Never say "Never"

Wow what a week! Our roller coaster week has had me reflecting on many times that I have said "Never" in recent years so I thought I would share some of those that I'm glad I said Never and God said differently. Here goes and not necessarily in this order....

Never say "Never will I fly in an airplane" so "Never will I leave the USA"
God said " We'll see about that... Sent me to Costa Rica on a mission trip for my very first time flying!

Never say " Because I have never flown and I have never left the country could I ever adopt internationally"
God said " We'll see about that.... I have a Big Brown Eyed Beautiful Ethiopian Prince waiting for your family"

Never say "Ok I can rely on God for strength to travel to Africa for one trip but I will never take the very very long direct flight through Ethiopian Airlines"
God said " We'll see about that... You will actually travel TWICE within thirty days and on the second trip Cindy, you will have my strength to do the very very long direct flight through Ethiopian Airlines"

Never say " We would love to add to our family through adoption but we could never afford it"
God said " You can't but I can"

Drum Roll Please....
God has officially and COMPLETLY provided for us to adopt our Jadon David Henok Scott!
God has provided around $32,000 for our adoption journey in about 16months time! We always believed God would provide because he had clearly called us on this journey but we really had NO idea HOW and WHEN! We really had to have FAITH LIKE POTATOES!

This is how this week started: Denied by two organizations for grants/interest free loans to help us with the $7000 we still needed for the minimum to get Jadon home. We had exhausted every possible fund we had just to get to this point so we didn't know what we were going to do now in such a short time. We decided to pray for guidance, trust as we had been doing for the last 16mths and know that HE is God and he had a plan! God of course had a plan .... He provided a way when there seemed to be no way! (Thanks Susan H. for reminding me of that truth). In 48hours we went from only having 10% of what we needed to having a way to fully pay for our tickets for ALL FOUR of us! Yes Lily is going to Africa with us to be united with her brother she has been praying for! AND we have received through your generous donations the remaining amount that was needed to pay for our accomodations in ET and all outstanding Final fees with our agency. That is a total of $9591 in funds provided in 48hours!

A good sized portion was provided through an anonymous Interest Free Lender so if you have donations in route to us or still want to be a part of this journey through a donation we would still greatly appreciate it. All donations from this point forward will help us pay back that loan as quickly as possible. But the main thing at this point is JADON IS COMING HOME TO TENNESSEE!

Here are just a FEW of the MANY unique ways God has provided:
One donor wanted to donate but didn't have the money so she donated her Plasma for money to donate to our adoption fund.
Baby Bottles - $1500
8 Yard Sales - $5500
Zumbathon - $ 800
Fun Shaped Pasta $400
T-shirts
2 Purse Sales - $400
Car Wash - $600
2 Online Prize Raffles - $1700
Photo Sessions
Note Cards
Many donations from friends, family, strangers
Cleaned someone's house for a donation

There are way too many to mention but we are SO SO SO very grateful to EVERYONE for all your prayers, encouragement and donations.

After ELEVEN years of praying to add to our family we could not be more full of Joy in our hearts to be welcoming our son to his new home in just a few short weeks and on one of the most special days in the year... Our Savior's Birthday!

With much love on behalf of our whole family of FOUR,
Cindy

Psalm 115 1 Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness