SO. BLOWN. AWAY.
This is the only way to describe how we feel about the generosity shown towards us! In the very beginning of our saving towards adoption we received an anonymous gift of 1,000 RMB with a note. That was just the beginning of the blessings. We have had students go out of their way for us, donations as presents from friends, and now on the first day of having our fundraising website up, we received a $500 donation AND a $100 donation!!
Earlier, I had shown David the website up and running with our "offline donation" of $898 (what we had already accumulated in our saving and fundraising) and he thought that much had been donated! Seeing it surprised him so much and I laughed at him, saying there was probably no chance of us receiving anything on the first day. We checked on it later, and David again thought there was a donation. So I checked it, and I found nothing there. We were tinkering around, and honestly, I was about to turn in, when I decided to check my computer. There was an email, it was from GoFundMe, so I opened it. It revealed a donation for $500!! It was from a dear couple we've known since we were kids. They were like family at certain points in our lives, and we were just so blown away.
We had to stop and just give praise to God. Our goal seemed like something so far away just a few hours ago. We had decided to trust Him and go ahead and just put up the website up. We weren't sure if we should do it yet, as we're far from our home study (at least months from beginning the process), and we thought people might take it the wrong way. We are very committed to this process. I've said it before, but just in case you were not reading at the start of the blog, just in case something goes wrong and we can't adopt for some reason, we will be donating all the money that has not been used towards other orphans that need it. Most likely it will go towards the orphans right here in our city in Dongguan, if it came down to that.
We're super excited about getting t-shirts made and hoping to get some people in the US to be our hands and feet for places we can't be in for now. If you're interested in donating time or energy to our adoption, let me know! We need someone in Cleveland, TN; Atlanta, GA; South Bend, IN; and possibly around Orlando, FL. Someone to make cookie jar mixes, and get quilt triangles and squares to people to sign. If there are other ways you would like to contribute (like bake sales, yard sales or a photography session) let me know! It would be such a blessing to us to have any kind of help!
We're so excited to move forward, and we may be able to start the process earlier than we thought if we can raise the money in time! Thanks again, friends! We appreciate it more than we could ever express in words! "...but put your hope in God who richly provides everything we need for our enjoyment." 1 Timothy 6:17b God really provided for us! We were afraid to hope, thinking that we were gambling with the future of our children by starting too early, but trusting in God is never a gamble. Trust is difficult, because we can't control the circumstances, and we don't have the power to do all of this on our own. We will trust and obey. Finally, thank-you to all of our friends financially and through encouragement along the way, and to those of you who have liked our blog or Facebook page and shared a link! We sure appreciate the exposure and support!
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