I just wanted to expound on yesterday's post about the power of prayer, by providing you with some examples that have personally effected us. Especially when the power of prayer (your prayers) combine with God's desire to glorify Himself in everything.
1. The commitment to Blake. Only through the prayers of those personally close to me, who knew about this calling on my heart, was Jerad's heart moved to the idea of adopting a special needs child half a world away. He still can't believe some days that we are doing this! I can.
2. The blessing of Lisa & Dave Warner. Only through the prayers of those knowledgeable of our adoption journey were we able to connect with Lisa and Dave as they traveled to get their son, Joshua, who just so happened to be in Blake's orphanage groupa. We were able to see the great care that Blake was receiving, inside glimpses at his daily life, how he was doing, and learn from their great experience in Eastern Europe. Just re-emphasizing the calling on our hearts that this was what we were supposed to be doing.
3. Blake knows. Many of you may remember reading this post. Like I mentioned in that post, one of our prayers has been that God will impress on Blake's heart that we were coming for him, that he would have a family that loves him and that we would be there to get him as soon as we could. I still believe thanks to those prayers that he knows.
4. The Reece's Rainbow family. Only through prayer were we able to connect and make lifelong friends with so many families who have adopted before, and are so willing to share their experiences, assist in decisions, be a listening ear and shoulder to cry on, and pray with you for specific requests.
4. The Financial Blessings. Only through prayer were we able to raise nearly $25,000 to fund our trip to Eastern Europe. I love that so many people had a part in this fundraising, there were very few large donations made to our account, but LOTS of generous giving from LOTS of different people. Some we know, some we do not. I can't wait for Blake to know about all of the people who had a hand in bringing him home. What a blessing to him!
5. The Paperwork. We were blessed with a GREAT adoption home study agency, Adoption & Beyond, out of Kansas City, Missouri who got us on track with our paperwork right away and finished up our home study process in record time. We were also blessed with a great turn-around time with our paperwork at USCIS, we had a great officer who took care of our paperwork in a timely manner and returned the needed forms to us quickly. We were blessed by the UPS who ensured our paperwork would arrive to EE in good shape. We were blessed by our facilitation team who translated our documents quickly and submitted them as soon as they could.
6. The Basile Family. We have been blessed through your prayers to be able to travel with another American family to the same region in EE. We will have English-speaking friends with us, who have completed this International journey before, with us the entire trip (or so we hope).
7. Travel Date. And probably most recently, we were blessed with a travel date. The significance of this was only brought to my attention yesterday, as I found out we were the last travel dates given for a while as the new adoption entity in EE changes over to a new name. We barely made it in! Our paperwork was submitted to Blake's government the same day as 4 other families. Only 2 of us, submitted that day, were given travel dates!! Phew! Praise God.
There are just a few examples, but there are so many more to share at a later time. But for now, please lift us up in prayer whenever you think of us. We can't wait to see how God chooses to glorify Himself through our journey, but we will need lots of prayers to get us through, because you never know what He has planned.
1. The commitment to Blake. Only through the prayers of those personally close to me, who knew about this calling on my heart, was Jerad's heart moved to the idea of adopting a special needs child half a world away. He still can't believe some days that we are doing this! I can.
2. The blessing of Lisa & Dave Warner. Only through the prayers of those knowledgeable of our adoption journey were we able to connect with Lisa and Dave as they traveled to get their son, Joshua, who just so happened to be in Blake's orphanage groupa. We were able to see the great care that Blake was receiving, inside glimpses at his daily life, how he was doing, and learn from their great experience in Eastern Europe. Just re-emphasizing the calling on our hearts that this was what we were supposed to be doing.
3. Blake knows. Many of you may remember reading this post. Like I mentioned in that post, one of our prayers has been that God will impress on Blake's heart that we were coming for him, that he would have a family that loves him and that we would be there to get him as soon as we could. I still believe thanks to those prayers that he knows.
4. The Reece's Rainbow family. Only through prayer were we able to connect and make lifelong friends with so many families who have adopted before, and are so willing to share their experiences, assist in decisions, be a listening ear and shoulder to cry on, and pray with you for specific requests.
4. The Financial Blessings. Only through prayer were we able to raise nearly $25,000 to fund our trip to Eastern Europe. I love that so many people had a part in this fundraising, there were very few large donations made to our account, but LOTS of generous giving from LOTS of different people. Some we know, some we do not. I can't wait for Blake to know about all of the people who had a hand in bringing him home. What a blessing to him!
5. The Paperwork. We were blessed with a GREAT adoption home study agency, Adoption & Beyond, out of Kansas City, Missouri who got us on track with our paperwork right away and finished up our home study process in record time. We were also blessed with a great turn-around time with our paperwork at USCIS, we had a great officer who took care of our paperwork in a timely manner and returned the needed forms to us quickly. We were blessed by the UPS who ensured our paperwork would arrive to EE in good shape. We were blessed by our facilitation team who translated our documents quickly and submitted them as soon as they could.
6. The Basile Family. We have been blessed through your prayers to be able to travel with another American family to the same region in EE. We will have English-speaking friends with us, who have completed this International journey before, with us the entire trip (or so we hope).
7. Travel Date. And probably most recently, we were blessed with a travel date. The significance of this was only brought to my attention yesterday, as I found out we were the last travel dates given for a while as the new adoption entity in EE changes over to a new name. We barely made it in! Our paperwork was submitted to Blake's government the same day as 4 other families. Only 2 of us, submitted that day, were given travel dates!! Phew! Praise God.
There are just a few examples, but there are so many more to share at a later time. But for now, please lift us up in prayer whenever you think of us. We can't wait to see how God chooses to glorify Himself through our journey, but we will need lots of prayers to get us through, because you never know what He has planned.
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