God Can Do Amazing Things Through Pumpkins!

 

When Nathan and I felt the Lord calling us back to China again, I must admit that the first thought that entered my mind was “Lord, I really want to obey what you have placed on our hearts and I would LOVE to adopt again, but we cannot afford to do this again!”.  My initial thoughts consisted of…we don’t have enough room in our car for another child and we certainly cannot afford a larger car, we live in a garden home with three smaller bedrooms-where exactly will we put another child, we have completely exhausted our savings on the previous two adoptions and really cannot fund another adoption, etc…  As my mind continued to be filled with worry and anxiety about the financial piece of adoption, the Lord kept assuring me over and over again that He would provide.  Eventually, these thoughts seemed so insignificant compared to that of having a son to pour our love into and to teach about the love of Christ.  A son that would now have a mama, a daddy, and the two most amazing big sisters!  All of a sudden, cramming three kiddos into the back of our 4 Runner and sharing bedrooms seemed like a great idea! 

Our little family continued on just as we always do after a significant life decision or event…with some major drama.  For those of you who are unaware of these dramatic events, I will name a couple.  One month before our wedding, our reception venue burned to the ground.  And as if that wasn’t enough wedding drama, Nathan lost his job the day after we returned from our honeymoon.    Fabulous!  We like to keep things alive over here!  So, as if we didn’t have enough financial endeavors on our plate with beginning the adoption again, our refrigerator decided to quit cooling, our car needed new breaks, and we had some unexpected job challenges.  And just for an additional comical event, between beginning this post last night and completing it tonight our dryer decided to quit working...yep, completely dead.

Through all of this, Nathan and I just continued to pray and trust that the Lord would see us through this adoption process.  The Lord quickly began showing us that He was going to guide us through this and provide for our needs throughout this adoption.  Friends, family, and people in our community began approaching us with questions about how to donate to the adoption and  with ideas for fundraisers they wanted to host.  We researched and applied for numerous adoption grants.  I felt like we were finally starting to make a little progress! 

In the meantime, The Waltchacks, some friends of ours, were planning a fundraiser for their second adoption from China.  They were planning the most creative and amazing fundraising event that I have ever seen…a harvest sale!  They grew over a thousand pumpkins on their farm, and after lots of hard work, brought them to their front yard for a pumpkin sale.  They were raising money for their adoption and they were going to surprise another family that was adopting as well.  Our family was so excited to get up that Saturday morning to pick out pumpkins and support international adoption at the same time!  The weather was perfect for picking out pumpkins and the girls had a blast!  The Harvest Sale was a success! 

A few days later, I received an email from the Waltchacks with the subject line titled “Surprise:)!”.  I thought it was a group email to our local adoption group revealing who the surprise family was and I could not wait to see!  As a looked more closely at the email, I realized it was only addressed to me…I could not believe it!  We were THE family!  I just sat speechless with my eyes full of tears (happy tears of course).  I stopped and prayed, thanking our Lord for providing and thanking him for placing our family on the Waltchack's hearts.  Our God Provides!  I pray daily that when the fear of funding this adoption creeps in, that I am quickly reminded that our God is faithful and will stand right beside us through this process, even if it is in unexpected ways like pumpkins and sweet friends!

Thank you so much Waltchack Family! 

            

 

 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  Proverbs 3:5