God has a sense of humor!!

So we have been busy filling out, completing necessary forms, receiving reference letters, and pretty much living and breathing Grant Applications the last several months.  All in all, we have exhausted our list and have applied for 10 different grants all ranging in different denominations of money.  Hours and hours we have poured over these things and then send them off with a hands-on prayer!  We are excited to see how God is going to work through these grants!!! 

However, as I was dropping off grants #7, #8, and #9 at the post office I was blessed by God's humor.  Our post office workers are nice, a little gruff, but nice.  I was determined as I walked into the PO this time, that I was going to get a smile from the worker today!  It was my turn in line and I walked to the counter to lay the grant envelopes down.  He weighed them all individually and I was working my magic to get that man to smile!  No smiles...

My total price came in at $7.77.  At this time the PO worker looks directly at me - am I going to get a smile now, an encouraging word, a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g??!!  Nope, but I did get a little humor!  He says (as he has his hands on all three of my envelopes), "Wow, 777 you must be mailing some lucky things today, better go play the lottery!" 

Oh Mr. Post-Office-Man-Who-Never-Smiles, if you only knew what was in those envelopes!  However, I don't need luck because My God is bigger than luck!  I feel that was God's way of saying, "Relax Jen, I got this money thing all worked out!"  I love the way God works!! 

On a side note - we have about 6 more grants to apply for once we get our USCIS finished and get a referral of our kiddos! 

God is good - all the time!

DOSSIER COMPLETE!!! Waaaaa-Hooooo!!!!!

Our huge announcement for the month - our Dossier is complete!!! 
I will be mailing the huge, official, ever-so-important documents off tomorrow to our agency for their review.  We are anticipating no problems and they will send it to get translated! 

We are still waiting on our USCIS approval and letter telling us where to get fingerprinted (again!).  This is a another very important step that we will be glad to get done and over with! 

I think that is all for the update now!  We are making steps to bring our children home! Thanks to all those who have listened to my woes, exciting announcements, and frustrations!  We are blessed to have many friends and family that support us in prayers!! 

We are still busy sending out grant applications!  Our list of possibilities at this time are starting to get smaller.  Once we get our referral (YAY!) we can send out some more.  Thanks for all the encouraging words!! 

Zephaniah 3:17

The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Grant Work ...... sigh!

2 words that make me cringe these days........

GRANT WORK

 

While we are extremely grateful for these grants - they are TONS of work!  Not difficult work, just tedious work, work that must be done in utter silence for my brain to function.  Hours and hours spent at the computer reading qualifications, order of paperwork, and question upon question of our beliefs, proof of income via tax returns (some needing all pages, some needing just the first two pages), etc.  Hours spent.....

 

 

I just sent in our 4th application.  I am currently working on a 13-page application and had to take a break.  Sometimes I feel like I get into the rut of filling in the spaces and trying to get the best wording to really portray our family and the request that we are making. Here lately as deadlines get closer to some of them I am forgetting to do what is important..... and pray over these applications.  Pray that even if we do not get selected to receive a grant that the money will go to a family that really needs that final push to get their child/ren home.  Pray for the board members that give up their time and make efforts to pour over these applications and listen to God's leading.  As well as give thanks in my prayers that God has generous people out in this world to give money when they can to a good cause! 

 

I will stop and say right here and now - that we are not worried about the money side of these adoptions!  While we are adopting up to three precious children and our cost almost triples, we have no reason to doubt.  Let me clarify - the number is very scary when we have to fill in that blank on the grant application of Total Cost of Adoptions $________!!!  But there is no possible way that we can doubt how God has provided thus far.  When we started on this journey, I'm not going to lie - that number scared the skin off of me - but now I am looking forward to seeing how God is going to make that money appear.  Because I know He will! 

 

While it has been mainly my job to find and organize all materials for these grants, Ryan has been a gem!!  I left him a post-it note with 4 or 5 copies to make, answers to fill in, or documents to scan in last weekend while I was out of town and my honey came through!  God has blessed our team efforts and while we do things in COMPLETE OPPOSITE ways - we are accomplishing our goals! 

 

I also want to thank those that have agreed to help us out.  Many of you have been willing to be a reference for a grant or fill out a questionnaire on us.  We know this takes time and efforts on your parts to do this for our journey.  We give thanks for you and couldn't do this without our friends!  (Sorry family, you don't count on this one, because we can use you all as references!)  Let me also shout out to our awesome agency and program director!  She has done so much for us and I feel like we are the only family she has since she gets back to us so promptly and efficiently!  Guidance, kind words, and encouragement help this process go smoother!!

 

So I'm heading back to my paperwork refreshed and renewed after a time of prayer!  Lord help me to not loose sight of your plan and your design of how this journey looks!  Let me be faithful in EVERYTHING.  Amen!