When it rains it pours...and hooray for the rain!

Wednesday was quite a day, a day full of very apparent blessings and it was well needed after the Tuesday we had. 

You think one would learn that if God has provided for all things in our adoption, why would He stop now?  But there is also a very type A, must have a plan, in need of a budget, person that lives inside me that overpowers me at most times in my life.  So although I would say I know we have nothing to worry about with this adoption because He has it all, I still find myself stressing over every detail, double checking everything and trying to plan out everything.  I have learned that really is hard to do because it is most certainly out of our control and that has taught me a lot in the last 2 years, but I still have a ways to go too.  So Tuesday I was up late figuring out our budget and adding up all of our savings, checking, fundraising efforts, etc and planning on what would be coming in from our paychecks and trying to add it all up and see how much we would have left over from our paychecks after bills were paid, daycare was paid, our tithe was taken out, and the list goes on.  The numbers were not looking so hot and I was getting quite anxious to be honest.  Also of course we were working on our taxes which also costs money and of course in the same week had our tax, title and license fees due since we traded our cars last month to save money and have more room for our expanding family.  You can definitely say "when it rains it pours" and that is all I felt, one more thing piling up.  On top of that we realized we really should get our yellow fever vaccinations before we went because although in Addis Ababa, where we are going, you don't need it per the health dept, we also heard about people not having it and getting yellow fever there so we decided better safe than sorry.  I got rates on the shots being $100/person but that was at the health dept and they were booked for weeks!  Again, some anxiety setting in I called about 10 different places that offered the vaccine (none less than an hour from us either) and finally found one that would be open today (Good Friday) but would be $300 total and was an hour and a half from us so more gas, more money! 

Wednesday came though and I woke up to a message from a mom with our agency who just returned from Ethiopia bringing her daughter home.  She said she got a video of our little boy and had told the caregivers that they knew his mom here and they seemed to understand, our little guy was speaking in Amharic and my friend said she didn't understand a lot of it but did hear "beautiful mommy".  All worries of money and such were pushed aside because that truly made me realize that it WILL happen, it might not be on our timeline but he is our son and he WILL come home someday and the money WILL be there (yes I had to tell myself this many times before I started to believe it) 

So Wednesday was already looking pretty good and then I got a phone call from my husband asking me if I was sitting down...because we were being given money for our adoption from some anonymous donors in our church.  I think I literally let out a large sigh of relief and at the same time was praising God for the prefect timing (although I would've chosen the timing to be before Tuesday so I wouldn't have been so stressed out, I knew there was a reason).  About an hour later I found out about a couple more donations as well as the amount made from a Thirty-One party a dear friend put on for us.  I was really starting to question why all today?  why all at once? and then I got another phone call from my husband, asking if I was sitting down again....another donation came in from someone very special to our family.  Well that about did it for me.  There were no words, I just felt numb in such a good way but I also think it all hit me why all of this happened at once, I mean "when it rains, it pours" right?   

Well let me tell you after living in the desert for over 6 years I have had a new appreciation for the rain and over the past week, we have gotten a lot of it (literally) here and I found myself thanking God each morning for the beautiful rainy day.  So why does that saying always come with a bad connotation?  Tuesday I would say it was pouring negative but then Wednesday came and we had a flood of positive and I know God was telling me a few things.  1. That He has a plan for us and although I can plan, stress, cut-back and budget (which I still think should be done because it is the responsible thing to do), at the end of the day His plan will be shown He will meet the needs.  2.  God knows me and knows it usually takes CRAZY BIG things to occur for me to really see it as not just a coincidence and give Him all the glory and He knew this would do it.  I am learning and getting better each day at realizing all of the little things but this day was HUGE and I can say with 100% confidence that it was His plan and His workings through all people involved!   And lastly, 3.We all need to realize that usually when we have a "when it rains it pours" kind of a day, week, month, whatever, there is purpose for it.  Maybe the purpose is to humble us or make us feel what someone else is feeling.  Maybe it is for us to get a reality check and make a change in our lives.  And maybe it is for us to realize we need God more than we think and allows us to turn to him, give it all over and then let him show off and be glorified in it.  I'm sure there are so many reasons why it pours on all of us but after the storm comes the rainbow.

So all in all, I have left out the dollar amounts of all the donations for privacy reasons but I will share (and you can see by our updated fundraising thermometer to the side of this blog) that earlier this week we were sitting at $16,000 saved/raised and now are at almost $24,000!!!!!  God is SO good!!!