A Generosity That Humbles Us...

The other day, I was working at my desk, attempting to tackle the never ending list of things to do, when one of my teens dropped by to visit me after school.  He had texted me to see if I was there, and after responding, "yes," he was flying through the door, carrying one piece of pumpkin cake in one hand a Tupperware container in the other.  Now it's important to first know, it's not rare for this kid to visit me, and when he does, he usually roots through my snacks and drinks, grabs a seat on my couch, and I often quiz him on his Spanish.  So when I noticed he was only carrying one slice of pumpkin bread, and obviously didn't bring me one, I immediately let him know how I felt about that.  Within a few seconds, he was trying to hand me over  half of his, offering to go get a piece for me at his house, and attempting to dig himself out of hole he had found himself in.

After we joked around about his decision to ruin my day by eating one of the best things about Fall in front of me, he picked up the Tupperware container that he had placed on the table and handed it to me.  It was filled with money.  That's when he told me that he had come to give Nate and I some of his earnings from his job to go towards our adoption.  He apologized that it wasn't very much, but he wanted to do something.  Whoa.  Talk about feeling humbled.

This adoption process has been so incredibly different than the first time around when we adopted Biruk.  I think there's a lot of reasons for that.   For starters, we had about 8 years of struggling to get pregnant, 2 years of waiting to get matched, and another year before we brought him home.  There was a lot of time to think, plan, prep, and fundraise.  Fast forward to this process, and we are parenting a child, living in a city that is really fast paced, both working, and find found ourselves in an adoption process that not only matched us with a child within a few months but could potentially allow us to come home with her in the next year.

It's also different, because we are in the middle an adoption process while living in a brand new place.  With our first adoption, we had lived in the same place for 10 years, with the same group of people who had been following our journey that whole time.  They were heavily invested in us. We've not even been in our new location for 2 years yet and are just beginning to establish friendships and allow people to get to know our hearts.

Yet God...in this faithfulness...continues to surround us with people who not only love us, encourage us, and support us, but whose generosity continues to humble us.

People like Jacob, a teen who was willing to share what little he had from a job he works hard at.
People like Stella, and Addie, and Jamie, Biruk's friends, who hold lemonade stands for their new friend that is coming from India.
People like my neighbors who bring over their stuff to sell at our yard sale in hopes that it will be a contribution in some way.
People like my mom who is willing to bake a million cupcakes.
People like my sisters who continue to post and re-post puzzle piece fundraisers in hopes that they'll sell one more piece, bringing them that much closer to their goal.
Old friends, new friends, college kids, former teens, doctors, family, acquaintances and even strangers who give because they want to be a part of the larger story.

In a process that could and should overwhelm us financially, we find ourselves humbly standing in awe of God's faithfulness.  The awe doesn't come solely from the fact that money has been raised, but mostly from the amazing reminder that we have a whole village of people in this journey with us.

To those of you who have chosen to be part of our village in this season of adoption, generously giving what you have financially, praying for us tirelessly, and encouraging us along the way, thank you.   Thanks for choosing to invest in a little girl on the other side of the world who will one day come to know just how loved she really is.