In God I Boast ~ And God Laughed At My Fundraising

Elissa is such a sweet, bloggy friend of mine! I have enjoyed getting to know more about her over the past few months through our (in)courage group. I wrote a guest post for her a few weeks ago, and now it is her turn! As you read from my post yesterday, my family is smack in the middle of adoption proceedings. I think it’s rather appropriate for Elissa to share part of her own adoption story.

Let’s boast in the Lord together!!

Hey!

If we haven’t met yet, my name’s Elissa, and I’m a slightly crazed homeschooling Mama to 4 ornery, yahoo children. Three years ago God turned our world upside down in a way that only He can. This is our story.

Three years ago, I was a mother of 3 slightly, ornery children, with my eye on a six year old Russian boy who was the spitting image of my husband.

This particular little boy came to us through a local hosting program. He stayed with us for two weeks that summer. Predictably, we couldn’t stomach the thought of what would happen to this little guy if we did not make a place for him at our table.

But.

International adoption is not cheap. Especially those Russian adoptions.

So there we were, a family of 5, presented with a little boy who had a $47,000 price tag on his head – nearly a year’s worth of income for our family – and no way to pay for his ticket home.

So we counted all our pennies, squinted at our financial resources and scratched our heads as we tried to figure out how to pay for this kid.

The best we could figure was we needed to raise at least $9,000 to cover the gap between what he would cost and the amount we could scrounge together in a year’s time.

So we took the blind leap. We strategized our fundraising plan. We put together an army of people who wanted to help us with our crazy task. We managed to raise about $7,000 through our various fundraising endeavors. But halfway through our campaign our church decided to make a “no fundraising policy”, effectively sinking nearly all of my event plans.

Which meant no more fund raising money. And we were still $2,000 short. With no real way to get it.

But we clung to the promise that it was all a part of the plan. That God was going to provide, and He didn’t need my plans to do it.

So out of ideas and nearly out of money we did what anyone would do. Cried out to God and twiddled our thumbs while we waited for Him to show up.

And He did.

God did not fill in that $2,000 gap left over from our lack of fundraising resources. That amount was a bit too easy for the God of Miracles. He did the impossible. Through the use of friends, family, and a handful of well meaning strangers He lavished another $21,000 upon our family.

We prayed for $9,000, and $28,000 fell in our laps.

That impossible price tag that Russia put on my son? No match for my God. Better yet, we were free and clear of our adoption debt 12 weeks after we took custody. No debt to the bank, my parents or ourselves. All our accounts were paid in full.

This is the God I serve. The God who laughs at what sounds impossible. How do you not boast about Him?

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Elissa Peterson is a busy homeschooling mama who likes to pretend she has her act together. You can read about the crazy things God teaches her on her blog at dontletlifepassyouby.

What impossible thing do you need God to do?

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