Do You Trust Me?

I can't tell you how many times I heard the Lord ask me this question last Thursday May 21st. So much has happened in the last 2 weeks. WE HAVE RECEIVED AND ACCEPTED A REFERRAL!!! She is perfect and exceedingly more than we could have ever asked for. Her given name is Guan Fanhua. She was found on the road on August 28, 2008 and brought to the police. They were unable to find anyone who knew who she belonged to so she was considered abandoned and placed in the Children's Welfare Institute in Kunming City, China. She was estimated to be 6 months old and given the birthday February 28 , 2008. She is now 15 months old. She is precious. We have 3 pictures which we are unable to post on the blog at this time, but we will be glad to show her off anytime. She was placed on the waiting child list because she has Optic Nerve Atrophy which is a permanent visual impairment caused by damage to the optic nerve. We do not know the extent of her condition, but it could be minor or lead to blindness. So there's the facts, now let's get to what the Lord is up to.
We were emailed her picture on Wed. 5/20/09 as was all other China Families. I have seen so many pictures and read so many stories, but this little face made my heart skip a beat. When Dexter got home we emailed the agency for further information and had a pediatrician and ophthalmologist review her medical information on Thursday. She is physically and developmentally very healthy other than her vision impairment. After receiving this information Thursday morning, I had to wait to contact Dexter because he was traveling. For almost 2 hours I prayed and asked the Lord what to do, "Is this her?", "What do we do Lord?", What about the unknown of her eyes?", etc. I heard nothing but "Do you trust me?". I began to question do I really trust HIM and believe in HIS healing power. The story that came to my mind was when Jesus healed the boy who was blind from birth. The people asked what did he or his parents do. Jesus said they didn't do anything," this happened so my Father in heaven would be glorified." Finally, I was able to reach Dexter and tell him all the details from the doctors and his response was the answer to my prayer. He said he had been driving and praying all morning and all the Lord was speaking to him about was "Trusting HIM". WOW, talk about confirmation. It wasn't a "yes, this is your daughter" or "yes, take the referral", it was simply Trust Me. There was a peace that truly passed all my understanding that I will never forget. Her life will be for His glory, whether He chooses to restore her sight completely, or whether He chooses to use her impairment for His good. We are at peace with whatever the outcome; however, I feel a strong sense in my spirit to pray for healing. This is not coming from a mother praying for her child, but from a daughter of the King believing in the power of her King. So let the river flow Lord!
God has been moving in many ways this past week. I'd like to share a few with you all, and understand when I share these things they are to testify of His goodness and faithfulness. First of all 2 scriptures were given to us by friends. The first was Psalm 81:10 "I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it." The second is the story of the Widow at Zarephath in 1 Kings 17:7-24. This is a great story about God providing what you need when you need it. This has been our prayer this week and God has already answered it. We had $66 left in our adoption account after making our first initial payment to All God's Children (the new agency). We needed to do some adoption education courses online that are required, but they cost $170. Last Wednesday at church someone put an envelope with $100 in my bible bag while I was in prayer meeting. We were able to sign up for the classes. Also, we were told we had to do all our immigration paperwork over, about $900. I got a call this week from an Officer in the immigration office in Atlanta. He said we do not have to reapply, and we get 1 free country change. All we need to do is update our fingerprints in October which is only $160. Someone we don't even know that is following this blog sent an envelope with cash in it to go towards the adoption. So, are we trusting HIM? Yes, and AMEN!!!
Please know that I share with you the financial side of this so you too can hear about what God is doing in and through His children. He is taking care of everything and will continue to do so.
Well, I know this was a long entry, but I wanted to bring you all up to the present. I'm sure I have left out something, but I'll save it for another day. Lastly, I leave you with a few more details. The fundraising yard sale is next Saturday June 6th from 7am-12noon in Sturbridge. We have gotten a lot of donations, but still need more. Thanks to everyone who has helped so far.
All our dossier paperwork, updated homestudy, and next payment has to be submitted to China by August 22, 2008. That's 3 months to get everything done and raise $10,340. We will travel approximately 6 months after that. In the physical realm this seems like an unattainable goal. However, in the spiritual realm He will accomplish this through the church. His intent is for the church to be a witness of His love, provision, and faithfulness.

RUNNING WITH HIM

What an eventful two months!!! We have been in His presence, experienced weeks of silence, and finally have been given some direction. We are now clients of All God's Children International and are adopting from the China Special Needs program. There is much work to be done, but we are totally at peace with this new agency and their reputation is incredible. They are walking through this WITH US as we RUN WITH HIM. I say run with Him because so many times we feel we are supposed to run to Him; however, I believe He wants us to be WITH HIM following Him daily in all aspects of our life. We studied a scripture last night in John 21:1-8 about Jesus and the miraculous catch of fish. It wasn't the huge catch that we focused on though, it was Peter's response to the Lord. He jumped out of the boat to be with His Lord. He wasn't focused on all the fish and what to do next. He was recklessly abandoned to be with Him. We can learn so much from Peter. His willingness to stay in the game even when he messed up so many times. He was still willing to follow the Lord. We just want to stay engaged in this process and learn from our journey. God knows exactly who our daughter is, and He is so faithful and patient to lead us to her.
We are updating our homestudy and gathering more documents for the new dossier. We are told once our paperwork is logged into China our wait for travel will be approximately 6 months. God has been speaking to me a lot about community and showing me creative ways to raise funds for this new process. We don't by any means want to make this about money, but the reality is, this process has cost us a lot and we are having to start over. So right now we are beginning to plan a yard sale and a fundraising pancake breakfast. If you are cleaning out the house, attic, or garage and want to donate items for the yard sale, please let us know. We will post more information later about the time and place.
Once again your prayers are the most important thing to us now. Please pray specifically for financial provision. The process for China is $26,000. We are supposed to be getting back $11,000 from the other agency, but have not seen it yet. So we are setting a goal of $15,000 to raise in the next 3 months. It seems like an impossible task, but I am reminded that with Him ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!!!