How to Give to Our Adoption

As I mentioned in my last post Lifesong for Orphans wants to give us a $2,500 matching grant!  They will match dollar for dollar what people give toward our adoption up to that amount.  Anything over that amount will still be put toward our adoption, they just won't match it. Our goal is to match this grant by December 31st.

100% of your donation will go directly to helping us bring our kids home.

If you want to help us reach our goal of $2,500 there are a couple of ways you can do this:

1. Give by Check

• Please make checks payable to "Lifesong for Orphans".  In the memo please note our account number #4037 and our name, Curley. (ie: 4037, Curley)
• Mail checks to:                                                  

              Lifesong for Orphans
              PO Box 40
              Gridley, IL 61744

2. Give Online

• www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate
• Select "Give to an Adoptive Family"
• Complete online form and fill in "4037" for "family account number" and "Curley" for "family name"

Lifesong has asked us to note a couple of things as we share about how you can give.

• In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization (Lifesong for Orphans). This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.
• Individual donations $250 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $250, will gladly be sent upon request.
• Lifesong is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization.

Thank you for reading along and joining us on our journey!!

Overwhelmed

I remember one time asking my dad when I would stop being surprised at God's blessings.   When I would just expect Him to bless, know that He will, and not be surprised when He does.  His answer was "Never. God's blessings are designed to surprise us." Surprise and amaze us, that's exactly what God's blessings have done in our lives yet again.

Remember when I told you we applied for three adoption grants?  Well friends, as of today, we have heard back from all three of them and we got all three of them!  You read that right, we have received three adoption grants!!  The first one we heard from was Lifesong for Orphans, they are giving us a matching grant of $2,500. Lifesong will match dollar for dollar what friends and family give us or we raise up to $2,500!  That would be a total of $5,000! If you feel led of the Lord to give and want to be a part of helping us reach this $2,500 goal with Lifesong for Orphans, please read my next post where I will share details of how you can give.

Last week we heard from the JSC Foundation and were told we received a grant from them! Today, we got a letter from Show Hope (this is the organization that Steven Curtis Chapman, one of my favorite all time Christian artists, started) telling us that they are giving us a grant!!

As an adoption caseworker, I tell people about these grants all the time.  I tell people all the time, "don't let finances or the lack thereof keep you from adopting.  God can provide.  If He wants you to adopt, He will provide the money".  It is a very different thing to talk about grants and tell people that God will provide but then I had to take my own advice and apply for grants, step out in faith, and trust that God would provide.  He is so so faithful.  We are so overwhelmed at his provision and His love for our kids.  "He sets the lonely in families." (Psalm 68:6) HE sets the lonely in families.  This is His plan, His doing.  He wants to give our kids a forever family.

He is using organizations like Lifesong, the JSC Foundation, and Show Hope to accomplish His plan, just like he used those 300 Israelites to defeat the 135,000 Midianites (see my last post) and it is Him alone that receives the glory!!

Where He guides, He will provide!  This is true in my life and in yours too! Could He be guiding you down a path toward adoption?  Please don't let the money stop you! If He wants you to adopt, He will provide every dollar you need to bring your child(ren) home!  It may not be in the way you think He will or the way you think He should, but He WILL provide.

Glimpses of His Glory

A couple of months ago, I heard a great sermon on Gideon.  The simplified version of the story goes like this: There were 32,000 Isrealite soldiers who were going to go and fight the Midianites, but God said that was too many soldiers, and so He widdled it down to 10,000, still too many. Still a chance that the people would think that it was them fighting the battle.  So once again, He widdled it down. This time to 300 men.  300 men to go out and fight the army of 135,000 Midianite soldiers, that was a ratio of one Israelite to every 450 Midianites! The pastor said that God didn't want to share His glory, that He didn't want the Israelites thinking it was them that defeated the Midianites.

Well, I feel like this is what God is doing with our story, He doesn't want us or anyone else thinking we are the ones bringing our kids home, it is Him and He needs to receive all the glory!! So, we went from thinking we could pay for our adoption on our own to realizing that was just not going to happen.  He widdled down our resources as we paid one adoption fee after another and then He gave us two kids so we needed twice the amount of money!

Honestly, we haven't known how God is going to pay our remaining adoption fees, but we have known that He has a plan and we are getting to see more glimpses of that plan and it. is. amazing. Amazing to see Him at work, amazing to be reminded over and over that He loves our kids even more than we do.

Stay tuned as I share some of the glimpses!

This is Our God

I heard a song recently that I am loving right now.  It is a song by a long time favorite artist of mine, Chris Tomlin.

There are so many things that go on in our world that are hard to understand.  Sometimes people struggle to believe in God because of all the pain and sadness, all the disease and sickness.  If God is good, then "why?" many ask.

The way I look at it though, those things are not because of God, they are because of sin, because of man's poor choices.  Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that if you are suffering it is because you sinned, but its because of sin in general and the fallen world we live in.

God created a perfect world.  He did not desire suffering or pain or heartache, but He gave man a free will and man choose to mess up the perfection He created. Where is God in the midst of the suffering and the pain?  He is there.  He is....

A refuge for the poor

A shelter for the storm

This is our God

And He will wipe away your tears 

And return your wasted years

This is our God

A Father to the orphan 

A healer to the broken

This is our God

And He brings peace to our madness

And comfort in our sadness

This is our God

I cannot help but wonder if someday my kids are going to ask why, why did God not work it out so their birth parents could raise them?  Why did they have to experience loss in their lives?  They may wonder where God was.  I would love to have this conversation with them because I so want them to know that God was there all along, He was and is a Father to them, He is their healer, their peace, their comfort, their refuge, their shelter.  He never wanted them to suffer or be alone and so He helped their birth mom find the help she needed, He brought comfort and peace.  He has been their shelter and refuge.  This, this is our God.

Pad Thai

Sure have been thinking a lot about and missing our kids lately.  How its possible to miss someone so much who you have never met, I don't know, but I do.  Its only been two and a half months since we found out about them, but it has been years we have been praying for them.  This week we have been praying even more as there is flooding in Thailand right now, specifically in and around the province where they live.  Flooding is a pretty common thing there, but so very sad.  Two years ago when it flooded over 800 people lost their lives.  Over 30 have already died in this flood.  I take great comfort in knowing that God sees them and knows them and loves them even more than I do.

On a happier note, I had a birthday last week and my dear husband gave me this....

I have been eyeing this necklace for awhile and am so enjoying having it to wear!

Tonight, perhaps because of my missing Thailand and our kids mood and perhaps just because I love Thai food, we made Pad Thai. 

 

This is one of the most common Thai dishes, its considered street food in Thailand and you can buy it at a stand on the side of the road for 20 or 30 baht, less than a dollar, and its yummy! 

 

Oh, and we made "cha yen" as well, or cold Thai tea, another of our favorites!  

 

If you haven't tried Thai food, you are missing out!!

Born out of Loss

Adoption is a word that is very near and dear to my heart.  It has been for a long time now. It means birth parents have the opportunity to give life and love to a child.  It means a child gets a family and a family gets a child.  I love adoption.  I love so many things about it.  The joy, the anticipation, the hope, the idea of family, the way it brings people together (and not just child and parents), the miracle of each life, the journey, the healing, the love.

Why do I love adoption?  It’s sometimes hard to explain, but I will try.  You see I was adopted; I wouldn’t be who I am without my Father.  God took me in and made me His own.  He loves me, protects me, provides for me, sings over me, and delights in me.  Where would I be without adoption?  I have also seen firsthand time and time again, what an amazing blessing adoption is; it is a blessing for the birth family, for the child, and for the adoptive family.  A decision made in love for one that is loved, is most often the case, a decision made out of necessity and pure desire for a child to have everything he or she needs.  A decision sometimes made in desperation or for lack of a better option. 

Adoption though, as amazing and wonderful as it is, is difficult too.  Adoption is born out of loss.  Loss for the birth family, loss for the child, and loss for the adoptive parents.  Many don’t want to acknowledge this loss; they don’t want to admit that there is any grief or pain associated with adoption.  I know for a long time I didn’t. 

You see, I have known for as long as I can remember that someday I would adopt, someday, I would travel to the other side of the world and bring a precious child (or two!) into my family.  I would be gaining a child, they would be gaining a mom and dad.  There is so much to be gained through adoption that often we stop there. Don’t stop there friends, I challenge you to explore the losses, so that you can truly celebrate the gains.

For my husband and I, when we adopt, we will have lost a biological connection to our children (and this is true whether a family goes through infertility or not).   For our precious children they will have lost their first parents or birth parents and foster parents as well.  They have lost a biological connection to their family. And in our case, they will lose the opportunity to grow up in their country of birth.  For the first parents, they have lost the opportunity to raise their children, to get to be mom and dad, to be there every day.  Adoption is hard people, so very beautiful, but also hard.

Along these same lines, I came across this post today from Together for Adoption that some of you might enjoy reading.

He WILL Provide

"We have something for you" some friends at church told us.  We kept missing each other and it wasn't until a few weeks later that we finally caught up with one another.  We were excited to share the news that we had gotten just days before, that we would be adopting TWO kids.

This dear couple handed us an envelope and said, "This is what we have been trying to get to you the past few weeks". We thanked them, and I stuck it in my purse to open later.  We spent some time showing them pictures of our little boy and little girl, and then we said goodbye and headed home. 

When we got in the car, I opened the envelope to find a very sweet note saying how they want to be a part of caring for the fatherless and how God had very specifically laid it on their hearts to give us this gift to help us bring our children home....$1,000.

Inside this little envelope was $1,000!

We were (and are!) overwhelmed by this family's generosity, but we are even more overwhelmed that God not only knows our need, but He knew it before we did.  He laid it on the hearts of this couple weeks before we would find out that we would be adopting two children and have two adoption fees to pay. He knew that we would need this reminder that He already has a plan and that He is going to provide. 

What an amazing journey this is, especially amazing because we get to see Him working out so many details and reminding us so many times that He knows us better than we know ourselves and that He not only loves us, but He loves our children.  He desires to "set the lonely in families" (Psalm 68:6) and He will work however He needs to to accomplish this. 

If you think of it please pray with us for the rest of the funds to come in.  We have applied for a few different adoption grants-Lifesong for Orphans, Show Hope, and The JSC Foundation.  We can't wait to have more "God stories" to tell you!