Taking a leap of faith

I hesitate to write this story for many reasons... But, after a sleepless night and lots of prayer I feel that it is part of Titus' journey that I want to share. One, I want to record a part of our family's legacy of God's perfect provision and care. Two, I want to encourage others who might be contemplating starting a journey based solely on faith.

Last week was an amazing week and God has shown His hand and provision in our journey to Titus once again. I feel so blessed, awed and humbled and am so thankful that we had the faith to follow God's calling despite some of our doubts in how all the details would come together. One of the BIG details/hurdles for us when contemplating adoption was the financial aspect. Could our finances handle it, how could we cash flow the expenses, and ultimately could we could trust God?

By nature I am planner. I love Excel spreadsheets and have months in advance of budgets planned, our checkbook is always balanced to the penny, and all purchases must be planned out in detail. But, God had a whole new plan: to trust Him and completely turn my world and plans upside down. While I think the above is wise for good financial stewardship and it will continue to be my practice, I am awed how God has worked out each and every detail. Every time a new expense came up, we always had the money. Our electric bill was cheaper than budgeted, a rebate check came in the mail, our groceries were cheaper because there was a fantastic sale and on and on and on. Each and every expense has been covered completely every time.

Our latest concern has been the last bit of money for our travel expenses. Flights are not cheap at this point in time and by my calculations based on the current flight prices I have no idea where we would come up for the money needed for August/September flights. Kevin and I have been crunching numbers, coming up with plans for making/saving extra money, and once again praying and trusting God to work out the details. Several weeks ago I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing around with our budget and ultimately throwing my hands up and pouring out my heart to God. I knew God would not bring us this far in our journey to Titus to leave us, but by my human calculations there was no way our budget could absorb these costs. But, God in His perfect provision had a plan.

We have been incredibly blessed a couple of times this past week by some financial gifts. Once by sweet friends and a second time by complete strangers. Both encounters were out of our comfort zone. That's so like God, isn't it, to bring us out of our comfort and to provide for us? Kevin and I are so humbled and completely overwhelmed by these selfless and sacrificial acts of blessing us. Not to mention all the prayers and emotional support that have been given as well. Thank you sweet friends!

Also, for the last month I have been planning a garage sale with a friend who lives close by and has a great location for garage sales. Despite my past efforts with garage sales and really not making much money for the effort, I decide to trust God and put forth the effort to make some cash for our travel expenses. After all, some money is better than nothing. We went through our house top to bottom and found 5 car loads worth of stuff to sell along with some items from family members. After two days of blood (very minor injuries), sweat, and tears all of our junk brought in a little over $1200!!! Who knew we had junk that was worth that much!?! ;) We are still praising God for such a fantastic sale.

Despite the stress, worry, and anxious prayers I am so glad that we'll never know the blessings we might have missed. We live in blessing day by day because of our choice to step out in faith and go where the Lord is calling us. Are you turning a deaf ear to something God is calling you to do? I encourage you to step out in faith after all, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.