Big financial news!

Adoptions cost money.  Lots of money.  I know plenty of people are of the opinion that if you can't pay for your adoption yourself, you shouldn't adopt.  We don't agree with that thought, but at the same time we have avoided putting our hand out and just asking for money.  Because we have the time and resources, we have done things like yard sales, fundraising dinners and silent auctions, bracelets, etc.  We have saved lots of our own money and prayed and worked for business growth.  Nevertheless, many friends and family have hugely blessed us with donations "just because."  We have received checks in the mail from friends and total strangers and from family members for Christmas.  My friend's daughter even saved her change ($10.72 worth of change) to help with our airfare!  We have been abundantly blessed and have always, always had enough money in our adoption fund to write the checks necessary.  So for those gifts and support (via yard sale donations and supporting our other fundraisers) we are hugely grateful!  Which gets me to the big financial news.

I received a phone call this morning from Lifesong for Orphans.  They are a fantastic organization that assists adopting families with fundraising support, by providing a tax-deductible account, matching grants, fundraising ideas and support, etc.  We applied for a "fundraising support packet" which provides the tax-exemption for anyone who contributes to our adoption.  We applied a couple months ago and have finally been approved!  But this is only the first of our big financial news.

Secondly, my husband received two new routes for his business.  This is not only an answer to 3 years of prayers; two routes at the same time is a complete MIRACLE!  I have not heard of this happening before (a contractor getting two routes at the same time), but it did, and it happened to my husband!  Though this is a huge help in the big scheme of things, it came with financial requirements of its own and won't mean anything to us personally for awhile yet.  But adding children to your home also adds financial obligations, so by the time we're home with our child(ren) it should give us a little boost.

And the third bit of news.

[deep breath]

[okay, another deeeeeep breath]

We've just been given $10,000.

I'm not even sure I understand the magnitude of that gift, other than I can't even believe it.  Nobody just gives away $10,000.  Except in my dreams.  Okay, and once in a story Dave Ramsey shared about a family working their way out of debt.  They ran into a couple from their church and got to talking about life and Dave Ramsey and paying off the rest of their debt (about $10k).  The couple from church asked them what they were going to do when they got out of debt and the husband and wife said they promised their kids a trampoline, but ultimately wanted to adopt. That couple sent a trampoline to their house, then called and asked to stop by and talk to them about something.  Afraid it was a multi-level marketing scheme, they tried to put it off.  Finally they agreed to meet, and that couple stopped by and handed them a $10,000 check to get them out of debt and allow them to adopt.

So excuse me, it doesn't just happen in my dreams.  It happens in crazy-absurd-must-use-as-an-illustration Dave Ramsey stories.  And apparently now to us.

$10,000.  $10k.  Breeeeeathe.

That puts us a measly $2,500 away from our tentative target goal* which is such a feasible number for Stuart and I!  I can't thank you all enough for your encouragement, prayers and generosity!

*If we get matched with two children, our goal will go up by several thousand dollars, but we'll cross that bridge if/when it comes.