.300 for $100 Update.

It's time for another update on our 300 for $100 campaign. When Jim came up with this idea I thought it would never work. Wow, am I humbled now. Why do I ever doubt my God? To see the previous update please click here . To see what this is all about click here.

So this is where we are at - please remember that we have not necessarily had this many people per say donate, as some have donated far more than $100 and some have donated less, and we are also including in this figure our own money that we have saved. But for an easy way to understand we have just made each $100 equal 1 person.

We are now at 133!!

That means that we are almost halfway there. We continue to pray that God would lead 167 more people to us who would feel led to be a part of our journey and donate $100 towards our adoption. That number doesn't seems so humongous anymore! If God lays our need on your heart, you can use our chip-in on the right hand side of my blog or email me at (amomentcherished(at)gmail(dot)come for our address.) Please don't feel pressured to give. This is not a post to guilt you into paying for our adoption. This isn't really even about us. It's about allowing God to use us so that He is glorified.

If you are unable to give financially or already have, please pray for our sweet baby boy whom we have named Jameson - which means son of James (my husband's name is James). We will call him Jamesy. His middle name we will keep as his given Ethiopian name, and we will share it with you all when we pass court and can legally do so. We debated about changing his name, but we finally concluded that his adoption into our family is a life changing event, and we are using God's example in the Bible of changing a person's name after a life changing event. However, we do want to keep as much of his Ethiopian heritage a part of him as we can, and honestly we love his given name and its meaning! So that is how we ultimately decided on a new name for his first and his given name for the middle.

Here is how you can pray specifically for our beautiful baby boy. At this time we are still unable to share on any public online forum such as this what Jamesy's medical needs are. He has two big ones, and God knows all about them. We really desire to get him home as soon as possible so that he can receive some excellent medical care. Our agency has been wonderful in working with us. They agree that Jamesy needs to get home quickly as well. We have been given permission to send our dossier to AWAA at the same time that we send it to USCIS, and it is possible that we could get a court date prior to having that final approval and set of fingerprints. (We will, however, have to have that approval prior to our second trip and passing embassy in order to bring Jamesy home.) So this speeds things up even more for us - eek! We are very close to having our dossier completed. It should be in the mail next week. I am guessing and praying that is true, anyway. I cannot believe how fast this is happening. It has taken us about 3 months to do both our home study and compile our dossier. This is very fast if you are not familiar with adoption. Will you pray with us that we would be able to get the remaining funds needed to fund this adoption and our two trips to Ethiopia and that God would allow us to be in our home as a family of five by Christmas? That is my biggest heart's desire right now. We had originally assumed that we would not be bringing our son home until close to next Christmas, and had anticipated financing this based on that. God is in control, though. I now know that this is why we have felt such a sense of urgency in this process, and although our summer was insanely busy I am so glad we pushed through. God is so good to us.

Again you have no idea what an encouragement you all are to our family. It is amazing how many of you now are a connected dot in our story and journey to bring Jamesy home as our son. Thank you.

You are making a huge difference in our lives, and especially in the life of a very special little boy who has completely stolen our hearts. We are forever grateful and indebted to you.


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.300 for $100 Update.

Back in July we made a plea for financial help here. We have been so amazed by friends, family, and even strangers who have answered our cry for help and partnered with us in our adoption journey. We have also been convicted in this area of giving, and have even now been pursuing ways to help other families. I have heard so many times how adoption is much, much bigger than, and includes so many more people than, just the couple who is bringing the child home. How very true that is! So many families and individuals have had a part in our journey in such a variety of ways. Each of those ways is equally meaningful and important to us. It has been a blessing to watch God use our family to allow other families, who may not be called to adopt now or ever, to fulfill the command of James 1:27 by being involved in our journey. Wow. I am humbled. I am grateful. I am forever changed, as I have witnessed so clearly the hands and feet of Jesus on our behalf.

We promised an update in our 300 for $100 campaign, and here it is. If you did not read that post, we were humbly asking God to lay our need upon 300 people/families to donate $100 for our adoption. He has heard our cries and has moved in the hearts of many. No, we have not met our ultimate goal, but we know that God has it all taken care of. We just put our trust in Him, and believe that He will provide the money when it is time. So this is where we are at (we have not necessarily had this many people per say, as some have donated far more than $100 and some have donated less, and we are also including in this figure our own money that we have saved. But for an easy way to understand we have just made each $100 equal 1 person. Hope that makes sense!)

We are at 119!!!!!!

(Please see the thermometer on my right side bar.)

That means we continue to implore God for 181 more people/ families to feel led to donate $100. The mountain is getting smaller! Jim and I continue to live sacrificially so that we can use as much of our own money as possible, too. God has blessed us in this area, and so far we have met our personal goal (plus some at times!!) of saving $1000 a month of our own money - praise God! The sacrifices we've made this summer all seem so small when thinking of our sweet boy waiting for us and the chance we have for God to use us in impacting him and others for eternity!

While we are asking God to lead people to us that will donate money, we never want you to read these posts and feel pressure to give, especially if you have already given to us! Simply pray on our behalf, please. We have reason to believe (that we can not disclose at this time) that we will need the rest of the money much, much sooner than we first anticipated. While this is so exciting, I will admit to being scared, too. But I know my God will supply this money! I believe He longs to see our baby home as much as we do. We pray that watching our story unfold is an encouragement to other families that do not have the money for an adoption up front but still feel God is calling them in that direction. God will and does fund what He loves! Believe it, cling to it, and step out in faith. You will never regret it!!

Please note, that since we serve such an amazing God it is very possible that we could reach beyond our goal. In the event that happens, Jim and I are convicted and committed to pass any surplus on to another family in the the adoption process that God leads us to. Wouldn't that be incredible?!

Our 300 for $100 campaign continues. If God lays our need on your heart, you can use our chip-in on the right hand side of my blog or email me at (amomentcherished(at)gmail(dot)come for our address.) (Or if you want to donate $5.oo and have a chance to win an iPod touch see the post below!)

Friends, we serve a mountain-moving God. We are witnessing that mountain being moved. I will never forget this. Never.

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