I have struggled to write this post. I wanted to scream from the roof tops and lift my hands to the Lord, but no words seemed sufficient. Today I read Psalm 138 and I felt like this could say it better than I could.
"I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. On the day I called, you answered me, my strength of soul you increased. . . The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever."
In the midst of some crazy problems with this adoption journey, we received a letter from Shaohannah's Hope in the mail about 1 1/2 weeks ago. It said that they were giving us a $4000 grant! Wow, just when we were getting so discouraged, the Lord knew just what we needed when we needed it. He was reassuring us that he would fulfill his purpose in us. Thank you Shaohannah's Hope!
Do you know how much this journey has already increased all of our faith? When things seem to be going "wrong", we know that the Lord is making them "right". It is so sweet to see so many answers to prayer that we would not have otherwise seen, if we had not stepped out in faith. It is so sweet because Jacklyn often prays for $ for our adoption, but she doesn't just ask for $, she always asks for LOTS of money for our adoption. When we got word of this grant, we could testify to His answer to our prayers. Oh Lord give us that childlike faith!
Some have asked about the baby that was "saved" for us around Christmas, well they don't really know what happened - possibly another agency got him. We are back to square 1. We just got our dossier back (big packet of legal documents), which should actually be in Ethiopia right now, but we trust that all of these obstacles are for something great that one day we will also be able to testify to.