Oh my goodness gracious. There simply are no words! Over the last thirty hours or so, Anthony and I have stood in absolute awe as the Chip-In has grown so quickly. We have been completely speechless–amazed at God’s goodness and His love for our precious daughter who languishes in her crib on the other side of the world–desperate for her rescue.
I confess. It has been so humbling. I was so nervous about coming to you all and sharing our need for the body of Christ to come alongside us as we journey to our daughter. Truthfully, I was terrified to ask for money for US. It is so easy for me to do it for others–and I absolutely love being able to do it. But for us? That’s a whole new story. Pride, I know. God had to humble me.
And He did.
A few hours into the fundraiser I realized how silly I was. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that you would give to our family as sacrificially as you did. You guys blew me away! The love LAVISHED upon my family has been astounding. We have been so exceedingly blessed by your incredible outpouring of love and provision.
There is no way we could ever find the words to thank you enough. Really. As hard as I try, I cannot. We are forever thankful for the way you came together in such a short time and gave us everything that we need to get to Faith as soon as possible. Thank you for removing the obstacle of finances and allowing us to focus solely on getting to our daughter as quickly as is humanly possible. We appreciate it so, so much. Please know that.
Some have written to ask me exactly how much we need to complete the adoption. At this stage it’s really hard to tell. Because of Faith’s emaciated condition and her extremely poor health, our immediate concern is going to be transporting her and bringing her home safely. Being so desperately malnourished, she is at an extremely high risk of re-feeding syndrome. For those of you who are not familiar with what that is, it is when a very malnourished body is fed too much, too quickly. In Faith’s situation it can cause her internal organs to shut down completely and ultimately we could lose her. Her health is so delicate and we are going to get a lot of advice before we travel about every precaution we need to take to bring her home safely. We may even end up in the hospital there for a few days before we get on the flight home. If need be, we will take a registered nurse with us to help bring her home safely. We’ll see how things unfold in the months ahead.
All that to say that we just don’t know what the total cost will be. We are facing many extra costs just in being able to bring Faith home safely. Realistically, I would say between $25,000 and $28,000.
Here’s the thing. When we decided to hold a fundraiser here on my blog, we felt sure that it would NOT just be about our little girl. It can never just be about us! God’s picture is always bigger. Yes, Faith is in dire need and needs rescuing like yesterday. But our hearts already break for the many, many children who we will have to leave behind on the day that we take our daughter out of that orphanage. We felt sure that we needed to s-t-r-e-t-c-h our faith to believe for those children–and the families who will rise up to bring them home.
If you have been following my blog for a while, you will know that my heart aches for children who are harder to find families for and for precious families who need a helping hand before they travel. Those are the families I LOVE to come alongside and help. Adoption fundraising is hard, friends. It takes guts and a huge amount of courage.
Today I have received tons of e-mails asking me to please leave the Chip-In available and keep the total open-ended so that others can still donate and help the children of Pleven (and be included in the giveaway drawing). I have been praying about exactly how to do that and where we could help with much-needed funds. After chatting with my friend, Carolyn Twietmeyer (whose incredible ministry, Project Hopeful, has been receiving the funds for Faith), I feel like God has gently guided us.
The Chip-In is now open-ended. Project Hopeful is going to start a separate fund specifically for the children of Pleven. As originally planned, the giveaway will continue until May 9th. ALL funds which you donate from now on will be kept as grants and distributed to approved families who step out in faith and need a helping hand with their finances before they travel. We are believing that as Faith’s government begins to SEE more and more that people ARE willing to adopt these precious, precious children, that they are going to make more of their beautiful children available for adoption. What a blessing from the LORD that will be!
Just as you have blessed our family–we want the blessing to continue on to other families as well. As you have removed the financial burden for our family, we long to do the same for other families. We want the financial burden to be lifted!
So we’re upping the ante with this giveaway. It not about us…but about the other children of Pleven who so desperately need to be rescued. Please help them come home! Please continue to sow seed so that countless more lives will be saved.
