Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Part 2 of Jonny's Story, plans to prosper


Jeremiah 29:11

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future








I will not get into Jonny's birthfamily story. That story is his to tell someday, if he wants to. I will say that it was so clear to me that God has big plans for this little boy. From our journey with "An Ocean Sized Love", the support from strangers, family, and loved ones, to the nurses in the hospital who cared for him when I could not. 

We got a call just a few weeks before Jonny was born from my friend Kelli. I call Kelli my angel. She is that person in my life (maybe you have a Kelli too) that is always uplifting, inspiring, and giving of her heart, life, gifts, and time. She is an amazing person who has such a heart for adoption and adoptive families. I could go on and on but mostly, I owe her a debt of gratitude that I will most likely never be able to repay because without her in my life we would never have met our daughter. 

Kelli asked me where we are with our fundraising because at that point we had (what we thought was) a month to come up with $20,000 which was the rest of our $26,000 fee towards our adoption. I told her "I don't know how we are going to do it, but I know God will provide". We had applied for grants, loans, we had done tons of fundraising. We honestly didn't know how we were going to be able to pay our fee when the baby was born. 

Kelli asked me to sit down and told me that a family had approached her at church. They wanted to help a family to pay their adoption expenses. They ended up choosing our family to help. They made a donation through No More to our family in the amount of $15,000. 

You have no idea how big this was. Not only did God provide for us in our time of need...He gave us peace,   rest, hope, faith, and so so much more. This family inspired us. I know in the future that inspiration will spread to many more. In addition to knocking our socks off with provision, it came just in time. 

Jonny was born three weeks early. We literally picked up the check from No More the day after he was born. If you have been following our story you have heard me say that I know God provides "just enough in just enough time". He has done just that.

In addition to giving us that time to be with our son without worrying about what we were going to do about the funds, only God could know what the week following Jonny's arrival could have brought for us. Only He could have known that this provision was such a gift to us during such a difficult time. 

Tony's father passed away just a week after Jonny's birth. He never got to meet him. He saw him on Facetime once, left messages on our phone telling us he loves him already and can't wait to meet him...
 This was a very bitter sweet time for us. We had the gift of a beautiful baby boy and Tony lost his father. 

I said to Tony after the memorial of his dad that I knew God providing that way was like a sweet gift of love and care for him. Only God could know how much Tony needed that peace. Only God could know how to make a stranger reach out and touch our lives forever.

Because of God's provision, the verse Jeremiah 29:11 has been on my mind for my family, but specifically for Jonny. From the womb God worked out His plan to provide in a miraculous way for Jonny. I cannot wait to see the plans that God will continue to work out in his life as I get to watch him grow up.

1 comment:

  1. Amazing testimony of God's provision! Will keep Jonny and your whole family in prayer.

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