If, based on the title of this post, you guessed that we have good news to share about our fund-raising, then you’d be absolutely right. We mentioned just before Christmas that we had been approved for a matching grant of a potential total of $8,000 and that we were really praying that God would supply that full amount to go along with what is already in our girls’ account with The Shepherd’s Crook. A couple of our family members contributed to the matching grant over Christmas, and that was a huge encouragement to us. But, with the deadline coming up next Friday, earlier this week we were starting to feel a bit discouraged about all of this. As we were leaving our small group Bible study on Tuesday evening, some of our friends asked us how the matching grant was coming along. At that point, we were still roughly $3,500 short of the $4,000 that HANDinHAND could match for us, but we were still praying that some how, God would provide all of that, because that would allow us to submit our dossier to China right away, which would keep the process moving. Well, a couple of hours later, He showed us what He was doing.

A family from our previous church (the sending church for the church plant that we are a part of now) had contacted us shortly before Christmas to ask how our adoptions and our fund-raising were going. They said that they wanted to make a donation, but it would have to wait until after the new year and they weren’t sure yet how much it would be. We were really touched at their interest in Isabelle and Hallie’s story. (On a side note, that has been an enormous and humbling blessing throughout this journey; our girls’ stories have reached more people than we ever could have dreamed, and it has been astonishing to watch God work over this past year. He has been bringing people into our lives that we didn’t know or hadn’t heard from in a long time, and we are deeply grateful for His work and for everyone who has gotten involved along the way.) Late Tuesday night, they e-mailed us to say that they would cover the remainder of what was needed for the matching grant, and maybe even a little bit more! We were floored when we read that! We didn’t expect God to work in this way, but this news was a HUGE answer to prayer, and we are overjoyed at this. We still can’t quite believe it all. This means that we’ll be able to send our dossier to China in the next few weeks, which means that we could be traveling in June. That would be another answer to prayer, as Isabelle will turn 4 in early June, and we want to be there with her by her birthday. Things will have to move quickly from this point, but it seems possible right now. So stay tuned, and we’ll see what God does in the next few months!

Greg