're now sitting with more than $1000 extra at the end of this adoption process! I don't know if that's typical or not, but it's significant to us. What a beautiful thing to be experiencing abundance in one area while we are experiencing the exact opposite in another! (As I mentioned to one of the friends who shared in this way with us, it helps me to begin to look forward. Adopting Krassi is not just about getting him home - he's going to have medical expenses very quickly after getting home, and likely some larger purchases developing from that. We also have to do followup reporting through our local social worker to send to Bulgaria at 6 month intervals for the first two years that Krassi is home, which has costs associated with it.)

So who am I to think that God can handle adoption costs, but not something bigger than that?

So, before too much time passes, I wanted to bring you all up to date so you can with us watch things unfold from this side of time, not knowing what the future holds, but waiting expectantly on Him who is the author of the future.