ONE month

It was a month ago today that Joshua and I felt like Jude in this picture. We took a deep breath, ran head on into this adoption process, and prayerfully sent out our Helms Happenings-Ethiopia Edition letters. Letting the letters fall out of my hand and into the drop box at the post office, was truly the moment I knew "We're in this... No turning back now!". At that exact moment our faith in what God was asking us to do became undeniably real! It's easy to talk about what we think God wants to do with our lives, but actually following through and trusting God is oh so scary!

I'd just like to share how God has provided in only ONE months time so far for this journey we're on! To which I'd say "Wow!"...

May 10th- letters sent out and we announced our blog

May 13th- we received our first donation $100

May 14th- donation $150

May 17th- Free car maintenance

May 22nd- donation $200

May 25th- donation $100

May 28th- $160 for swim lessons

May 29th- $20 for dog sitting

May 29th & 30th- taught lifeguard class (waiting on paycheck approx. $160)

May 31st- donation $50

June 1st-9th- Joshua in CO as an AP Reader (waiting on paycheck- stipend: $1600 minus taxes)

June 1st- Posted Africa shirts to auction off: people made bids!

June 2nd- Bidding closed on shirts: $170 made!

June 3rd- donation $150

June 5th- donation $100

June 7th- donation $100

June 10th- Anonymous $100 gift card to Wal-mart left in our mail box!

$225 unexpected payment for mowing!

In the coffee sales alone we have received $52!

Crazy, right?! If you would have told me that in ONE month we would have about $3000 in savings, I would have laughed in disbelief. But here's the deal... God DOES fund His callings and is making this happen through people I would have never imagined and in ways I would have never imagined! I've said it before, I can't help but think He just likes to sit back and smile at His handy work! To those of you who have generously given, you know who you are, and so do we! Each one of your names is written on our kitchen calendar and our plan is to make a journal to give our child one day showing all the people God used to bring him home! You are part of this story and we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts! The countless encouraging conversations, emails, and prayers that we've received over this past month have not gone unnoticed either! Joshua and I lay in bed at night and just talk about how amazed we are at the support and kindness of others! Please keep praying- we are so grateful!

We're about half way to our goal of saving between $6-$8,000 before turning in our official application and we're trusting once the money is there that it's God's perfect timing for us to move forward with this process! I'll keep you posted as we keep watching God work and bring this together!