The stuff that can happen in 15 hours

Yesterday I found myself on the floor weeping and praising God.  In such a small amount of time God showed His "realness" to me so vividly.

As I mentioned in my last post an anonymous donor from our church has offered to give $4,000 towards our adoption costs if we can find friends and family that are willing to give a matching $4,000.  I like lists so I'm going to explain what happened in a pseudo-list form:

- Tuesday night I wrote a post about the need for the match.

- By Wednesday around noon friends and strangers had given $2,025

- Around the same time I get a text from my father in law saying the finished their taxes and were going to donate their $500 tax return.

- As I'm texting him back to thank him I see an email come in and open it and it is from a grant that I applied for saying they are sending a check for $1,000.

- As I am getting ready for the day the phone rings and it is another grant organization saying they are pushing our application ahead (it was supposed to take 6 more weeks to process) and need to ask me some questions.  At this point I'm so overwhelmed with how much is happening so quickly that I just blabbed and blabbed on the phone and probably talked my way out of any financial assistance:)  We won't find out on that one for another 3 weeks.

- Some one from craigslist contacted me about buying an old stroller and I made $30.

So...... what this all means financially is that we only need friends and family to give $1,475 more to be able to receive the matching donation  AND.....

That a little over a week ago the amount we still needed for the adoption was $17,415 AND....

NOW (IF people donate the $1,475) we will only NEED $7,535!!!!! 

What I've learned so far

I've learned a lot of things but a few stick out:

1. God loves each of us SO much.  He loves my future son so much that he would call upon all of His resources at the same time to provide the money to redeem his life.  God loves all of us that much and He paid the ultimate price for all of us when he allowed His son to die for our sins.   Jesus IS alive and He is working.

2. I'm understanding better what the Bible means when it says, "The first shall be last and the last shall be first." (Mat 20:16)  I always thought that it kind of meant that Christians and those that lead sacrificial lives got the raw end of the deal here on earth.  What I have seen through the people that have given is that maybe it means that those who the world see's as being "the last" will be the first to step up and give back to God and others. 

I'd like to give you a profile of the type of people that gave and gave the most:
- The pastor and his wife with three young kids.
- The mother of 9.
- 3 of the daughters of the mother of 9.
- The young family with two kids living in an over priced area and struggling financially as the mom chose to homeschool while also pursuing gradschool.
- The 1 income young family with 4 kids- the dad having medical issues.
- The stranger I've never met.
- The woman I've met once.
- The newlyweds who were the first to give months ago before I ever asked and have committed $50 a month.
- The 1 income homeschooling, college attending, family of 4.

These people have already changed me.  They have been Jesus to me, my family, and my precious baby boy I will someday call Son.  These people have exposed my own selfish heart- the heart that always thinks that "Somebody else is in a better position to give." Because of God's genorosity and love through them I want to be better- more open handed- and to change my thoughts to "Maybe no one else will give."  This is not a message to those that have not given but a "Thank You" to those that have, a "Thank You" to God, and a reminder to myself for the future of the type of person I need to be.