The real "Incentive"

As I am writing this blog, I am at Disney World at the end of a long and exciting day.  Most of you who have read this know that I won the trip through Scentsy.  I had had no idea there was a trip, let alone that I had almost qualified until New Year's Eve.  My heart and mind were hyper-focused on our son.  And really, I don't feel like I "earned" anything-I don't feel that I deserve in any way to be treated like a VIP here (but it is fun!)  I do feel like I have had the incredible privilege of sharing our story, and watching, in utter amazement the way we have had an entire community-emotionally and geographically-rally around us. 

 It has been so humbling to witness the number of people who have sacrificed to help provide financially, whether it was filling up baby bottles with spare change, donating on the PayPal button on this site, buying a "Gorby"  Bear, ordering Scentsy or just writing a check…

 You have been the avenue of God's Provision for us.

 It has been amazing to have the right people with the right words at the right times when it has been hard to see the next step.  Eighteen months is an incredibly long time to be "pregnant".  We have gone slowly on purpose so that we could raise the money as we went.  We wanted this adoption to be paid for before we brought our son home so that I could afford to stay home with him.  There have been many days, weeks even when we felt like there was no end in sight.  It has taken all of our emotional strength sometimes to put one foot in front of the other.  I have been astounded by the perfectly timed words from sympathetic mouths.  You have not minimized the road we have travelled and you have not offered simple platitudes.  You have spoken Truth to us and, in many cases, emotionally picked us up and carried us until we got enough strength to walk again.

You have been the avenue of God's Encouragement for us.

And the prayers!  We could not have done any of this without your prayers!  As we have said from the beginning, each dollar represents a brick in the Great Wall of Adoption, but the prayer is the mortar that holds the wall together.  We will never know the depth of  intercession that you've whispered in your intimate time with the LORD, but we have felt the power of your prayers.

You have been the avenue of God's Blessings for us.

We still have a ways to go, emotionally, financially and physically.  Please keep praying for us. 

Spefically:

For God's peace.  That would continue to guard our hearts and minds.  The same God who has been faithful yesterday will continue to be faithful tomorrow.

For God's provision.  That it would continue to flow out to us.  We still have a ways to go, but every time we have had another bill or fee due, the money has been there!  God is so good!

For God's protection.  As we travel to and from Russia that He would protect us and, even  more so, that He would continue to protect our son.

I did want to share a story that speaks to how many people are investing in our miracle.  I was in the bank last week depositing some of the pennies that Brock has been saving for twenty years in a five-gallon jug.   (Adopting Roman was the ONLY thing that could convince Brock to cash in the pennies.)  I was talking to the tellers while I filled out the deposit slip and another customer in the bank suddenly chimed in, "Oh!  Are you the family adopting the baby from Russia?"  Yes, we are.  One of the tellers had a prayer card with Roman's picture on it at her station and she showed it to the customer.  "Oh, yes, that's the Facebook  Baby."  It may seem like a small thing, but when you share our blog, you give us a chance to share our story with more people.  And what are our stories but to a testimony to what God has done in our lives?

Brock and I have had fun this week dreaming of what our next "Every 'Scent' Makes a Difference" campaign could be.  After Roman comes home, we are wanting at a portion of our Scentsy commissions to be used for something like helping another family adopt a baby.  Disney has been fun and I hope I get to win more trips, but the real prize at the end of the day is putting feet to faith and investing in something bigger than ourselves.  And every one of you who have done something self-less for us in our journey has been our inspiration.  I can't wait for you to meet Roman.   

You are the fingerprint s of God in our story.