God will provide

    As a former third grade teacher, I love doing crafts, making things for my kids, and creating projects for myself around the house to keep me from doing the things I need to be doing like cleaning and cooking. My obsession comes from my mother, Kathy Jackson, (pictured to your right with Henry) who will also stay up all hours of the night creating masterpieces. Lately, my mother has been making stationary for herself and others. She gave all of the girls in our family personalized stationary for Christmas last year. Over the past several months she decided to use her gifts to help raise money for her church in Birmingham. Along with the stationary, she also sold magnetic paper dolls for boys and girls. She brought Henry a set to play with over Thanksgiving. Too cute! They have boy clothes and girl clothes to choose from. The paper dolls come in many different races for all kinds children!The day before the fundraiser, she calls me and tells me that she wants to give all the proceeds to bring home her Ugandan grandchild! I was thrilled that she wanted to be apart of this journey, by raising money for us to bring our child home! She sold a lot and raised $280.00 for our adoption fund. I am going to try to add these products to my blog so I can continue to raise money. Thank you mom!

This is the personalized stationary.

 This is the magnetic paper dolls.

  All the profits go to our Ugandan baby!

     Many of you might be wondering, "How much does it cost to adopt from Uganda?"

Well, it costs about $22,000.00 (we have included the price of Henry going with us too, so it is a little bit cheaper if you do not take your kids).  The federal government gives us a tax credit of 12,150.00 to adopt a child international or domestic (they give this to anyone regardless of income). Our agency, Generations, gives us a $3,000.00 scholarship. The remaining cost is $6,850.00. So we are praying that God provides the $6,850.00 for us to adopt.

     We are not raising support right now, because we are praying that God will provide this money through Dee's income. We are praying that God will provide the money through our ability to save the money. Hopefully, all our savings will be able to fund this adoption instead of going to fix cars, emergency visits to the dog hospital in the middle of the night, water damage repair because our toilet overflowed into our basement, lock smiths, speeding tickets, and the many problems we seem to have with our 1940s house.

      God is also teaching us how to spend money more wisely, especially me. We are eating out less often, buying less stuff (unless it is from a thrift store, we have great thrift stores in Atlanta! I am a thrift store addict!) and trying to only buy things that we really need. This is hard to do in our materialistic world, but God is showing us how stuff gets in the way of loving him and other people. God is changing me! Yeah! It is liberating!

      I can already see how God is providing. This last month we did not have very many extra expenses and we were able to save money toward our adoption. God is making our steps firm! He is also providing the little things. Since God has given me a passion for orphans and a desire to adopt, I realized that in order to raise the money, I was going to have to stop wishing I had the perfect furniture for my house. I realized that if God wants us to have chairs for our kitchen/dining room table, an extra side table in the living room, a piece for our foyer, etc., then he is going to have to provide them for free or really cheap. The next day I went to visit my grandmother,Cletis Jackson, in Dunwoody, GA. She is notorious for trying to give away all her stuff to her grandchildren. She has a lot of stuff in that house! Sometimes you can find great treasures! Well, this day I went home with a bench and a coat hanger for my foyer and a side table for my living room! Thank you God! You care about the little things and you really do want us to adopt! This is of you! I was so encouraged! Thank you Grandmother for allowing God to use you in providing for our Ugandan baby!

This is a picture of my sweet Grandmother

and my beautiful sister Amelia.

  

Since we have been married, God has always provided just enough for us, not too much, not too little. Dee was in law school when we had our first child, Henry. We did not have an income then, we just lived off loans. This was a step of faith to have a child in law school, but God provided. Its funny, we didn't realize it at the time, but we never had any major problems with our house or cars, like we do now. That is because, God was providing according to our needs. Then when Dee actually made an income, we started having lots of unexpected expenses, and we have never been able to save very much. We have not made unwise choices (of course I know we have, but overall), but God did not want us to have too much. He obviously knew that having an abundance of money might be a hindrance to us spiritually. So he has kept us very humbled! :) So, I am confident that God will provide exactly what we need, when we need it!

  
"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share."

1 Timothy 6:16-18

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

Matthew 10:29-31

**We have sent in our home study packet and we hope to hear from them on Monday. Then we can schedule a day for the home study agent to come to our house! I am excited to see how God is going to provide through this process!