Humbled

You know what humbles me?  The families who are themselves adopting - the ones who are frantically trying to raise the 20-30,000 they need to bring their treasures home - the ones who have stepped out into the murky waters of adoption, in faith, with little in their wallets and who are sitting in leaky boats wondering how they are going to raise their own funds, but who willingly stop paddling their way to the shore and instead reach out and pull another family up and into their boat.  

It brought Rob and me to tears time and again when we received money gifts from other adoptive families who were struggling to raise their own funds.  It humbled us.  It inspired us to step out in faith ourselves and grab hold of others who were drowning around us.  Raising that much money is hard.  It is scary and overwhelming and time-consuming.  It is one of the biggest stressors of the entire process.  You find yourself laying in bed at night counting every single penny and running those pennies against all the expenses and pretty soon you start swimming in numbers.  It requires faith and trust.  It involves hundreds of hours spent doing whatever it takes to raise the money to bring home a helpless treasure from across the ocean.  20-30,000.00 dollars is a lot of money.  Ransom to rescue a child. 

I promised myself that when we got through our process I would do what I could to help the families out there, who are desperately trying to raise funds for their adoptions.  I've tried, but sometimes the need seems so great that I just despair when I look around me. And so I confess, I have let the enormity of it wash over me.   There are so many who are currently in the process of adoption right now through Reece's Rainbow.  Where in the world is all that money going to come from?  What difference can I make with my measly little donations?  I give when I can but good grief.... there are so many.  It is a wonderful problem, don't get me wrong, but most of the families who jump off the adoption cliff don't have that much money in their back pockets.

 In my hopeless thoughts on Friday, I was humbled to the core when I received an e-mail from an adopting mother who was not asking me to support HER adoption (and their need is great), but was instead asking me to advocate for another family who needs help.  She knew I would have a deep interest in this family and their need.  I read her e-mail and then read her blog entry with tears running down my face.  Oh how fortunate I am to be surrounded by so many who are poor in finances but NOT in faith.  How glorious to walk alongside those who are willing to reach out of their own boat to lift up their brothers and sisters - for the sake of the 'least of these.'  How grateful I am to be blessed by the heart of this one family - willing to stop for a few minutes their own frantic boat ride to turn around and give another family a hand. 

HERE is the blog entry she wrote.  I have no words.  She has said it all. Will you help?  I know she wanted me to advocate for Brian and not for her sweet Ella, but seriously - there are three children who need to come home to their families listed in that blog entry. ELLA, BRIAN and BRADY.  All three families are struggling to raise funds for their adoption.  Brian, who is up for transfer any minute, is the focus of the blog but Brady is the child we left behind at Aaron's institute.  Ella - well - she is just too precious to spend her days locked away. 

Would you help these families?  All three?  Help Brian yes - please - but the other two - let's give all three a hand.  Every single little bit helps.