My wife has posted several blogs since we started this journey and I thought it was about time I wrote on of my own to talk about this journey from my point of view. I have never seen God’s working so obviously in my life before! It has been such an amazing journey, and it’s only just begun!!
When my wife first approached me with hosting Julia she figured I’d never go for it. My wife is a stay at home mom and we didn’t have much extra money, defiantly not enough to pay the hosting fee and then have another mouth to feed. When she first brought up the subject of hosting I knew right away we would. Which is not like me at all! I always need to think things over before making a decision, especially something this big. That was the first instance of God’s obvious work.
The next step was to raise the $5700 for the hosting fee. To us, that’s a lot of money and we didn’t know how we were going to do it. But I wasn’t worried, I knew things would work out (Obvious God’s work #2). We started by selling scarfs and then necklaces that my talented wife makes. They were pretty popular but not enough to cover the $5700. We decided a dinner would be a good was to raise money so we planned a pasta dinner with live music and a raffle.
While planning the fundraising dinner we also had to start paying some of the fees. First came $300 for a home study and $1000 for the “down payment” on hosting. Right before each was due we had just enough to cover each expense (God’s obvious work #3 and #4)
To cut down on expenses and maximize the money we could raise we sought out as many donations as we could. At first our result for donation requests was disappointed, we were getting some “no’s” and a lot of run around. But as the date of the fundraiser approached we were overwhelmed with donations. We prepared dinner for 100 people including pasta, red sauce, meatballs, homemade alfredo sauce, bread, and Gregg’s cake plus water and soda and it was all donated!!! We also had about 30 auction items that were also donated. We had no idea on how to prepare a dinner for a 100 people so we asked for help cooking. Prior to the dinner we had 3 different people volunteer to take care of the kitchen....and then were unable to do it for various reasons. A week prior to the dinner we were without a cook but were not worried. As we knew God would provide, He did. (God’s obvious work #5) A wonderful woman from church volunteered and took over the kitchen for us. She did an amazing job.It was such an amazing night. (God’s obvious work #6). It also left us with only about $250 left to raise. My wife posted this in celebration of getting so close to our goal and within an hour or so we received donations from several people that put us over the $5700 we needed.
In addition to the money that needed to be raised for hosting we’ve also had to seek out other help. Clothes were the first challenge we tackled. I posted that we were looking for girl’s cloths for the orphan we were hosting and received a response within an hour. My wife also posted a request on Facebook and got a big response. We have received over 15 bags of cloths from different families. (God’s obvious work #7)
Then we were thrown a curveball. I was laid off. One of my first thoughts was that this does not change anything with the hosting, and that was the first thing I said to my wife when I got home. (DEFFINATLY God’s work #8) Without God I would have totally freaked out and be convinced there was no way that we could host.
Now we are less than a week away from picking up Julia. We will be staying at a wonderful hotel that was donated by a friend (God’s obvious work #9). We will not only be picking up Julia but also a 15yr old girl and a 6yr old boy for families that will be out of state. Normally going from 1 to 3 kids would have freaked me out. Not with God with me. My reaction to my wife proposing us picking up the other kids was “We’re going to have to rent a van.” (God’s obvious work #10) I’ve also got a new job and they scheduled my start day to allow for me to go with my wife to pick up the kids (God’s obvious work #11) and I got a significant pay raise from my last job (God’s obvious work #12).
This has been such a wonderful journey, with God working in our life so obviously I can’t wait to see what God has planned for us next. One thing’s for sure we couldn’t do any of this without Him.
Thank you everyone who was donated money, auction items, time or who have been praying for us. It is greatly appreciated.
When my wife first approached me with hosting Julia she figured I’d never go for it. My wife is a stay at home mom and we didn’t have much extra money, defiantly not enough to pay the hosting fee and then have another mouth to feed. When she first brought up the subject of hosting I knew right away we would. Which is not like me at all! I always need to think things over before making a decision, especially something this big. That was the first instance of God’s obvious work.
The next step was to raise the $5700 for the hosting fee. To us, that’s a lot of money and we didn’t know how we were going to do it. But I wasn’t worried, I knew things would work out (Obvious God’s work #2). We started by selling scarfs and then necklaces that my talented wife makes. They were pretty popular but not enough to cover the $5700. We decided a dinner would be a good was to raise money so we planned a pasta dinner with live music and a raffle.
While planning the fundraising dinner we also had to start paying some of the fees. First came $300 for a home study and $1000 for the “down payment” on hosting. Right before each was due we had just enough to cover each expense (God’s obvious work #3 and #4)
To cut down on expenses and maximize the money we could raise we sought out as many donations as we could. At first our result for donation requests was disappointed, we were getting some “no’s” and a lot of run around. But as the date of the fundraiser approached we were overwhelmed with donations. We prepared dinner for 100 people including pasta, red sauce, meatballs, homemade alfredo sauce, bread, and Gregg’s cake plus water and soda and it was all donated!!! We also had about 30 auction items that were also donated. We had no idea on how to prepare a dinner for a 100 people so we asked for help cooking. Prior to the dinner we had 3 different people volunteer to take care of the kitchen....and then were unable to do it for various reasons. A week prior to the dinner we were without a cook but were not worried. As we knew God would provide, He did. (God’s obvious work #5) A wonderful woman from church volunteered and took over the kitchen for us. She did an amazing job.It was such an amazing night. (God’s obvious work #6). It also left us with only about $250 left to raise. My wife posted this in celebration of getting so close to our goal and within an hour or so we received donations from several people that put us over the $5700 we needed.
In addition to the money that needed to be raised for hosting we’ve also had to seek out other help. Clothes were the first challenge we tackled. I posted that we were looking for girl’s cloths for the orphan we were hosting and received a response within an hour. My wife also posted a request on Facebook and got a big response. We have received over 15 bags of cloths from different families. (God’s obvious work #7)
Then we were thrown a curveball. I was laid off. One of my first thoughts was that this does not change anything with the hosting, and that was the first thing I said to my wife when I got home. (DEFFINATLY God’s work #8) Without God I would have totally freaked out and be convinced there was no way that we could host.
Now we are less than a week away from picking up Julia. We will be staying at a wonderful hotel that was donated by a friend (God’s obvious work #9). We will not only be picking up Julia but also a 15yr old girl and a 6yr old boy for families that will be out of state. Normally going from 1 to 3 kids would have freaked me out. Not with God with me. My reaction to my wife proposing us picking up the other kids was “We’re going to have to rent a van.” (God’s obvious work #10) I’ve also got a new job and they scheduled my start day to allow for me to go with my wife to pick up the kids (God’s obvious work #11) and I got a significant pay raise from my last job (God’s obvious work #12).
This has been such a wonderful journey, with God working in our life so obviously I can’t wait to see what God has planned for us next. One thing’s for sure we couldn’t do any of this without Him.
Thank you everyone who was donated money, auction items, time or who have been praying for us. It is greatly appreciated.