a christmas story

I have been waiting to get a picture of this awesome event that happened on Christmas so that I could share with you all. The entire Christmas holiday was wonderful for us. We got to see ALL of Eric's extended family, which we don't usually get to do, and it was great. I didn't have to work this year, which was also great. This time last year had a very different feel to it. God has really brought us a long way in the past year and it is good to have reminders of where we've been so that we can be thankful and humbled by where we are today. So, when we really didn't think Christmas could be any better, and we were about to go to Amy and Bryan's to celebrate with them and love on Aubrynne :)... my brother asks me to go sit by Eric and everyone got really quiet. I didn't know what was going on. Someone handed me a card and as I began to open it, with my mind flooded with all the possibilities of what could be about to happen, I heard Courtney say something that neither I or Eric ever expected to hear. "We are giving yall a money tree," she says.... I turn around and there she stands with a little baby Christmas tree with baby necessities as ornaments and a baby toy as the star on top. I look closer and realize there are $100 bills stuck down in the ornaments on the tree. I then began to realize what our sweet family had done. They had all given money to go into our adoption fund! The thought of this generosity, as you all can imagine, brought mine and Eric's eyes to tears and truly filled our hearts with humility and love. Then, they gathered around us and prayed. We prayed for our child, for the birthparents, for our hearts as we enter a waiting phase, and for us as parents. They prayed for peace and guidance for us as we make decisions. We thanked God for His faithfulness and love for us. I know I was thanking Him for His care for this child that He will be bringing to us. It was such a sweet time and we are blown away at the thoughtfulness and the generosity and graciousness we have been shown. We want to largely thank everyone, AGAIN, for this Christmas event and then to everyone who has prayed, sent money, loved on us, kept up with this blog, and just for everything. We are SO blessed to have such strong people surrounding us, praying for us and suppporting us. I don't know what we'd do without you all.

I also want to just say that this caused me to think about when we first thought of adopting and began feeling led to it. We were both so overwhelmed by the money that it took and did not know where it would come from. We tried to figure out ways to get all the money and figured out how long it'd take to save it all up, and then I felt sad and uneasy, because I just knew that this was where we were supposed to be and felt that this was the right timing. The more we worried over it and thought about it, the more we wanted to step down and decide maybe we should just wait a few years and then try and adopt. Not to say that it would've been a bad choice, if we had waited, but I definitely see God's faithfulness to the financial side and in our decision to move forward with it regardless of it not making total financial sense. We have been given at least a third of what it will cost and we just feel SOOOO grateful, blessed, extremely humbled and honored. I am praying that I will continue to be this mindful and this intentional with events in my life for all my days on earth, cause it's so much better to know God, to see Him working, to grow in my relationship with Him and to experience His goodness.