Today I am overwhelmed...

I imagine there are going to be quite a few days like this in my near future. 

Before I get into all that, I'd just like to proclaim the goodness of my heavenly Father!  I woke up this morning, anxious about a few things that were on my plate and God just completely outdid Himself.  He has shown me over and over throughout this last week that nothing is too big for Him.  When I doubt, He is faithful!

Today, we are getting into the nitty gritty of what we face to make this adoption happen.  I shared with you yesterday, that the total cost of bringing Asher home is close to $30,000, but thankfully, that is not all owed upfront.  It is pieced out into sections, and each section is due at a different time.  We have done our research and have had suggestions made to us about all the amazing adoption grants that are available, and there are many.  The issue we are encountering, is that to apply for any kind of adoption grant, you must have an approved home study.  Asher also has been blessed with the generosity of anonymous donors who have donated $7,514.50 towards his adoption.  However, those funds will not be available for us to use until we get our Letter of Approval from China, which comes after we have submitted our Dossier (huge stack of paperwork).  What does this mean?  It means that we need to come up with about $8,600 BEFORE we are able to apply for grants or use the grant money that Asher already has.  This is a little scary to think about, because once we get our pre-approval from China, we have exactly 6 months to get our Dossier submitted.

Right now I am trying to accomplish the things I can and contact all the people I need to, but I'm also just trying to breathe and hang on to the fact that God is bigger than anything that stands in our way.  If He wants Asher to come home to us, He will make a way!

Please pray with us today for God's will and provision for our next steps.  Thank you!

~Carly