In Awe

My chiropractor's office is the BEST! When they heard about our adoption, they quickly arranged to organize a fund-raiser for us. Next week, they are hosting a patient appreciation day and all of their proceeds that day will go to us. And, if that wasn't awesome enough, Sally(the office manager) solicited donations and has put together a silent auction for that day, too.

Her goal is to raise $500. Every couple of days I hear from her about what donations are coming in, ideas she's had, etc... Yesterday I got home from the library and had a phone message from the chiropractor's office saying they needed to talk to me about something.

I called them, and Sally said, "You know I told you that one of our patients said she couldn't make it in on the day of the fund-raiser but that she wanted to do something to help? Well, she just stopped by and dropped off a check for you. Do you want to come pick it up? By the way, the check is for $500!"

I'll admit it freely. I went into the office and had a little cry. Then, I called Gareth at work and left what was almost certainly an incomprehensible message. Seriously, a complete stranger gave us $500! Turns out, she and her husband tried to adopt internationally before and their agency closed, then a domestic adoption didn't work out when the birthmother changed her mind at the last minute. God has blessed them with an unexpected pregnancy after years of infertility, and they are passing the blessings on.

This adoption thing is a big step of faith for us. For lots of reasons, international adoption is expensive (another blog post for another time). Having tightened every part of our budget, allocated all spare resources, and counted the adoption tax credit, we are still about $8000 short of what it will cost us to fund this adoption. We have gone into it believing that God has called us to be Kayleigh's family and that somehow He will provide.

Today, he provided through a complete stranger. Of all the ways that I have thought of that the money might show up, this was definitely not on my radar!

How awesome is our God, providing for our needs in completely unexpected ways at unexpected times. Reminding me that it's all His anyway and that He can do more than I could ever think or imagine!

Today, I am praising God for His faithfulness and thanking Him for the kindness of strangers.