Adoption Book Project: Help Needed

January 24th marks Abraham’s 2nd Gotcha Day.  Here we are meeting Abraham for the first time!  Now, I can’t imagine our lives without him.  This second anniversary of having Abraham in our family has me thinking a lot about the awesome faith journey we walked in order to bring him home and how we saw God at work first-hand to make it happen.

It’s estimated that there are over 143 million orphans world-wide.  We know that God’s heart is with the orphan and, just as he adopted us into His family, He wants each precious child to have an earthly family.  But what stops us from following God’s heart and pursuing adoption? I think one of the biggest deterrents is the cost.  Adoption costs average $25,000 on both the domestic and international fronts. For many, the desire to adopt can come to an abrupt halt when they learn the cost. So many of us are already in debt or trying to make ends meet in a one paycheck household. How can we possibly afford adoption?

One of the best opportunities to see God work is when we trust Him to do that which we can not.  There are so many lessons that God teaches us when we follow him down the path to adopt. We go from READING that all things are possible with God, to SEEING AND BELIEVING that all things are possible with God. Adoption is a journey of faith because it requires absolute faith that God will provide for the finances of adoption while still providing for us. Just as God called Abram “to go to the land I will show you”, the path for us is not all set out before us (Genesis 12:1, NIV). God places each stone in front of us as needed. He teaches us to wait for the next step and to trust that He will provide the stone for it.

Stories of trust and obedience are written throughout the Bible. We discover that God’s purpose is two-fold: the fulfillment of the plan and the relationship with the person. When the person obeys and helps God fulfill His purpose, that person gains a deeper faith and trust in God.

I want to write a book that shares adoption stories from the financial trust perspective. When we first started our adoption process, I clung to stories from friends who had adopted about how God had provided the finances for them. Lord knows, we didn’t have the money!  We still had two car payments, two student loans, credit card debt and a mortgage! (We are now down to half of what we owed on our credit card...and still have a mortgage!) We fully had to trust God to provide the finances.  I was actually excited to see how God was going to work in our adoption journey.

I’m asking my friends who have adopted, who have experienced first-hand God’s financial provision to make their adoption possible, to please consider sharing your stories of how God provided.  And I hope you’ll consider asking friends you know who have adopted if they’ll do the same.  I’d also like to hear how you fundraised and/or received loans or grants.  My desire is to find a publisher for the book,  but I would at least like to make it into an e-book. 

My goal is to encourage people who are considering adoption but who balk when they see the cost. Just as we take encouragement from the miracles God performed in Scripture, we can take hope from each others’ modern-day stories of God’s miraculous provision!  To Him be ALL the glory!!

Friends who are interested in helping with this project may contact me through this blog or email me at gr8cate@gmail.com.
Thank you!