The day of the auction had arrived. The list of items we collected totaled a retail value of $6000.00. We were told to only expect about a third of the retail value to come back to us so my goal for the evening was to bring in $2000.00 to cover the cost of the homestudy so that we could really get the process started. That night we added up the bids and were amazed at God's multiplication abilities! We raised $4000.00. God doubled my goal. Praise Him!
In the weeks to follow, more donations come in from family and friends as they found out about our new calling. Praise Him some more!!
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Plan B
We decided to contact local businesses for donations that we could place in a silent auction at a nearby restaurant. the retaurant was very generous and offered us 50% of all the meals for the night of the auction. What a blessing! We felt instantly that we were in His will. We continued on in confidence that He was in this. I wish I could say that everyday I felt His presence and never felt defeated, but I would be lying. During this process I had many tearful days feeling frustrated as people made promises that never came to fruition. Fortunately, I had good friends who would always remind me of all God has done so far and that He could multiply our efforts in ways that the world could not!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
OK Lord, but how???
I began researching all I could on international adoption. We knew that it was only by God's grace that we would be able to make this a reality, financially speaking. We did not have any money in our budget to put toward the cost of this adoption. We just knew that somehow God would make a way. As I researched a few websites on grants for adoptive parents I quickly learned that you can't even apply for these grants until you have an approved homestudy. This was to cost around $2000.00. I was a little discouraged until I saw some ads for fundraisers that seemed interesting. I launched a "phoneraiser" which would gather people's old cell phones and ink jet cartridges. I would then mail them to a company who would pay the shipping and also give a certain amount for each phone and cartridge. It really was very simple. However, we soon realized that this was not going to yield much in the way of finances. After a short break to seek God and pray about our next move, we initiated Plan B.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
The Beginning of the Story...
Brock writes:
In the summer of 2006, through much prayer and Bible study concerning how our family could give generously, God laid it on my heart to adopt a child. For several weeks following I had many times of questioning, yet even stronger times of confirmation.
Our church has a missionary family in Rwanda and our pastor had recently traveled there to visit a church and orphanage. Our church raised money to buy mattresses which were badly needed for the children at an orphanage there. They showed pictures at church of them being delivered, and although it was a good thing, I could not help but feel that it was really so little. This also answered one of the few questions that I had wrestled with. "How do I know where the child should come from?" It was an answer that gave me peace about the decision immediately. With this answer I knew it was time to ask Tina what she thought of the idea. She had no idea that this had been something I had been thinking and praying about. So that afternoon after church was the time!
Tina writes:
As I am straightening up our bedroom Brock says, "Can we talk about something that has been on my mind for a long time?" I nervously say, "OK". Then Brock responds, "You're going to think I'm insane, I don't know how to say this." So now I am really scared not knowing what my husband is trying to tell me. Finally he asks, "What would you say if I said I think we should adopt a baby?" As you can imagine...for a moment, I was speechless. It took me six years to talk him into having a third child. I knew without a doubt, that this burden he had, was indeed, of God. So after he shared his heart I responded, "I'm your wife, if God is calling you to do something, then He is calling me too!"
After sharing our thoughts with the kids they agreed that our family had a lot of love to share and said that they could not imagine a child without a mom and dad or one who may never hear about Jesus. So we agreed a Rwandan child would soon join our family.
In the summer of 2006, through much prayer and Bible study concerning how our family could give generously, God laid it on my heart to adopt a child. For several weeks following I had many times of questioning, yet even stronger times of confirmation.
Our church has a missionary family in Rwanda and our pastor had recently traveled there to visit a church and orphanage. Our church raised money to buy mattresses which were badly needed for the children at an orphanage there. They showed pictures at church of them being delivered, and although it was a good thing, I could not help but feel that it was really so little. This also answered one of the few questions that I had wrestled with. "How do I know where the child should come from?" It was an answer that gave me peace about the decision immediately. With this answer I knew it was time to ask Tina what she thought of the idea. She had no idea that this had been something I had been thinking and praying about. So that afternoon after church was the time!
Tina writes:
As I am straightening up our bedroom Brock says, "Can we talk about something that has been on my mind for a long time?" I nervously say, "OK". Then Brock responds, "You're going to think I'm insane, I don't know how to say this." So now I am really scared not knowing what my husband is trying to tell me. Finally he asks, "What would you say if I said I think we should adopt a baby?" As you can imagine...for a moment, I was speechless. It took me six years to talk him into having a third child. I knew without a doubt, that this burden he had, was indeed, of God. So after he shared his heart I responded, "I'm your wife, if God is calling you to do something, then He is calling me too!"
After sharing our thoughts with the kids they agreed that our family had a lot of love to share and said that they could not imagine a child without a mom and dad or one who may never hear about Jesus. So we agreed a Rwandan child would soon join our family.
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