Priceless, YES. Free, NO.

A fellow adoptive mom has been posting adoption facts on Facebook to help educate the masses during November, which is National Adoption Awareness month.

Today's fact: The cost of an international adoption is approx. $25k-40k and takes approx. 1.5 years to complete (depending on the country.) Most Children adopted internationally are under 5 years of age.

I commented that Taye's adoption fell into all 3 of those categories.She responded that theirs did as well (especially the $ part) and asked how many grants we had applied for and if we received any.

Now folks, I know that often talking about money is taboo, but when it comes to adoption your life is pretty much an open book. People feel free to ask you questions about anything and everything. Sometimes people are even so bold as to ask *gasp* how much it costs.

If I have learned one thing through this process, it is that when God wants an adoption to take place, He will provide the means necessary. Our process has been nothing short of a financial miracle. We received no assistance, no grants, and are not eligible for any of the adoption tax credit. We live on a single income from full time ministry.

That means that God has worked miracles to make our adoption happen. We were able to sell some household items, do a few extra speaking engagements, and were given items to sell for a fundraiser to help with our costs. More than that, we were amazed as checks rolled in from family, friends, and even complete strangers. Every step of the way when a bill was due, somehow we had the money to pay it.

All that to say, glory be to God. Thank you to those of you whose hearts were moved and listened to the stirring of the Holy Spirit and decided to do something about it by giving.

Do you know anyone who is adopting? If you can think of anyone--even if they are a remote acquaintance, do right by them and write a check. Whether it's $25 or whether it's $500, you are now aware of how much an adoption costs and therefore privileged to be able to help.

When we were most discouraged in our process or the numbers were not adding up, that is the time a check would arrive in the mail bringing us a renewed sense of hope, thankfulness to God, and restoring our faith in the goodness of people and their generosity--especially in tough economic times.

Dan often says, "he's as much our child as he is yours" because of how many people felt led to help us complete our journey to Taye.

Now that we've sent our FINAL payment to the 0% interest loans we were gifted (thank you ABBA Fund and Pathways for Little Feet), we are excited to be back in the position to be fiscally encouraging to fellow-adopting families.