Completely in Awe of God

First, a quick update on adoption news. We have been assigned our Family Coordinator yesterday and she sent us our first email. She was so sweet on the phone and told me not to be overwhelmed by all the attachments and she suggested that we print them out to read and then sign and return the required papers to her. :) Ha! I thought I wouldn't be shocked, I've heard about the paper chase....well, folks, she sent SEVENTEEN attachments! And to top that, one of the attachments we had to print and read before signing another paper and returning.......it was 28 pages! Well, I don't quite feel overwhelmed, but I was a little shocked at the shear number of attachments.

This week, we are also starting on our Hague training and our reading, plus Kelly is starting nights Sunday, so that will take some getting used to. We haven't had to deal with night shift in almost 3 years.

Now, for some serious praising God!

I am just so excited that I have to share what God has done for us! It is amazing and exciting. A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post here that was a gut wrenching truth that I shared about tithing.

Malachi 3:10 says

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it".

OH YES! God was so faithful to us! Let me just tell you first off that the same week that we wrote our first full tithe check, we got an unexpected deposit in the bank. Weird, we said...that was great, look what God did, maybe the IRS forgot to give us some of our taxes. So, we sawGod was blessing us....we just had no idea how much. Not till a month later, after we had continued to be faithful in our tithing did we see this deposit again, but a slightly different amount. So, we started wondering, "where is this money coming from?"

After a couple internet searches, we found out that it is Kelly's VA benefits. But here is the kicker.....first, we were not expecting these checks to start for a couple of years. Second, (and this is so BIG!)........ the amount of his VA benefits is $3 more than our tithe for the month!!!!!!!

WHAT?!

God said, "you bet, you are going to test me, you are going to be faithful, you are going to step out and tithe when there really isn't that much left after bills, but instead you are going to step out in faith and tithe first....I am going to bless you...I am going to replace that money, plus $3!"

God is good!

But, guess what? It doesn't stop there.......

"and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it"

God is so faithful! As he was teaching me a lesson during our big yard sale, He was working behind the scenes to bless us beyond our imagination. See, a month or so ago, Kelly applied to a job....we didn't think anything of it, if it's better, if it pans out, we would consider thinking about it.

Then, last week, they called him and told him they wanted to hire him, they would be sending him an offer. They verbally told him a rough estimate of the raise (it would be good). So we waited and wondered what to do about this. You see, it's not just about a pay raise, the job is only for 18 months. So, Kelly would be looking for employment after the 18 months....to consider that, it would have to be really good.

So, we waited for the official offer and what do you know? It was better than what the guy had verbally told Kelly. What to do now? Do we really take a temporary job for more money? Kelly decided to take the offer to his current employer and see if they would offer him a raise to stay. (I had complete faith that they would want to keep him, he is a hard worker and valued employee!) So, he put it on the table and they countered. It was a good raise but not the same amount as the new company...but enough to stay in a permanent job.

What to do now, neither of us were clear....

I prayed hard, prayed for wisdom, prayed for clarity, and finally told God He was going to have to be direct, for Him to please make the decision so clear.

A dear friend that is very close with God was praying for me and called to tell me she heard from God "I supplied this job (money for the adoption), why wouldn't I supply a job afterwards?"

So, my sweet husband said the raise was enough to make him stay with his current company, but he would give the new company a chance to raise the offer. Little did I know that during the afternoon when I felt a strong urge to pray (guys, this never happens to me...or maybe I just don't listen) was the exact same time Kelly was talking to the new company. BTW, I did go and pray, hard for my dear husband. :)

What do you know, he countered and the new company, who had already given us a good offer, above what we had accepted, raised their offer!! And it's a GOOD offer!!

God has blessed us so abundantly, so unexpectedly, so completely. God has promised to take care of us and we want to shout it from the roof tops!

This job will allow us some of the adoption money, money that I just had no idea where it was going to come from. We still have a ways to go, and I regularly remind myself to just look at the next thing that will be due, not the whole picture. The total sum of this adoption is too much for me to grasp. Too much for me to see where it will all come from. That's why this is God's department, He is supplying the funds, I am just His instrument.

Lastly, from now on, I want to ponder about and write to my sweet boy a little with each post. My sweet Caleb, I wonder if he has been born, or if his precious birth mother is still pregnant with him? I hope and pray that God sends people to snuggle and kiss him until I can. I hope that he knows what it is to be loved, to be rocked. I pray that whoever cares for him has enough to feed him and I pray God puts a wall of protection around him. I wonder what he will look like when we see his sweet face for the first time on the computer. I don't remember the same thing with my girls when I was pregnant...wondering, maybe it's been too long. I know the first time I saw them, their faces were bruised with smooched noses or pointed heads. LOL! Sweet little newborns, not quite what a fist time mom expects, but she loves them all the same. I can't wait to see his face, until then, I will pray for a faceless dark, soft skinned little boy with dark eyes that I am sure will be my weakness.