Aaaahhh God - YOU are in control!

So it's no big secret that adoption, especially international, is pricey.  In fact, it has been one of the major reasons that we were initially holding back starting the whole process.  For anyone that knows my honey, knows that he is a budget-oriented-minded person.  I appreciate this (now) about him and how secure it has made me feel since marrying him.  When we discussed about how we would finance the adoption, we had a general plan for the initial payments that were going to have to be made, however, beyond those first several, we weren't sure exactly where the $$ was going to come from.  What I found amazing was that Ryan wasn't worried about it as much as I was.  This was COMPLETE role reversal for us.  I found I was thinking about the $$ side of the adoption more than he was.  He just wasn't uptight about it, wasn't nervous about it, just was at peace with it.  This was an Aaaaaahhhh God - you are in control moment!!! 

The next amazing thing that God was putting in motion was that we were independently thinking about our monthly budget and how we could squeak another couple of dollars out of it.  As we were working through (some of the mounds!) paperwork, he stopped and said he had been thinking of some areas that we could tighten up in the budget.  I didn't know he had been thinking of ideas like I had been.  Aaaaaahhhh God - you are in control moment!! My slant on saving this month was to get the whole family behind it and make it a family sacrificing to really let the kids see:
     a.) the value of money,
     b.) how we were truly sacrificing to bring kids home to our join our family,
     c.) how we were stepping out in faith for God to provide the money. 
Between the two of us, we thought of a way to save $xxx amount of money this month to put towards adoption expenses.  It has been soooo easy this month to make those tiny sacrifices and the kid have really gotten creative in one particular area.  Aaaaaahhhh God - you are in control! 

So as we were getting ready to sit down to dinner tonight, Ryan was going through some mail (of which was probably a couple days old since we tend to slack in being punctual about mail-opening!)  And he asked me to come and look at something.  I asked him if he could bring it to me since I was in the middle of cooking chicken.  He put in front of my face a check for $xxx of which we were not expecting.  Aaaaahhhh God - you are in control. 

But what was even more amazing was the amount - y'all it was only $3 difference in the amount we saved that month and the amount of the check!  Aaaaahhh God - you are soooo in control of this adoption, it's timing, it's affordability, and everything else it entails. 

It's been awhile... I know! But great news ahead!

So, since my last post, I think I've added only one child to the mixture - but what one child that is!  Meet my Ireland.  Spicy, stubborn, unpredictable, however, sooooo loveable!  She came into our lives with great surprise and hasn't lived that title down yet! 
However, she has a great deal to do with what I am about to share with you.  I know most people keep blogs when they are adopting, to keep everyone updated.  I will do my best on that one, however, I am promising nothing!  The reason I started my blog back up is to share with those that have heard our news to adopt.  Looking at the above picture, I know most people are saying:
"Don't they have enough?"
"Can they properly give enough love and attention to all those kids?"
"How are they going to manage feeding all those mouths?"
And last but not least because I KNOW people are thinking it -
"ARE THEY CRAZY?"
So to start my story from my 7th child's birth.  As I mentioned, she came in with a bang and has been a lot of work for our family.  We have always mentioned "wanting to adopt", or "maybe someday God will work it out for our family".  "It just isn't the right time".  All we kept coming up with was excuses and more excuses. 
As Ireland got older, she started to mellow out a bit and we started getting our lives back in order.  The idea of adoption came up again with our children.  "Yes, we are still praying about it, it's just not time yet."  We started praying about it more seriously about 6 months ago.  We talked to each child individually and got their opinion.  I had one that was resistant, so we kept praying about it.  About 3 months ago, we re-visited the topic as I was feeling the tug more and more.  That one child started changing their opinions and was starting to like the idea of having more brothers or sisters.  That's when it hit us - are we going to live out our faith or just talk about it?  We knew there were many strikes against us adopting - the number of biological children already in the home, our moving with the military constantly, a big enough house, etc.  The reasons not-to were so much more than the reasons were-to.  However, as we talked about it more and more, what were we teaching our children?  That it was okay to let our fears and uncertainties get ahead of us and stop us, or that we would let God take control over all those issues?  Uh - not what I want to teach my kiddos!  Were we teaching them to only make decisions that are comfortable for us to do?  Uh - again a big no!!  God doesn't say the road will be easy or comfortable!  And last but not least, we were saying to have faith in God (which is a concept hard to teach children) but not when it comes to adoption - that my God isn't big enough to control all those things?  That was the final straw.  We wanted our kids to see that we were being called to adoption and we were being obedient to His calling.  We are stepping out in faith to see where God leads this journey.  Will it end up, we may get rejected or denied due to the above reasons?  Yes, it may, but nothing, NOTHING can take away the fact that we are displaying to our children a step of faith in obedience to God.  End.Of.Story. 
We hope you will pray for our long journey ahead.  Wisdom, patience, and continued peace!