leaving the harbor

Over the past couple of months, God has done much in the way of bringing the dream in our hearts to life.  To let you in on what that dream is exactly, here's a snippet of an email that I sent to our prospective board members....

As our dear friends, you know that we have felt God's call to adoption/orphan care for years.  A lot of those years were spent with us asking God, "What does this look like for us?"  Obviously, it looked like adoption, evidenced by a precious little boy with fuzzy black hair and mischievous eyes to match.

It was through the process of bringing Sam home that God showed us what else it looked like--providing adoption grants to families who want to adopt but face financial struggle to do so.  After much prayer and research, we feel the best way to do this is to start a nonprofit.  Yes, there are many of these providing grants to families adopting, but the reality is that there are more families who are in need than there are grants available.  Plus, after experiencing what we did when God met our own financial need, we can't NOT do this.  

There are two other areas that we would like to serve using the nonprofit, but that won't be for awhile.  For now, we're starting very small and focused--providing grants to families.

A very obvious reality is that we are not Bill Gates with millions to give away, nor do we have a money tree in our backyard.  However, we do have some very viable ideas for how to raise the money we're wanting to give away, and we have a passion for those families who see the insurmountable costs of adoption and think that there's no way.

There you have it.  The specific, God-sized dream that we have carried around in our hearts for the past several years.  We have prayed over it, cried over it, and felt burdened by it more times than we can count.  So, it's with great joy (and a little stomach quivering) that I am watching God bring it out of our hearts and give it life.

Would you join us in praying as God moves?  Pray for us to have wisdom--it goes without saying that we need it!

P.S. Those prospective board members are no longer prospective.  They agreed to serve on a board of directors for a nonprofit, that when they agreed, was still only a vision.  What brave souls they are!

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."  William Shedd