Our Adoption Story---The Purse of Heaven

[Since I've been re-telling the story of our adoption this month, I thought it fitting to share that on Saturday, our family celebrated the 4-year anniversary of our Adoption Day. On June 21, 2004, Blake and I appeared before a Kazakh judge and were granted the right to become the parents of a beautiful Kazakh baby boy.]

And now, back to our adoption story...


Since my memory of events can't be fully trusted for accuracy anymore, I've been re-reading my journal from the months of our adoption. My journal entry from December 5, 2004 reads: "I'm on the edge of my seat. I absolutely cannot wait to see how this is going to unfold. How will the Lord do it? When will we leave? What will his name be? Where will the money come from?...." Even then I was aware of being in the middle of a great adventure.

Those months of journal entries are filled with resounding themes: our prayers (grappling with both our growing faith and our unbelief) and God's lavish provision and blessing. Over the course of the next several months, in our minds it seemed the Purse of Heaven opened up and poured out upon us in every (un)imaginable way.

Many checks came in the mail, tax refunds were larger than expected, Army drill pay increased, money just had a way of appearing. "Wow, God" was our frequent response. When all was said and done, more than $25,000 arrived on our doorstep!

Friends sent boxes of boy toys, clothes, orphanage donations and even a beautiful collection of hand-made jewelry so we could gift the caregivers at the baby house. To this day, we have never experienced anything like this. The clear provision of God helped to bolster our faith-----because we STILL could not imagine how Blake would get back into the country.

Furthermore, I was supernaturally empowered to complete the entire "dossier" (50 pages of paperwork) in less than 4 weeks. Before long, everything was in place and we began a new phase of our adoption, the hardest one yet: WAITING.