WOW!

I am completely blown away. BLOWN. AWAY! Seriously!

I started out today completely stressed about what to do. Do we plan on going next week? Do we plan on leaving the 30th? Honestly, I had no idea what to do.

I called Matt and work and got him up to date on everything that had happened by noon today...

We got an e-mail saying our CA had been scheduled for January 4th

We got confirmation that we were getting a $2500.00 grant

Then within minutes of that, I got an e-mail from our HS agency saying that we owed them $3600.00 and it had to be paid BEFORE travel (on top of everything else we had yet to pay).

Apparently when we paid for our updated homestudy last October, it did not include the post placement fees of $1800.00. I honestly thought we had paid those, so I guess my bad.

The other $1800.00 is for the additional post placement visits that China is now requiring. Instead of 3, we have to do 6! One at one month, three months, six months, a year, three years and 5 years! Unbelievable!

I was seriously stressing by this point. Like I really needed one more thing to worry about. So, I called the only person who I knew could bring me back to some normalcy, Matt.

I told him I didn't know what to do, or what decisions to make. The plane tickets just to fly from here to China are almost $3000 because of traveling so close to Christmas. I have no idea yet what out in country fees will be.

I really couldn't make any travel arrangements because we simply didn't have all the money and I didn't know whether to take the risk or not.

Matt's response, "you are just going to have to give up control and have faith." Not what I WANTED to hear, but definitely what I NEEDED to hear.

So, I did! I told myself the same thing I have been saying since we started this process, "if it is God's will, then He will provide." I said a quick little prayer in the car asking God for some sort of sign about what we should do.

I picked up Andrew from school, and came home to see what I could do. I called all the places we have applied to for grants. It doesn't look like we will be getting any more grants before we leave since it is so close to us traveling and some of them don't even have their review processes until after Christmas. There is one that we should be hearing from by or before the 20th.

As I was sitting here looking at flights, I got a text from a fellow adoptive mom asking about our chip in and if it really just jumped up to meet our goal. While I was reading her text I also got an e-mail saying that our Chip in goal had been met.

Someone donated $3300 which put us over our goal. The note attached to the donation was "God wants you to go get your daughter."

Truly amazed. Beyond Blessed. I simply don't know what else to say! God is definitely in control and He is definitely driving this train.

We are getting so close. So, so, close. However, with the additional cost of our post placements, and the ridiculous costs for travel, we are still in need.

God is all over our adoption, He has been from day one. I know if anyone can make this happen it is Him and for that reason I am staying faithful that He will provide, and we will leave December 23rd giving us THE best Christmas gift ever...