Giving Thanks

Oh, give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;

make known his deeds among the peoples!

Psalm 105:1

I wanted to share some fun ways God has been blessing us during this adoption process.

First off, not long into our paperwork, Roddy came home to announce he had gotten a raise. The raise was just to show his employer's appreciation for his hard work. The amount of the raise was 10% more than the amount we needed to send in with our contract.  Of course, we don't get the raise all at once but it was a cool confirmation of what we are doing.  Did you notice the 10%?  Remind you of tithing?

Then, we were praying for the large amount of money we needed all at once to send in with the contract and referral acceptance.  We had read, initialed and signed the 28 pages and post-dated the contract for August 20.  I had not looked at a calendar, just picked that date some time in the future hoping we would have the money by then and could send it in.  I think it was the next week when Roddy decided to sell his car.  He listed it on a Thursday.  One week and one day later - on August 20 - he met the couple at the DMV and received the cash for the car!

I didn't even realize it until I was going through the paperwork again to have it notarized!  How cool is that?  So with that cash and money we've saved and sweet friends have donated, we finally got to send those 2 big items in.

Then, of course, God has chosen to bless us with another baby!! So very thankful for and excited about that.  Well, it's been 6 years since I was first pregnant with Iris.  I had gotten rid of and passed on my maternity clothes - the few timeless pieces went to my sister.  I was thinking I was going to have to go to Goodwill and look for some clothes to wear because even though I am only 9 weeks, I am already out of all my pants and skirts.  I have nothing against Goodwill.  In fact, I love that place, but it would still be money going out out the door.

Well yesterday, my sister came by with 3 garbage bags full of summer and winter maternity clothes!!!!  Skirts and shorts, dresses and shirts and pants and capris!  I had so much fun trying them on and sorting them out by season.  Now I just have to take all the clothes I can't wear off their hangers so I have room in my closet for the new stuff.

The other thing that happened yesterday is that we found out we didn't have to wait for this certain government form to come back before sending in our dossier.  It does have to be done before we can travel, though. Well that certain form costs $830.  And the dossier has to be sent in with $1000.  We had enough for one but not both. 

So while I was excited that we didn't have to wait almost a month to get our paperwork moving ahead to get an earlier court date (which means getting the girls home sooner), I didn't know where we would get the money to send both of them in.  We were praying about it a lot throughout the day.  That afternoon, some certain someones very close to us, handed us a wad of cash making it possible for us to do both!! They didn't even know that we needed it right now!  I couldn't help but cry.

Isn't God good?  What an exciting journey He has us on!