Be AMAZED!!!

Most of you have already read this. I wanted to put it here on the blog because one day VERY SOON I will be able to open this up to the public again. One day VERY SOON Leanna will be home and I won't have to worry about visitors from Moscow reading my entries. One day VERY SOON I pray that this testimony encourages others on their adoption journey.

Not to us, Lord, not to us but to YOUR NAME be the glory, because of Your love and FAITHFULNESS! Psalm 115:1

Get your dancing shoes on! There will be much celebrating tonight! There has been all day as God has repeatedly shown Himself in ways that only He can do. I have been trying to get this all written down, but as I type, I get email after email of more donations coming in thru our Lifesong/Harbins grant. I have been crying all afternoon. Amazing! Today has just been amazing! And so overwhelming!

But let me back up to yesterday. I must admit I was still a bit discouraged yesterday at church. I had sent out an email on Saturday to lots of people asking for help and hadn’t had a response to it. Nothing. Some of you know about the horrible week Jon and I had last week. I won’t bore you with the details. I’ll just say that the events of last week had me asking, “Why, Lord? Why are You allowing these things to happen? Why now?” I cried at least once a day last week. Which isn’t the norm. The no-good, horrible, very bad week was capped off on Friday at 5:10 when our adoption agency called and said we could go ahead and send in the $16,500 on Monday to ensure we get a court date before February 18. Sure. Just send it in. Like $16,500 is no big deal. We knew the deadline was coming. We weren’t surprised by the call. We just thought we’d have the money by the time the deadline rolled around. Well, we didn’t need the money on Friday. We needed it today. God had it all under control this whole time.

Last week’s events also brought me to the end of myself. I had nowhere else to turn except to God. I have no doubt that is right where He wanted me all along. He just had to get me there. I laid a fleece out before Him and basically said that I am done. If He wants this adoption to happen, then He is just going to have to provide the money. I’m not asking anyone for any more money (and we all know how that turned out). I told Him that if the money is here on Monday, then we’ll proceed. If it’s not here…well, I guess we’re done. Friends and family have asked us what we’re doing to raise this money. My answer lately has been, “I’m praying.” That usually gets a raised eyebrow. Like, that’s ALL you’re doing? What ELSE are you doing? How are you going to raise the rest of the money you need? “I don’t know. I’m praying.” This whole experience has me asking many questions. Is praying enough? Is it wrong to expect God to answer my prayers? Is it wrong to expect Him to provide? Is it wrong to expect Him to be faithful? Was it wrong to lay that fleece before Him? To basically demand that He provide ‘or else’? Was that putting Him to the test? And what is the difference between putting Him to the test in Luke 4 (where Jesus says not to do it) and Malachi 3 (where the Lord says ‘test Me in this’)?

Many, many questions.

The only good thing that came out of last week was that we were approved for a matching grant through our church adoption fund with Lifesong for Orphans. If we received $2,500 in donations, our church fund would match that amount, giving us $5,000.

So yesterday…we got home from church and I quickly checked my email before we headed to the park. One of the groups I had sent the Saturday email to (that I thought I had no responses to) was a homeschool group that we joined just this month. One of the moms had responded to my email to the whole group and basically said that there are 250 families in this group. If each family gave just $50 to the Evans, they’ll have what they need. I also got emails from a few other families saying they were ‘in’ and had already donated to our fund. Keep in mind, we are new to this group and I only know 4 or 5 families so far. The people who responded are people I have never met. Okay, that got Jon and I a little excited. We loaded up the kids and dog and headed to the park. While walking I was thinking about that email and what a great idea it was. So I started praying that God would raise up $50 families to give. If 250 families gave $50, that would be $12,500! $50 families. That would work! A little while later, I thought, “Why limit it to $50 families?!” And I started praying for $5 families, $20 families, $100 families and even $1,000 families.

We got home from the park and Jon’s phone rang. A friend knew someone who wanted to donate $1,000 to us and needed the Lifesong info.

We heard from several more people yesterday who said they were going to donate and some told us how much they planned to give. We knew God had already matched the $2,500 by the time we went to bed last night!

Right before I went to bed, I got an email from a friend. She said she had money for me and that it wasn’t much, but it was all they could do right now. Guess how much she gave? $50!

I went to bed completely excited for today to get here so we could see God work. I KNEW He was going to do something HUGE! He did not disappoint!

The day started out like a normal Monday. The kids had band. I checked my email before we left hoping for an update from Lifesong. No such luck.

We got home and Jon called saying he had talked to Lifesong and our fund had received $2,200 (which means we had $4,400 total). Well, AWESOME! But, really? Only $2,200? What happened to the people we talked to yesterday? Did they forget to write our name on their donations? We were expecting so much more. Oh well. THANK YOU, LORD! We’re $4,400 closer!

And then it started.

God.

Answered prayer.

An AMAZED Evans family.

The following happened in less than 5 minutes today…

Lifesong had emailed me a list of the people who had given so far. I didn’t even recognize half the names. While I was reading the list, Leah (with Lifesong) emailed me again and said she checked our account again and we had received $1,500 more. WOW! Our total with the matching grant was up to $6100!

Meanwhile, I kept getting emails from people saying, ‘I just donated to your fund…’

THEN I got a combination of phone calls and emails that put me over the edge. Apparently more money had been given to our church adoption fund yesterday and our pastor called Lifesong and asked that they bump up the matching grant.

Lifesong agreed.

Our matching grant is now $4,300, which means we could receive $8,600.

Enter tears of joy.

Hallelujahs.

Dancing.

Laughter thru tears.

Saying ‘thank You’ is so insufficient in moments like this.

I quit emailing updates to Jon because it was changing every minute.

I emailed Lifesong at 4:30 for an update, but I haven’t heard back. I guess they were gone already.

So, as of 2:23 this afternoon, we only need about $5,000 more. But I have heard from several more people since then saying they donated or plan to.

Okay, see? Every time I try to give a total, it changes within a minute. Jon just received another call from another family who just donated $1,000. So, as far as we know, we only need $4,000 more.

So, go get your dancing shoes on and celebrate with us!

Sing praises to God with us!

Laugh through tears with us!

Thank Him with us!

I will say it again, because it is the only thing I can think right now…

Not to us.

Not.

To.

Us.

But to YOUR NAME be the glory, because of YOUR love and FAITHFULNESS!

If you’d like to jump on the giving bandwagon, use this link (http://lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html ) and be sure to put Evans/#1827. All donations thru Lifesong are tax deductible. If we receive more than the $4,300 for our matching grant, it will still go into our account. It just won’t be matched. After today’s $16,500, we’ll need at least $10,000 for our remaining two trips.