This morning, the E family contacted me with the latest update: They were lacking just $720 of the first big adoption fee of $6250. If you ask them how that huge fee got chipped down to the do-able sum of just $720 left to go, they'd give the same answer that most adoptive families give: WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW IT ALL HAPPENED!! They know that some of it was from their hard work of fundraising, and some of it was from generous donations of people who want to be part of God's plan for placing an orphan in her home. But, most of the time, on paper, adoptive families simply cannot make sense of it. The math simply doesn't add up. The "amount due" chips away at a rate that is far beyond their ability to raise funds.
I call it God's math.
It works something like this: You step forward in obedience to adopt, and the huge sum of the adoption cost looms in front of you like an enormous billboard, making you feel itty bitty in comparison. You think, "HOW WILL WE EVER PAY FOR THIS??" You do what you know how to do to begin to raise funds...let's say a yard sale. You work hard to get donated yards sale items, get flyers out, set up the location, wake up at the crack of dawn and stay all day at a yard sale (come rain or shine, hot or cold). That's your part of it. But then something unusual happens. It seems as if God sees your effort to walk forward in obedience, and He moves in with miracles. A man gives you $20 for an old lamp that you had priced with a $5 sticker...a friend offers you $200 for a set of stamps that you were going to sell for $20...and the list goes on.
Yard sale ends, and you are happy to have raised a decent amount...let's just say $1000. You're thrilled! You expected just $500, and yet somehow it raised double that. And yet you look at that figurative billboard that screams at you: "20,000 more to go!!!!" And you again think, "HOW WILL WE EVER PAY FOR THIS??"
So, you step in to do your part, with other fundraisers: walk-a-thons, basketball tournaments, spaghetti dinners. You raise $500 here and $1500 there. Someone sends an unexpected check for $100, and your electric bill somehow comes in $50 less than you budgeted. A little here, a little there. And the big price tag of adoption shrinks bit by bit.
And here's the kicker... At the end of the adoption process, when all is said and done and every single penny has come in...when your balance says, "$0 due," you sit down one day to figure it out. You list all the money that you raised with each fundraiser, and you list every donation you can remember. And the total that you raised is far far less than the total price tag of the adoption. You wonder out loud: "HOW IN THE WORLD DID WE PAY FOR THAT??" No matter how you add it, it simply never adds up.
We experienced this in a drastic way. Our fundraisers added up to a tiny portion of the total adoption costs, and yet every penny came in. This experience is not unique to our family. In fact, just this past weekend, I ran into another family who is adopting and is awaiting travel to pick up their new son. With tears of joy, they said every penny of their adoption came in. And I said, "It doesn't add up on paper, does it?" Sure enough, she had experienced the same thing. I gave her my only explanation: "It's God's math!"
I believe it's simply the miracle of a faith that moves mountains. It's God's amazing, inexplainable math...the same math He used when he fed 5,000 with just 5 loaves and 2 fish...the same math He used when George Mueller cared for hundreds of orphans by simply relying on God to provide their daily food and water. You see...the miracles come to those who walk in obedience. I believe that obedience and simple faith releases the miracles that most people only read about.
That is why I'm highlighting the E family on this blog. They started with $0. They are not rich. They live on one modest income. And yet they stepped out in obedience to adopt. Their obedience comes first...and then the miracles follow.
Oh...and before I sign off, let me add this... The E family just emailed me to say that they went to the mailbox this afternoon, and now they only have $275 of the first fee to go! In just a few hours, the amount due went from $720 to $275.
How? Let's just call it God's math.
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