When Adam and I were first discussing adoption, I remember having a conversation about finances. We were both very concerned about how we would come up with the money to complete an adoption so I, of course, started a spreadsheet :-) I came up with all of these different ways we were going to obtain the almost $30,000 that we needed. Adam and I were on a walk with the kids one night when I went through my spreadsheet explaining where we would get the money from. It went something like this...
"We will put in the $1,700 we have, we will get $5,000 from this grant and $5,000 from this grant, $12,650 from a tax credit, $3,000-$5,000 from here, and the rest we will fund raise for...like yard sales, dinners, etc."
Both of thought, "Hey...that's do-able! That wont be so bad!"
It's funny now that I look back on that conversation and realize that God taught me a HUGE lesson through this. We knew he was calling us to adopt but when it came to the finances, I needed to figure that out ahead of time. I was still trusting God to give us all of the money and we were still stepping out in faith that He would provide all that we needed but in order to go forward I had to have some sort of an idea of where it was coming from.
Interestingly enough...almost none of that money came from where I planned. We did not get any grants, the tax credit became non-refundable, lets just say, the money did not come from where I thought it would. Awhile back, in the span of one week, I found out that basically we had around $7,500 left to come up with and three of the sources that I thought we would get the bulk of the money from came back and said that we were not getting any money from them. I got really frustrated...I wanted to know why and so I asked God. Over and over I asked Him in prayer, "Why are you not giving us the money through the paths I thought you would?" And then I came to the conclusion one day that I needed to figure out whether I still trusted God to provide the money. And I did. I knew that He was going to provide for this so I began to pray, "Lord, please provide the money that we need. I thought you were going to give it to us in all these different ways and none of them are working out. Lord, please perform a miracle." And He did...
Within one month, an anonymous donor gave us $1,000, our Sunday school class took up an offering and gave us $2,880 and the very next weekend a couple called and donated two plane tickets to Africa (that's $4,000!!!). NONE of this was in my plan. But God reminded me that this was His plan all along...
For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
His plan for providing the money was more than I could have ever imagined...
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
according to his power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:20
I really think now that I am looking back over where all this money came from (yes, I have a spreadsheet), that God had a specific plan in where it came from as much as He did in where it did not come from. I don't know about you guys but God rarely works anything out the way I think He is going to and praise Him for that! He sees the big picture...the one I can't and I am so thankful that He loves me enough to teach me over and over again to trust in Him and NOTHING else.
So...in six months we went from $1,700 to $30,308 and we give all praise, glory and honor to God. Now we are praying for a very special phone call :-)
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
The Two Week Challenge
Our Pastor at Summerdean has been preaching a series on prayer over the last few weeks and he brought up a point that had never occured to me. He was preaching on Luke chapter 11...
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray..."
I have read this verse many times but it never occured to me that this was the ONLY thing they asked him to teach them. That struck me as really odd...I mean, if I had the opportunity to ask Jesus to teach me something, ANYTHING...sadly enough it would probably not be how to pray. They could have asked him how to perform miracles, how to heal people or raise them from the dead, how to evangelize...they could have asked him anything but they asked him to teach them to pray. Pastor Stafford pointed out that when Jesus prayed to God, AMAZING things happened and the disciples had seen this! Now, I definately believe that! I believe that God performed miracles over 2,000 years ago when people prayed and I believe that he still does because I have seen it! We have such an AMAZING priveledge of talking to God through prayer but I don't think we always believe he answers us. So our Pastor challeneged us to pray for something over a two week period and to see what God does...so immediately two prayers came to my mind. I prayed for a woman at our church that has been sick. I am not particularly close to this woman but God has really laid her on my heart lately so I felt like he was asking me to pray for her. I also prayed that God would provide the money that we need to complete this adoption. We were praying we would get a referral for a child soon but we did not have the money to accept a child so my prayer was that God would provide the money. So I prayed everyday for these two things and God did something AMAZING!
The next Sunday, I went to Sunday school class and our teacher announced that next week's Sunday school offering would go towards our adoption. I was so excited!!! And I kept praying...
I was almost through the second week of praying and Adam, Eva, Eli and I were out on a Friday afternnoon and ran into the lady I had been praying for. This is first of all exciting because for awhile she was not leaving her house except for doctor's appointments so I was really surprised to see her out and not going to see a doctor! The next thing she told me was that she could feel my prayers working! Now she has not been completely healed yet and she said she still has some more testing to go through but I am praising God that she is feeling so much better and that she knows it is because of God! I am continuting to pray for her healing!
On the following Sunday, two weeks to the day that I had started to pray for the adoption money, our treasurer at church, David, walked up to me and handed me an envelope with a check in it. I didn't even look at it right away because I had turned in a receipt for some cirriculum I had purchased for the church so I just assumed that was what the check was for....but when I opened it, it was written to Adam and I for $1,010! That was a little more than the cirriculum cost (ha ha) so I ran to catch up with David and asked him what that was for and he said, "someone donated it to you guys for the adoption." Tears just started to run down my cheeks and I asked him if he could tell me who it was and he said, "I was told to tell you it was a gift from God."
Later that morning, Pastor Stafford was preaching on prayer again and he said that if our prayer had not been answered yet, KEEP PRAYING! So I kept praying this past week that God would heal her and provide the money that we need.
So I went to church yesterday and I was talking to a few ladies when David walked up to me again and handed me an envelope. This time he stuck around for a minute because I am sure he knew what was coming :-) I asked him what the envelope was and he said, it was the offering from our Sunday school class. Let me just preface this with the facts, we are not a very large class. There are on average 9 families represented in there and all of them are right around my age. Most of them have small children and none of them are wealthy (I hope no one in my class takes offense to that! We are all blessed with everything we need but I would not consider any of us to be wealthy by American standards.) So I had not thought about how much money would be in that envelope but looking back if I had to guess, I would have said probably around $300-$400 would have been a very generous amount. So I opened up the envelope and the check was for $2,880! I cannot explain to you how astonished I was! I began to weep because I do not know who gave all of that money but I know that each dollar that was given, was given sacrifically.
I am in awe of my God. We now have more than enough money to accept a child when the referral comes :-) I cannot wait to hold that little person in my arms and tell them how much our God loves them and that He performed miracles to bring them home.
We had $1,700 to put in our adoption fund in May when all of this started. We have prayed and prayed that God would provide everything we need to complete this and in less than six months, we now have $26, 308. I am going to keep praying because God still performs miracles!
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray..."
I have read this verse many times but it never occured to me that this was the ONLY thing they asked him to teach them. That struck me as really odd...I mean, if I had the opportunity to ask Jesus to teach me something, ANYTHING...sadly enough it would probably not be how to pray. They could have asked him how to perform miracles, how to heal people or raise them from the dead, how to evangelize...they could have asked him anything but they asked him to teach them to pray. Pastor Stafford pointed out that when Jesus prayed to God, AMAZING things happened and the disciples had seen this! Now, I definately believe that! I believe that God performed miracles over 2,000 years ago when people prayed and I believe that he still does because I have seen it! We have such an AMAZING priveledge of talking to God through prayer but I don't think we always believe he answers us. So our Pastor challeneged us to pray for something over a two week period and to see what God does...so immediately two prayers came to my mind. I prayed for a woman at our church that has been sick. I am not particularly close to this woman but God has really laid her on my heart lately so I felt like he was asking me to pray for her. I also prayed that God would provide the money that we need to complete this adoption. We were praying we would get a referral for a child soon but we did not have the money to accept a child so my prayer was that God would provide the money. So I prayed everyday for these two things and God did something AMAZING!
The next Sunday, I went to Sunday school class and our teacher announced that next week's Sunday school offering would go towards our adoption. I was so excited!!! And I kept praying...
I was almost through the second week of praying and Adam, Eva, Eli and I were out on a Friday afternnoon and ran into the lady I had been praying for. This is first of all exciting because for awhile she was not leaving her house except for doctor's appointments so I was really surprised to see her out and not going to see a doctor! The next thing she told me was that she could feel my prayers working! Now she has not been completely healed yet and she said she still has some more testing to go through but I am praising God that she is feeling so much better and that she knows it is because of God! I am continuting to pray for her healing!
On the following Sunday, two weeks to the day that I had started to pray for the adoption money, our treasurer at church, David, walked up to me and handed me an envelope with a check in it. I didn't even look at it right away because I had turned in a receipt for some cirriculum I had purchased for the church so I just assumed that was what the check was for....but when I opened it, it was written to Adam and I for $1,010! That was a little more than the cirriculum cost (ha ha) so I ran to catch up with David and asked him what that was for and he said, "someone donated it to you guys for the adoption." Tears just started to run down my cheeks and I asked him if he could tell me who it was and he said, "I was told to tell you it was a gift from God."
Later that morning, Pastor Stafford was preaching on prayer again and he said that if our prayer had not been answered yet, KEEP PRAYING! So I kept praying this past week that God would heal her and provide the money that we need.
So I went to church yesterday and I was talking to a few ladies when David walked up to me again and handed me an envelope. This time he stuck around for a minute because I am sure he knew what was coming :-) I asked him what the envelope was and he said, it was the offering from our Sunday school class. Let me just preface this with the facts, we are not a very large class. There are on average 9 families represented in there and all of them are right around my age. Most of them have small children and none of them are wealthy (I hope no one in my class takes offense to that! We are all blessed with everything we need but I would not consider any of us to be wealthy by American standards.) So I had not thought about how much money would be in that envelope but looking back if I had to guess, I would have said probably around $300-$400 would have been a very generous amount. So I opened up the envelope and the check was for $2,880! I cannot explain to you how astonished I was! I began to weep because I do not know who gave all of that money but I know that each dollar that was given, was given sacrifically.
I am in awe of my God. We now have more than enough money to accept a child when the referral comes :-) I cannot wait to hold that little person in my arms and tell them how much our God loves them and that He performed miracles to bring them home.
We had $1,700 to put in our adoption fund in May when all of this started. We have prayed and prayed that God would provide everything we need to complete this and in less than six months, we now have $26, 308. I am going to keep praying because God still performs miracles!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Approved!
Last Friday, October 12th, we received our Immigration Approval Letter in the mail! It just so happened that Adam got off at 12:00 on Friday and had the opportunity to pull into our driveway as I was waving our approval envelope in the air and jumping up and down...and yes, I was doing this in the driveway!
Later that evening we had our Pampered Chef, Silpada, Thirty-One, Scentsy fundraising party and it was a hit! I do not know how much we made from the party yet because the parties have not been closed out yet but I will post as soon as I do know. We did have quite a few ladies there though and many people have ordered through the websites so I am excited to see what the grand total will be! I do want to say a HUGE thank you to the ladies who so willingly gave their entire profits to our adoption fund and to Alison Stultz' mission trip fund. Becky Crosswhite from Thirty-One, Amber Hubble from Silpada, Ann McDonald from Pampered Chef and Sonya Lucas from Scentsy are all giving their profits to us. Thank you very much!!!
I also want to give another HUGE thank you to everyone who continues to pray for us and for the adoption process and a HUGE thank you to God, who continues to amaze us!
Lynsey
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
Later that evening we had our Pampered Chef, Silpada, Thirty-One, Scentsy fundraising party and it was a hit! I do not know how much we made from the party yet because the parties have not been closed out yet but I will post as soon as I do know. We did have quite a few ladies there though and many people have ordered through the websites so I am excited to see what the grand total will be! I do want to say a HUGE thank you to the ladies who so willingly gave their entire profits to our adoption fund and to Alison Stultz' mission trip fund. Becky Crosswhite from Thirty-One, Amber Hubble from Silpada, Ann McDonald from Pampered Chef and Sonya Lucas from Scentsy are all giving their profits to us. Thank you very much!!!
I also want to give another HUGE thank you to everyone who continues to pray for us and for the adoption process and a HUGE thank you to God, who continues to amaze us!
Lynsey
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
Monday, October 8, 2012
Pamper Yourself Before the Holidays
So, as promised, we have a few fundraisers coming up! The first one is this coming Friday night, October 12th at 6pm. My dear friend Lauren has organized a Pampered Chef, Thirty-One bag, Scentsy candle, Silpada jewlery party and she is having it at my friend, Leigh's home (545 Hedgelawn Ave, Roanoke, VA 24019) It is a come and go party. There will be no "show" from each of the vendors. You can just drop by whenever you would like, have a few snacks and look through the catalogs and see if there is anything you want or would like to give someone for Christmas. Each vendor is giving between 15 and 25 percent of the proceeds to go towards our adoption expenses and Alison Stultz' mission trip (you can read about her here http://alisonstultz.theworldrace.org/). If you are not able to make the party but you would like to support us, you can order online.
For Pampered Chef - www.pamperedchef.biz/annmcdonald then click on "Shop Online", type in "Lauren Crawford" as the Host/Organization
For Thirty-One - www.Mythirtyone.com/Rebeccacrosswhite and click on the "my parties" tab at the top. Find "Stultz Fundraising" and click on "Shop Now".
For Silpada Jewelry - www.mysilpada.com/amber.hubble
For Scentsy - http://sonyalucas.scentsy.us then look under "My Open Parties", "Lauren Reynolds-Crawford" and click on "buy from party"
Thank you for your support and happy shopping!
For Pampered Chef - www.pamperedchef.biz/annmcdonald then click on "Shop Online", type in "Lauren Crawford" as the Host/Organization
For Thirty-One - www.Mythirtyone.com/Rebeccacrosswhite and click on the "my parties" tab at the top. Find "Stultz Fundraising" and click on "Shop Now".
For Silpada Jewelry - www.mysilpada.com/amber.hubble
For Scentsy - http://sonyalucas.scentsy.us then look under "My Open Parties", "Lauren Reynolds-Crawford" and click on "buy from party"
Thank you for your support and happy shopping!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
"CALL ME BACK!"
So I went into a store yesterday by myself and I left my cell phone in the car...for those of you who know me well, I am sure you are shocked at this! When I got back out to the car I realized there were two missed calls from Adam and a text that read, "CALL ME BACK!". So at this point I am a little worried that something has gone terribly wrong and I call him and he says, "Guess what?" which I took to mean the house wasn't on fire and he wasn't on the way to the ER with one of our kids so I took a deep breath and said, "What?" and he began to read the e-mail to me that we had just received from our international adoption consultant...
Hi, Adam and Lynsey,
Congratulations, you are officially placed on the wait list to receive your referral!!
Your dossier has shipped from Ohio direct to Ghana via Fed Ex by EAC. It is expected to arrive and reach our in country staff in Kumasi, GH on or before Tuesday, October 9th.
It is time to celebrate this amazing milestone in your Ghana adoption!!!
***Referral***
At present, the estimated wait time for a referral from Ghana is 4-6 months. I understand ‘waiting’ is one of the most difficult steps parents take on their adoption journey. And, I will be in touch with you as soon as a referral is ready for you.
I cannot explain to you in words how excited I was to hear this! Let's just say yesterday was a GREAT day at our house!
Please continue to pray for this process, for the money to complete the adoption, and most of all, for the newest member of our family!
Lynsey
Hi, Adam and Lynsey,
Congratulations, you are officially placed on the wait list to receive your referral!!
Your dossier has shipped from Ohio direct to Ghana via Fed Ex by EAC. It is expected to arrive and reach our in country staff in Kumasi, GH on or before Tuesday, October 9th.
It is time to celebrate this amazing milestone in your Ghana adoption!!!
***Referral***
At present, the estimated wait time for a referral from Ghana is 4-6 months. I understand ‘waiting’ is one of the most difficult steps parents take on their adoption journey. And, I will be in touch with you as soon as a referral is ready for you.
I cannot explain to you in words how excited I was to hear this! Let's just say yesterday was a GREAT day at our house!
Please continue to pray for this process, for the money to complete the adoption, and most of all, for the newest member of our family!
Lynsey
Friday, September 28, 2012
He works in amazing ways.
We got home from the beach last Saturday and were so excited to find our letters from The Department of Homeland Security waiting on us. They scheduled our appointments for fingerprinting for Thursday morning so we traveled to Charleston, West Virginia to have our finger prints taken for immigration approval and that is the last thing we have to do right now! I absolutely loved checking this item off of my list! This appointment came a few weeks earlier that we had anticipated so I know that God is getting us there as quickly as possible...His child is waiting!
The next thing on my list is coming up with the money to bring our child home. God has provided in AMAZING ways over the last month and I want to give you just a couple of examples...
A couple of months ago, Adam needed to take a few things to the dump and so he drove our Jetta over to his parents house and picked up their truck to use for the evening. He left our Jetta parked in their driveway and unbeknownst to us, there was a hail storm while our car was there. Adam went back and dropped the truck off and picked up our car and we never even noticed that there was any damage. A couple of weeks later, a family member (who lives in the same neighborhood as Adam's parents) asked us if we had any damage to our car. I had no idea what they were talking about but soon found out that there had been a hail storm while our car was parked there so we went outside and looked at our car and sure enough...there were little hail dings on our car. Well...we thought about calling our insurance company but we looked into what our deductible was and since we are trying to come up with money right now instead of spending it, we decided we wouldn't worry about it...it's just a car anyways. Well a couple of months went by and someone had mentioned to me in a conversation that they had hail damage to their car so they turned it into their insurance and were given a check to have their car fixed. So the wheels started turning in my head. I thought, "well, even if it is only a few hundred dollars, we could put that money towards our adoption." So I googled whether it was illegal to collect money from your insurance company if you were not going to fix the vehicle and since I found many sites that confirmed there was nothing illegal about this (believe me, I did come across a lot of sites saying that this was a really stupid thing to do because the value of your car has dropped significantly), I called Adam and asked him, "do you think we should get an estimate on the hail damage on the car?" So Adam agreed we should look into it and he took the car for an estimate a couple of days later and I could not believe how much money they gave us! Are you ready... $3,600! It just so happens that small pieces of hail hit every panel of our car :-) A few years ago, if someone asked me if they should do this...take the money they should take to repair their car and use it for something else, I would have said, "absolutely NOT!" But I thought this over and prayed about it and I came to the conclusion that God cares more about our child than he does about what my car looks like! I am sure that Eva will be a little sad when she gets this car at the age of 16 to drive and it has little dents all over it but I hope once we tell her this story, she will love her God for his provision :-)
A few weeks ago, I was at Bible study one evening and I had a conversation with a friend (and family member) about fundraising. She is raising money to go on The World Race which is an eleven month long mission trip she is going on in January...you can read about it here http://alisonstultz.theworldrace.org/ . She was asking me what fundraising events we had planned so far so that she could make sure she didn't do anything on the same date (we both go to the same church and are in the same family so we really don't want to do one on the same day!) I told her that we had a Pampered Chef, Silpada, Scentsy, Thirty-One party coming up in October and we had an Applebee's pancake breakfast in November (believe me, you will be hearing more about these soon!) After our conversation, we sat down to watch the video and I really felt like the Holy Spirit was telling me to give her half of the money from both of our upcoming events. And for about 5 seconds, I am not proud to admit this, but I thought, "God, we still need $10,000, are you sure we should give half to her?" So for the rest of the video I was partly paying attention and partly praying about this and I knew what I needed to do. I told her right after the video was over that we wanted to give her half of the fundraising for these two events and she was really excited! I went home that night and as soon as I walked in the door I told Adam what I did and he was really excited too...I confessed to Adam that I struggled for a few minutes on whether to do this and he told me what we always tell each other...be obedient and He will handle the rest. Well...the next morning, I prayed about this and told God how sorry I was for doubting him and for being selfish and then I went on about my day. We had a lot planned that day and after I took the kids to the library for story time, we went over to someones house for lunch. After lunch, right before we were leaving, they handed me a very large check. I was overwhelmed with gratefulness and for the confirmation from God at the exact time that I needed it....He is going to provide for this and I don't need to worry about how He is going to do it. I hope that you do not read this story as me bragging about giving some of the money away but that you will see that I am selfish and God still loves me! That He calls us to be obedient, even when it doesn't make sense to us and He will reward you for your obedience...it might not be here on earth but you will be rewarded :-)
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it." Luke 11:28
So now our total fundraising is at $20,355.52! We have raised $20,355.52 since June (and when I say "we", I in no way think I had anything to do with this!)! We give praise and glory to God for every dollar we have been given so far and trust that he will provide the almost $10,000 more that we need!
Keep praying for our child :-) I can't wait for you to meet them!
The next thing on my list is coming up with the money to bring our child home. God has provided in AMAZING ways over the last month and I want to give you just a couple of examples...
A couple of months ago, Adam needed to take a few things to the dump and so he drove our Jetta over to his parents house and picked up their truck to use for the evening. He left our Jetta parked in their driveway and unbeknownst to us, there was a hail storm while our car was there. Adam went back and dropped the truck off and picked up our car and we never even noticed that there was any damage. A couple of weeks later, a family member (who lives in the same neighborhood as Adam's parents) asked us if we had any damage to our car. I had no idea what they were talking about but soon found out that there had been a hail storm while our car was parked there so we went outside and looked at our car and sure enough...there were little hail dings on our car. Well...we thought about calling our insurance company but we looked into what our deductible was and since we are trying to come up with money right now instead of spending it, we decided we wouldn't worry about it...it's just a car anyways. Well a couple of months went by and someone had mentioned to me in a conversation that they had hail damage to their car so they turned it into their insurance and were given a check to have their car fixed. So the wheels started turning in my head. I thought, "well, even if it is only a few hundred dollars, we could put that money towards our adoption." So I googled whether it was illegal to collect money from your insurance company if you were not going to fix the vehicle and since I found many sites that confirmed there was nothing illegal about this (believe me, I did come across a lot of sites saying that this was a really stupid thing to do because the value of your car has dropped significantly), I called Adam and asked him, "do you think we should get an estimate on the hail damage on the car?" So Adam agreed we should look into it and he took the car for an estimate a couple of days later and I could not believe how much money they gave us! Are you ready... $3,600! It just so happens that small pieces of hail hit every panel of our car :-) A few years ago, if someone asked me if they should do this...take the money they should take to repair their car and use it for something else, I would have said, "absolutely NOT!" But I thought this over and prayed about it and I came to the conclusion that God cares more about our child than he does about what my car looks like! I am sure that Eva will be a little sad when she gets this car at the age of 16 to drive and it has little dents all over it but I hope once we tell her this story, she will love her God for his provision :-)
A few weeks ago, I was at Bible study one evening and I had a conversation with a friend (and family member) about fundraising. She is raising money to go on The World Race which is an eleven month long mission trip she is going on in January...you can read about it here http://alisonstultz.theworldrace.org/ . She was asking me what fundraising events we had planned so far so that she could make sure she didn't do anything on the same date (we both go to the same church and are in the same family so we really don't want to do one on the same day!) I told her that we had a Pampered Chef, Silpada, Scentsy, Thirty-One party coming up in October and we had an Applebee's pancake breakfast in November (believe me, you will be hearing more about these soon!) After our conversation, we sat down to watch the video and I really felt like the Holy Spirit was telling me to give her half of the money from both of our upcoming events. And for about 5 seconds, I am not proud to admit this, but I thought, "God, we still need $10,000, are you sure we should give half to her?" So for the rest of the video I was partly paying attention and partly praying about this and I knew what I needed to do. I told her right after the video was over that we wanted to give her half of the fundraising for these two events and she was really excited! I went home that night and as soon as I walked in the door I told Adam what I did and he was really excited too...I confessed to Adam that I struggled for a few minutes on whether to do this and he told me what we always tell each other...be obedient and He will handle the rest. Well...the next morning, I prayed about this and told God how sorry I was for doubting him and for being selfish and then I went on about my day. We had a lot planned that day and after I took the kids to the library for story time, we went over to someones house for lunch. After lunch, right before we were leaving, they handed me a very large check. I was overwhelmed with gratefulness and for the confirmation from God at the exact time that I needed it....He is going to provide for this and I don't need to worry about how He is going to do it. I hope that you do not read this story as me bragging about giving some of the money away but that you will see that I am selfish and God still loves me! That He calls us to be obedient, even when it doesn't make sense to us and He will reward you for your obedience...it might not be here on earth but you will be rewarded :-)
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it." Luke 11:28
So now our total fundraising is at $20,355.52! We have raised $20,355.52 since June (and when I say "we", I in no way think I had anything to do with this!)! We give praise and glory to God for every dollar we have been given so far and trust that he will provide the almost $10,000 more that we need!
Keep praying for our child :-) I can't wait for you to meet them!
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
He changed everything.
Hi Everyone! We are in the process of filling out applications for different grants for the adoption and we could really use your prayers! Please pray for endurance for us as we fill out the many, many forms that go along with these! God is continuing to financially provide for this in amazing ways and we are so thankful...there will be more to come on that soon!
On another note...I had a few thoughts I felt like sharing so if you feel like reading :-)
I have been reading "The Story" over the summer while I was out of Bible study. It is a book that came out in the last couple of years that is described in the title as being "The Bible as one continuing story of God and His people." Basically, it is the Bible written as somewhat of a novel. I got to the part of the book where the story changes from the Old Testament to the New Testament and the author wrote a brief introduction to the New Testament where he said,
"But God's story wasn't finished. "When the set time had fully come," as the apostle Paul put it, God spoke again - this time in the person of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, whose birth, life, death and resurrection changed everything."
This statement has come to my mind so often in the last week that I find myself reflecting on the ways that Jesus Christ changed everything in my life. When I really sit back and think of all the ways he has changed me, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the grace and forgiveness he has freely extended to me.
I will start somewhere in the middle of my story... I did not know the Lord growing up. I had heard of God and I had even been to church when I was young but during the years where I really feel like a person "grows up" I did not attend church regularly. This was very evident in my life as a middle schooler, high schooler and even young college student. Somewhere during the first year after college, I began to question what life was really all about and thankfully I turned to the God I had learned about all those years ago. I would have said that I believed in God all throughout my life but I did not come to really know and love the Lord until my early twenties. I met Adam when I was twenty-four and God used him and his family to show me what being a follower of Christ really looked like. I have met many dear friends over the last seven years that have really showed me what putting flesh and bones to the gospel really looks like and I am so thankful to God for making my path meet theirs.
I believe that when you accept Jesus as your savior and have a relationship with the God of the universe, there is evidence of that in your life. The first confirmation of this in my life, that I remember, was at my ten year high school reunion. A friend of mine from high school, someone I hung out with after many Friday night football games, laughingly made the comment that if our class were to vote on "The Person Most Changed Since High school," that would definitely be Lynsey. I am not sure if he meant this to be funny, but I took it as a compliment. It was the first time I had seen a lot of my friends from high school in many years, even ones I was very close to and I am sure it was shocking to them to see me completely different. Jesus changed everything.
When I graduated from college, I got a job working at an accounting firm in downtown Roanoke. One morning I remember very clearly walking from my car in the parking garage to the large building where my office was located and I remember thinking to myself, "I finally did it!" Since middle school, my dream was to go to college, graduate, make enough money to fully support myself, work downtown, and wear a suit everyday. I know that sounds very funny to a lot of people but that really was what I wanted out of life. I really wanted to be materially wealthy and very good at what I did. Jesus changed everything.
When I was younger, I was very selfish....I was very, very interested in what made me happy. I had decided very early on that I did not want children. That will come as a huge surprise to some people and not so much of a surprise to those of you who knew me back then. I was very into whatever made me happy and I really could not see why someone would want to spend their life having children. I wanted to spend my life on me. Jesus changed everything.
Somewhere along the way, Jesus completely changed my life. I know how crazy that sounds to all of you who are reading this and are not Christians but, really, he did. Over the last eight years I have studied the Bible and developed a relationship with God and he has changed my desires. Over time, I started to understand who God was and what this life was really about and I know this will come as a shock to some of you but it was not about me! ha ha! I spent years of my life obtaining an education and working very hard to get the career that I wanted and then, just when I was getting exactly what I wanted, I quit work to stay at home with my kids. Children? I thought you didn't want any children? I know! He changed that too! Sometimes I look at my life and I think, what happened? Everything that you once held to be of such importance is gone. I know even friends and family members who knew the "old me" look at me now and really think I have lost it. I can see it in their eyes when I say something completely against our current culture and they think "she has lost it!" And I am so very happy to say, I have. Or atleast I am on my way to losing it. You see, Jesus said,
"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." Matthew 16:25
I read something the other day in "7, An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess," that just about wraps up my thoughts...
"The average human gets around twenty-five thousand days on this earth, and most of us in the United States of America will get a few more. That's it. This life is a breath. Heaven is coming fast, and we live in that thin space where faith and obedience have relevance. We have this one life to offer; there is no second chance, no plan B for the good news. We get one shot at living to expand the kingdom, fighting for justice. We'll stand before Jesus once, and none of our luxuries will accompany us. We'll have one moment to say, "This is how I lived." More than thirteen thousand of those days are over for me. I'm determined to make the rest count."
I feel like I wasted so many years doing what I wanted and I am going to attempt to "make the rest count." I know a lot of people would say that you only have this one life to live so why not live it having fun and doing exactly what you want to do? The funny thing is, I don't feel like I am doing things I don't want to do...God just changed my desires to match his. He has changed my heart so that what makes me happy is doing what makes him happy! And I am having way more fun now than I ever have in my life. I spend my days playing with the two most amazing kids (I know I am biased!) and I have the priveledge of getting on a plane to go get another one to love on! Who would have ever thought I would be a stay at home mom with three kids and married to one of the most amazing people I have ever met? Certainly not me...but Jesus changed everything.
Lynsey
On another note...I had a few thoughts I felt like sharing so if you feel like reading :-)
I have been reading "The Story" over the summer while I was out of Bible study. It is a book that came out in the last couple of years that is described in the title as being "The Bible as one continuing story of God and His people." Basically, it is the Bible written as somewhat of a novel. I got to the part of the book where the story changes from the Old Testament to the New Testament and the author wrote a brief introduction to the New Testament where he said,
"But God's story wasn't finished. "When the set time had fully come," as the apostle Paul put it, God spoke again - this time in the person of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, whose birth, life, death and resurrection changed everything."
This statement has come to my mind so often in the last week that I find myself reflecting on the ways that Jesus Christ changed everything in my life. When I really sit back and think of all the ways he has changed me, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the grace and forgiveness he has freely extended to me.
I will start somewhere in the middle of my story... I did not know the Lord growing up. I had heard of God and I had even been to church when I was young but during the years where I really feel like a person "grows up" I did not attend church regularly. This was very evident in my life as a middle schooler, high schooler and even young college student. Somewhere during the first year after college, I began to question what life was really all about and thankfully I turned to the God I had learned about all those years ago. I would have said that I believed in God all throughout my life but I did not come to really know and love the Lord until my early twenties. I met Adam when I was twenty-four and God used him and his family to show me what being a follower of Christ really looked like. I have met many dear friends over the last seven years that have really showed me what putting flesh and bones to the gospel really looks like and I am so thankful to God for making my path meet theirs.
I believe that when you accept Jesus as your savior and have a relationship with the God of the universe, there is evidence of that in your life. The first confirmation of this in my life, that I remember, was at my ten year high school reunion. A friend of mine from high school, someone I hung out with after many Friday night football games, laughingly made the comment that if our class were to vote on "The Person Most Changed Since High school," that would definitely be Lynsey. I am not sure if he meant this to be funny, but I took it as a compliment. It was the first time I had seen a lot of my friends from high school in many years, even ones I was very close to and I am sure it was shocking to them to see me completely different. Jesus changed everything.
When I graduated from college, I got a job working at an accounting firm in downtown Roanoke. One morning I remember very clearly walking from my car in the parking garage to the large building where my office was located and I remember thinking to myself, "I finally did it!" Since middle school, my dream was to go to college, graduate, make enough money to fully support myself, work downtown, and wear a suit everyday. I know that sounds very funny to a lot of people but that really was what I wanted out of life. I really wanted to be materially wealthy and very good at what I did. Jesus changed everything.
When I was younger, I was very selfish....I was very, very interested in what made me happy. I had decided very early on that I did not want children. That will come as a huge surprise to some people and not so much of a surprise to those of you who knew me back then. I was very into whatever made me happy and I really could not see why someone would want to spend their life having children. I wanted to spend my life on me. Jesus changed everything.
Somewhere along the way, Jesus completely changed my life. I know how crazy that sounds to all of you who are reading this and are not Christians but, really, he did. Over the last eight years I have studied the Bible and developed a relationship with God and he has changed my desires. Over time, I started to understand who God was and what this life was really about and I know this will come as a shock to some of you but it was not about me! ha ha! I spent years of my life obtaining an education and working very hard to get the career that I wanted and then, just when I was getting exactly what I wanted, I quit work to stay at home with my kids. Children? I thought you didn't want any children? I know! He changed that too! Sometimes I look at my life and I think, what happened? Everything that you once held to be of such importance is gone. I know even friends and family members who knew the "old me" look at me now and really think I have lost it. I can see it in their eyes when I say something completely against our current culture and they think "she has lost it!" And I am so very happy to say, I have. Or atleast I am on my way to losing it. You see, Jesus said,
"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." Matthew 16:25
I read something the other day in "7, An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess," that just about wraps up my thoughts...
"The average human gets around twenty-five thousand days on this earth, and most of us in the United States of America will get a few more. That's it. This life is a breath. Heaven is coming fast, and we live in that thin space where faith and obedience have relevance. We have this one life to offer; there is no second chance, no plan B for the good news. We get one shot at living to expand the kingdom, fighting for justice. We'll stand before Jesus once, and none of our luxuries will accompany us. We'll have one moment to say, "This is how I lived." More than thirteen thousand of those days are over for me. I'm determined to make the rest count."
I feel like I wasted so many years doing what I wanted and I am going to attempt to "make the rest count." I know a lot of people would say that you only have this one life to live so why not live it having fun and doing exactly what you want to do? The funny thing is, I don't feel like I am doing things I don't want to do...God just changed my desires to match his. He has changed my heart so that what makes me happy is doing what makes him happy! And I am having way more fun now than I ever have in my life. I spend my days playing with the two most amazing kids (I know I am biased!) and I have the priveledge of getting on a plane to go get another one to love on! Who would have ever thought I would be a stay at home mom with three kids and married to one of the most amazing people I have ever met? Certainly not me...but Jesus changed everything.
Lynsey
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