Off The Cliff!!!

Time for an update on our adoption of Francis!  If you're already weary of hearing about the financial aspects of adoption, you may want to leave this blog and go check your Facebook instead (ha ha).   I want to give credit where credit is due.  First, between the chip-in, gifts from friends and family and our Chic-fil-a fund raiser, we have been blessed with about $9,350 toward the expenses of our adoption!!!! Thank you to all who have generously helped us. There just aren't words to express how grateful we are. The donations not only serve to meet practical expenses but to assure us that God is in this and that He will provide.   We did apply for several grants and were denied each time. The reason the organizations stated is that they feel we have the resources to pay for our own adoption.  The first denial letter than expressed this sentiment made us laugh.  We wondered what THEY saw that WE didn't see. . . and then it dawned on us . . . it's THE DEBT.  Over a year ago, we began to follow Dave Ramsey's principles as laid out in "The Total Money Makeover".  We were able to make a huge lifestyle change and pay off our car, credit cards (which are closed) and set up an emergency fund to be used if my husband were to lose his job.  When grant organizations looked at our application, they saw a family with no debt and some savings and said "no".    We have been taught that the emergency fund is not to be touched under penalty of death unless my husband becomes unemployed. We are afraid to even LOOK at the emergency fund directly - kind of a "Raiders of the Lost Ark" deal - unless we should be tempted and turn into powder.  We vowed that in our minds, the emergency fund was OFF limits and the first of us to suggest using it for an expense unrelated to job loss or nuclear meltdown would be flogged with a cat 'o nine tails.
That was then. This is now.  The emergency fund is being used to finish off this adoption. It is going the way of
parachute pants and Rainbow Brite -  gone but not forgotten.    Bringing Francis into our home IS an emergency.  Obeying the call of our Savior IS an emergency.  We're jumping off the cliff with NO SAFETY NET and, despite my fear,  it feels more like a privilege than I expected - an honor really.  . . a chance to exercise faith that I hear about in others but never knew could be manifest in my own life.   I can not end this post without, once again, praising God for my precious husband who had to set aside his own fears and make the leap with me.   He is a generous man and quick to give of his time and resources but this was a "biggie" yet it seemed a "smallie" when it came down to it.
Thank you, Father, for doing so much more than we could have asked or imagined!