It was one of those long nights.
I was exhausted and emotional and tired of sewing, and I saw no end in sight. I sat at my sewing machine, and Ben sat at the desk behind me, and we listened to Pandora and shared the same space. And my shoulders shook, and I cried quietly (I’ve become pretty good at that over the past year) and wondered aloud how sewing T-shirts was going to bring our child home when the total to raise kept increasing as the months passed ($27,000 to $30,000 to eventually $35,000). Sewing appliques on T-shirts that made about $10-12 apiece just didn’t seem like it was going to make much difference. And my husband, the gentle strength and steadiness that he is, said to me, “loaves and fishes.” And in the quiet hours of the night Ben repeated all of the things our Provider had done over the months, all the ways He had multiplied the tiny things we had to offer, and I knew he was right, and we laughed, and I, of course, cried some more, and Our Redeemer’s promises filled our little space with peace at midnight. About 21 months ago, we stunned our parents by telling them that we were going to adopt, it was going to cost about $27,000, and the only plan we had to pay for it was to use some of our savings and to fundraise for the rest of the money. I wish I had a picture so I could show you (and them) the looks they tried hard to hide on their faces. I knew they were scared for us. I was scared too. At the end of August 2012, when asked if we wanted a referral for a child — “YES! Please! Of course!!!” — we realized it would mean we would have to raise the remaining $20,000 in about 6-8 months (you can find that story here). It seemed impossible. There were moments that doubt filled my mind and I thought, “No, it just can’t be done. We will have to wait for another child when we have a little more money raised.” But my husband, with faith much greater than my mustard seed, believed and repeated the past of God’s faithfulness to me (once again), and so I followed his lead and my God filled me up with a peace and a faith that I knew I wasn’t capable of. We offered our loaves and fishes (our time, our abilities, our energy, our little bit of resources), and we were overwhelmed with all of you who joined us and offered up your loaves and fishes too. And our Lord multiplied it. My Savior who fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes said to us, “I can do this too.” And He did it. With time to spare. Thank you seems so inadequate. But we are so glad you are walking this journey with us. So grateful you are partnering with us. So blessed you offered what you had. If we had any money left, we would throw a party to celebrate with you. But truthfully the real celebration is still a few months away. All that is left to do now is wait. I’m going to be honest, waiting really stinks. Waiting alone stinks even more. So… as if we haven’t already asked enough of you, we would like to ask one more tiny thing: would you wait beside us and continue in praying our Aida home?
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"Delighted, they dance all day long; they know who You are, what You do- they can't keep it quiet! Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside us- You've been so good to us! We're walking on air! All we are and have we owe to God, Holy God of Israel, our King!" (Psalm 89:15-18 The Message)
Made over $4,700 from our auction yesterday. Made over $500 at a painting party last night. Yesterday, we made over $5,000!!!!! What does this mean? We need less than $5,000 to bring Aida home. We are praying we will have the money raised by the end of the year. Will you join us? ecstatic, humbled, grateful, overjoyed... thank you, thank you, thank you!!! It is here! We have spent a lot of time working towards today. Ben and I have had an online auction fundraiser rolling around in our brains for almost a year and it is pretty exciting to see the idea becoming reality. When planning the auction, we decided on November because it seemed like a great time for people to do early Christmas shopping. But we also decided on November because it is National Adoption Month. More specifically, we chose to start it today because it is Orphan Sunday. We do not loose sight of the fact that while Aida is now promised a home and a family there are still millions of orphans all across the world without that hope. Please join us in continuing to pray for Aida but also praying for the orphans of the world. This week we invite you to continue walking this journey of love with us. Our auction began just a few hours ago and will continue until Saturday. Please consider sharing our story and telling others about our auction. Shop with a purpose and help bring one of the millions of orphans into a forever family.
We hear all the time that it takes a village to raise a child. I am so excited to one day tell Aida that the village started working for her and loving her long before she ever arrived home. With tears in my eyes and great hope in my heart, I extend our overwhelming gratitude to you for the outpouring of generosity and love that has been shown to us through this auction! Happy bidding! www.anotherpairofshoesauction.com Four weeks ago (Feb.16th)
I sat in the warmth of a sunbeam on our living room floor. I told My Father how sorry I was for my lack of faith and my lack of prayer. I had been trudging around in uncertainty of how the next set of funds were going to come, striving away with fundraisers, forgetting the most important thing… to daily ask HIM to be a part of them, for HIM to show HIS power, for HIS provision and glory to be made known. I committed to be intentional daily in my prayers about our fundraising efforts and in my journal I wrote “forgive me for not asking more frequently, for not believing in Your power and provision. I ask now… I ask that we raise the money for our next payment by the end of March. Help me to trust. Help me to believe. Please Lord, You get the glory”. As of Monday night (March 5), we have all of the money (and then some… a good start on our next payment) in our adoption account to start our dossier. Overwhelmed. Humbled. Grateful. There is more to say, more gratitude to give but for right now I’m going to keep it short and sweet because I can’t find any other words that seem adequate enough. Thank you for being a part of the journey. “The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.” 1 Thes. 5:24 “Are there a lot of boys and girls without Mommies or Daddies in Africa?” he asked me. “Yes,” I replied, “lots and lots of boys and girls without Mommies or Daddies in Africa.” Tuck sat up from under his covers and pulled my face close to his, “Then bring them all home from Africa when you go.” I laughed, and my heart skipped a beat with pride in his compassion and sadness at the plight of orphans. “We can’t” I said. And he looked at me with his piercing eyes, pulled me closer, and demanded simply, “Why not?” And as I cuddled him close and explained that we couldn’t care for millions of children by ourselves, I remembered how often God had whispered that very question to us this past year. He whispered it when we asked how we (a minister and a stay-at-home mom) could afford to bring home a child from North Africa, when we thought a major tax error couldn’t be fixed for the good of our adoption process, when we doubted that we could raise more than $1,000 at a yard sale, when we thought we couldn’t go from renting to owning a home without spending our adoption savings … HE was there responding to our answers based on human logic and reason with His question of “I am GOD and WHY NOT?” Recently, we have gotten lots of questions from others about where we are in our adoption progress. I hesitate to even write this because I don’t want people to stop asking questions. We LOVE questions about our adoption -- how things are going, how much longer, how we are feeling (most of the time -- a little overwhelmed about the money, rather sad about the length of time, joyful to be experiencing both of those emotions if it’s part of the journey of bringing our child home), etc. Questions show us you care, that you want to know us, that you are invested (even if it’s a tiny bit) in our story. Sometimes, it feels a little lonely taking this course. It is definitely not the “typical” way of bringing home a baby (I laugh at myself at how hard I thought it was not knowing EXACTLY when our first two kids were going to come into our world … nine months or less seems a lot less broad now). So, in our desire to share the journey (and we are so grateful that you want to) … here is the “predicted” path (the red is what we have finished, the underlined blue part is where we are currently) … though as we are learning, not much is predictable in adoption. *Submit application 1 *Submit application 2 *Complete homestudy *Work on government paperwork (Dossier) and raise $5,000 so we can submit it *Wait and wait and wait for a referral (information and pictures) of our child (the wait is anywhere between 6-14 months) And in the meantime work on saving and raising lots of money! *Receive referral (after accepting the referral we wait 3-6 months before we go) *1st trip- Meet child and go to court to finalize adoption (about a week long trip) *Leave our child there (return home and wait about 6-8 LONG weeks before going back) *2nd trip- complete an Embassy appointment and receive child's visa (1-2 week trip). *Bring our child home with us!!! As you can see, we are currently in a holding place. We can’t move forward until we have the next installment of $5,000. We have debated over and prayed about how to raise this next payment, and we finally have a few ideas. So here are our current fundraisers: PARENT’S Pre-Valentine’s NIGHT OUT! The details: Ben and Beth Edfeldt are hosting Parents’ Night Out. The children (3 months to 5th grade) will enjoy a Valentine craft, pizza dinner, and more fun! Space is limited. Sign up soon! ALL PROFITS will go to our adoption fund! When: Saturday, February11th, 2012 from 6-9 p.m. Where: TBD Cost: by donation Click here to register (be sure to put how many kids and ages)
As you can also see we still have a rather lengthy road ahead. But it would mean so much to us if you would stick with us, consider supporting our fundraising efforts, encourage us, pray with us, and keep asking us questions.
*Let me say, I am really impressed and grateful that you made it all the way here to the last line of this very long blog entry. |
AuthorWe are a family of five (Ben, Beth, Tucker, Libby, and Zane). We started this blog during our 7 year journey to bring home a child through adoption. This is our story of how God is faithful in the good, the bad, and all the in between. Archives
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