It is been our plan and hearts desire to adopt a child from India. We've applied to our agency to adopt from India and have gathered all of our documents to have our homestudy written...for India.
BUT...
2 weeks ago, a video came across our computer screen. The same way it did with Easton. It captured us. We watched a beautiful 4 yr old girl sing, talk, run, and be a little stubborn. The only problem...she wasn't from India.
We talked a lot. We prayed a lot. We decided to look at her file. She's so beautiful, she's physically healthy, and she's thriving. She's delayed and has some "stubborness" but we feel like we can provide structure to help her blossom and most importantly love! She lives in a foster home where it appears she runs the show! She's sassy and got spunk for days. We talked to adoptive mommas who brought home children with similar "personalities" and we felt God say "you need to take a chance on her". We had such peace about this child, and quite honestly about her location. You see, she's in Bulgaria. Bulgaria is familiar to us, we know the process and we love the country. It excites us to think about going back, and as bad as we had our hearts set on India, if we were to go another route, Bulgaria would be the one place for us to do that.
So here we are, God's throwing another wrench in what we thought were the original plans, but at this point we should be used to that, haha ;) We have peace with it, because last time, when God switched things up, we got the biggest blessing out of it!
We want so badly to commit to this precious child. We want her to be our daughter. We want Easton to be her big brother. We want....BUT...
We asked what it would take to commit to her. To put her file on hold so that we could prepare the proper documents to bring her home. This was the answer we got..
"The NGO (bulgarian agency) that has her file just changed their policy and will require the full $4000 commitment fee in order to put her file on hold. This was on top of $3,000 due to our American agency and $1000 due to our homestudy agency.Shortly after (about 2 months) another $9,000 will be due."
I think it's time we be very transparent. If we commit to this child we need to have the funds available almost immediately. And not just that, but we will need to have in total about $30,000 within the next 8-12 months.
Up to this point we've been able to save and raise approximately $4,800. So that leaves us needing around $25,000. If we had a few years to come up with this, we probably could. But God always works in situations where we aren't capable. I believe, I mean I truly believe, God can move this mountain, but I also believe He will use His people, His church, to meet this need.
If we are unable to come up with the funds, it's pretty simple, we will have to walk away. We will probably return to the India program, unless God continues to pull us back to Bulgaria. I don't worry about us, but I worry about this precious child. We are the only family that has come forward to inquire about her. I don't take that lightly. If we say no, how long will she wait. Will she wait until she's 6 like Easton did? Will she wait longer? I don't know the answer to that, but what I do know is that we've cried out to God. Lord, If you want us to have this child, you have to provide. Lord, please move in your people to make this happen. If it doesn't happen, Lord we will accept it and move on, but Lord please don't let this be the end.
With all of this being said. We knew we needed an avenue for people to be able to be a part of this. An avenue for people to give and here's what we've decided. We strongly dislike fundraising, unfortunately it's a part of this process, but we understand this is how some people take part in the orphan crisis. Not everyone adopts, some are called to give, and that is every bit as important! So instead of coming up with a hundred small fundraisers...we're going BIG. This final fundraiser for us will help us raise $10,000 if it's successful yes $10,000!!! We have a few other things in place for us to provide the rest hopefully through taxes, gift wrapping, our farm, lots of sacrifices, etc. along with applications to grants toward the end. In our next blog I'm going to explain the entire fundraiser so stay tuned, it's coming tonight! If you want to be a part of this, NOW IS THE TIME, please don't wait!
**UPDATE: After receiving official documents on this sweet girl, there were several needs she had that our family is not prepared to handle. We are devastated that we can not move forward with her adoption, but trust that this is all a part of God's plan. It's hard to be so sure of something, then realize it's not the path your family needs to take. With that being said, our homestudy has been written and we are waiting to submit it to India. We are going back to our original plan with the India program and are excited to get past this phase and matched with a child.
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