adoption update

We have finished our home study- we did a complete one instead of just an update so that we are covered well with USCIS. This was done in an amazingly quick timeframe - praise God! We are sending it off to the Hague I 800 office in Michigan and then it goes to Missouri - so please be in prayer for this document to get approved sooner than later. We have our dossier ready as well. All of the documents required have been done and we only need this USCIS approval to send it off to Bulgaria. What a praise that we were able to get it all done in record time... We have also gotten some financial support and we are very grateful for everyone who has commited to us and the adoption of our 2 newest children... The Lord has been very evident in this adoption and we have once again seen His provision as we have stepped out in faith . If you would like to share in this with us we are going to share a more specific need chart. This is our first adoption where all of the amount has to be raised.. meaning we do not have any in savings for this or the ability to draw from it... a blog friend thought "that just because we do get a 10,000 per child reimbursement for our adoptions surely we they could adopt as many as we". I think that she was being a bit jealous or something and I did not quite understand her comment on another forum... however we still have always needed to raise the amount of money needed before we adopt ... this credit comes after the adoption as long as we have receipts showing we spent that much...which we always do .. adopting is very expensive and costly... This does not keep us from believing or stepping out in faith to adopt when we have felt the Lord calling us to a child.

We also do not feel called to do specific fund raising for this adoption- (We are not against others doing this just that we have not felt the Lord telling us to do this) We have been very influenced by 2 believers about the Lord's provision for our lives and family... George Mueller, who helped 1,000s of orphans in England during the 1800s ... he had great needs and saw the Lord provide for all of them... and he never fund raised but shared only his needs with the Lord and watched as the Lord provided.... Also Brother Andrew , a man who is often called the Bible smuggler. He is still alive and has been sharing Bibles in countries that don't often welcome them... actually it was illegal. He smuggled Bibles into Soviet Countries and now has a heart thru Open Doors to share the Word with Muslims. He too only shares with the Lord his needs and he has seen the Lord's provision in some amazing ways... This is what the Lord has shared to Paul and I and so you won't see much in the way of "fund raising " for these adoptions... you will see us asking for your prayers as we step forth into the lives of orphans in Bulgaria...

We are adopting 2 unrelated children who are in diff. regions of Bulgaria. Gracie is in the North and Dancho is in the South. So we will be spending more time in country for this as I shared and it will cost us more... Why has the Lord called us to this extra time and money journey? Would it not be "better" for us to adopt "cheaper" and less time in country? Yes, as the world sees things.. it would have been "better" or made sense to not have 22- 24 children... in the world sense... but we do not follow that sense...we answer to the Lord ... why do we do what we do? 2 Corinthians 5:14 was given to us on one of our Russia adoption trips... "because the Lord compels us"

I pray that my blog readers will be so compelled to follow the Lord.