Originally posted on their blog on August 25, 2010…
________________________________________
So, what now you ask?! Well, it’s time to get our hands dirty and bust bootie in the savings department for the next BIG check and expenses in between! We have a choice to look at it two ways:
- A daunting task full of anxiety OR
- A chance for God to once again prove Himself to be faithful and unfold more amazing stories attached to each dollar raised and saved!
I chose choice number 2! (That is, until, I have my random freak out moments while laying in bed wide awake at night imagining all the worst case scenarios, while my hubby lays right next to me peacefully sleeping AND snoring the night away… just being honest!). I truly think REMEMBERING God’s faithfulness is key! He funds His callings. Without a shadow of a doubt, I know that He has led the way so far and told us to trust Him, and so we continue!
This evening, we got a call from our agency letting us know they received all our notarized paperwork, and it’s complete and looks great! That means we didn’t mess up our first “test” of signing and initialing a stack of papers a mile high! Yippee! Our adoption planner is on the way including everything we’ll need to gather for our dossier (fancy french word for adoption papers) and our required education courses.
While we are working on collecting everything for our dossier, we will also be doing our home study simultaneously. In order to begin our home study, we will need $625 to get that ball rolling. Our savings is currently at $577, so we’re getting there!
We will be on a paper chase for both the HS and dossier collecting things like birth certificates, marriage license, passports, medical forms, criminal checks, employment verification, letters of recommendation, financial statements, power of attorney, and the list goes on and on! My prayer is that I can be like Jude and just enjoy digging in to the overwhelming mess of paperwork/dirt and have fun!
This whole process of the HS and dossier typically takes families 3-4 months to complete. During that timeframe, some significant fees that we’ll encounter are:
Adoptive Parent Education (online courses): $170
US CIS Fee $670
US CIS Fingerprinting Fee $80 per adult
Finally, once everything is complete and ready to be sent over to Ethiopia is when our next BIG check is due. With the completed dossier, we owe (big breath) $4,500 International Service Fee.
Well, there you have it! We’re doing our best to lay pride aside and be as open and honest about this whole process as possible, including all the financial mumbo jumbo that goes with it. More then anything, our prayer is that God would receive the glory because we know that financial hurdles like these can only be accomplished by someone far bigger than us! We also pray this is read with hearts that know that in us sharing all these dollar amounts, there is absolutely NO obligation to give what so ever! We are truly humbled and gracious and amazed at the generosity that’s been shown to us so far and we know that it’s been God using others to write His story in our lives! So, thank you for being used by God!
________________________________________
Since this post was originally written, 2 months ago, the Helms family has raised nearly $6,700 including money from yard sales, t-shirt sales, Just Love Coffee sales, $2000 in donations from adoptive families they have never even met, donations from friends and their 2nd grade Sunday School teacher, among other things! With the last gift of $845.26 from the Sunday School teacher on October 20th, they were able to send their completed dossier to their agency on October 21st. Now, they anxiously wait to hear what number they are on the waiting list for a little boy from Ethiopia.
Our obedience does not make God bigger or better than He already is. His essence is unchanged by our obedience or lack of it. Anything God commands of us is so that our joy may become full–the joy of seeing His glory revealed to us and in us! Two major reasons for obedience are that we may become targets of blessing and that He may have the pleasure of bestowing it. Either way, obedience benefits us!
From Hilary’s Bible study, Beth Moore’s A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place
, p. 79
Hilary said, “We would never be experiencing these blessings in our life right now if we hadn’t been obedient to the burden of adoption that He placed on our hearts! It just goes to show once again that He is most glorified in us when we are most glorified in Him!”
________________________________________
Hilary is a down to earth, stay-at-home mom to the most precious, tender hearted 3-year-old boy, Jude. She has been happily married for 5 years. Her husband is a high school AP world history teacher and soccer coach, along with being one heck of a daddy! They desperately are seeking to be obedient to the burden God has placed on their hearts for orphans and are in the early stages of an adoption from Ethiopia. This is a HUGE step of faith in so many ways, financially being one of the biggest! YET, God has already provided in amazing ways! They trust that He is writing this story in their lives, and they know He funds His callings. They don’t know exactly how each page of the story is going to unfold, but they lay it at His feet and trust. Read more about their family and check out their fundraising efforts, also featured on the fundraising families’ page on this site, here.