Story #2: The Heaton's take a Leap of Faith!

                              

My name is Kim Heaton, and my husband Jeff and I have been married for almost 11 years.  We have two biological children, Emily (7) and Josh (4), and we are currently in the process of adopting a toddler girl from Ethiopia.  We were officially added to the wait list on January 4, 2011, and we look forward to the day when we will one day meet our little girl.

Going into this process, one of our concerns was how we would be able to afford adoption.  God has always provided for us in the past, but we still had the occasional doubt of, “How can we afford this?”  Knowing that international adoption could easily cost us $30,000, and knowing that we have a tight budget already, we wondered where in the world we would get that much money.  But, we knew that God had called our family to adoption, so we began the process trusting the Lord.  And thankfully, we know the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills (God!), and He is faithful!

Our financial journey is far from over in regards to the adoption, but in less than five months time, we have already paid over $11,000 in adoption related costs.  In case you’re wondering, that was a lot of money that we didn’t know we had.  Yet, we have not had to take a loan, and we have not yet done any real fundraising.  Simply put, God has provided.

One direct example of His abundant goodness came with a phone call from my husband one night.  He had a work dinner to go to, but he called on the way from the office to the dinner.  We had a big payment due to our adoption agency within the next few days, and we knew that if we used our credit card to pay for it, there would be a 2.5% fee—adding about another $100 to the total.  We didn't want to do that but didn't really have the extra money lying around either. My husband gets a work bonus in December, but he wouldn’t get it until a week after the payment was due. Jeff called our caseworker and asked if we could send the money in after we received the bonus so that we wouldn't have to pay the 2.5% fee. Our caseworker said YES and put a note in our file about when it would be coming in. (This reminded me of how God tells us: You have not because you ask not.)

But back to the phone call: He told me that he’d had his bonus review that day. Would you care to guess the difference between his bonus the previous year and this year?  Exactly the amount that we owed the adoption agency!  Yes, there were taxes and tithes to think about, but God proved Himself faithful to meet our needs in providing the exact extra amount so that we would be able to pay our agency.  How GREAT is He?  Plus, on top of that, Jeff was given a new title in his company—which also came with a pay increase.  Then, a week later, he was told that he would be receiving an extra week’s salary to finish out the year.

As I said before, we are a long way from the end of the financial journey before us, but God has shown us that His yes is bigger than ours, and He is continuing to care for all of our needs as He's so good at doing.

*To follow along on their journey click here