Praise and Prayer

Hey everybody. Life here is....complicated. We have some wonderful praises to report--our garage sale was a huge success. We made around $720.00!!! Thanks, largely, to those who donated items. Almost all of our bigger stuff sold, which really helped. A lot of clothes sold, too, but I have TONS more. That's why we're going to do it again in the spring. The only bad news about the garage sale came after the event when I dropped a table on my big toe and couldn't pull it together, calling Karl to come home from church to help me. He asked if I did it on purpose so I didn't have to carry everything in by myself ( :) ) It would have been tempting, but I assured him the pain wasn't worth it. The good news is that I have my first 5K this coming weekend and I ran this morning for the first time since the incident, and it felt fine. Whew! Speaking of running, my amazing sister Alyssa ran her first marathon this weekend in Buenos Ayres (she's a missionary in Paraguay) and finished strong! I'm SO proud of her. She started running minis about six years ago, which was amazing in itself, but now she just, once again, outdid herself. Maybe one day we'll run a 10K together...but I think that will be my highest goal in the running department.

Now for the really horrible news. We had another AWAA family lose their baby girl over the weekend. The Forrests were looking forward to picking up their two little children before Christmas and now, because of pneumonia, their little Etsegenet, is dancing with little Julia Joner in heaven. This is, of course, devastating. The Forrests have posted a beautiful hymn on their blog that so shows their hearts. Please be praying for them.

Also, I have not posted about last week's letter we received from America World telling of a significant fee increase. If we do not receive our referral before November 1st, fees will be increasing over $4000.00. If we do get our referral, we will still need to pay around fifteen hundred dollars in increased fees (I'm not sure the exact amount), but this was, of course, hard news to hear. While the significant fee increases are cause for struggles with anxiety, I am not feeling overwhelmed. God has been so good throughout this adoption process, and I KNOW He will continue to meet our needs. Do I know what that will look like? No. Will we be paying off this adoption longer than I had hoped? Maybe. But do I know that God is fully capable of accomplishing His will no matter the circumstances? Absolutely. Many people ask how it is possible for America World to do this since we signed a contact a year ago with other fees in place. From a legal angle, I think I remember that the contract said that awaa has the right to change the fees at any time. However, I'm not really thinking about it from that angle. The things I know are that Duni and the people at America World care about children. They have made personal sacrifices to work there. They work hard and believe in what they're doing. They believe, largely because of the growing program and the food/goods crisis around the world, that this is the only way to keep things going at the quality standard at which it's currently runnng. A significant fee increase is the only way to maintain their high standards. And because the money largely goes towards the orphan care over in Ethiopia, I fully understand and trust in what they've decided.

Blessings to you all. Please be in prayer for the Forrests, the families that are waiting to hear about passing court so they can pick up their little ones, those waiting to travel, all the adoptive families that are trying to plan for this fee increase in the midst of economic turmoil worldwide, and our precious little ones in Ethiopia.