Dear John...

Well it wasn't exactly "Dear John", after all it was addressed to Dr. Daddy and myself. And it wasn't about breaking up- that would imply a relationship to begin with. But it was a rejection letter. Another one. For an adoption grant.
In my bitter and jaded moments I question WHO DOES get a grant??? What does it take? In the application they wanted tax info from 2006 &2007 (we applied before 2008 taxes were filed). I'll let you in on a little secret: Dr. Daddy didn't get paid for about 3 months last year, when he did it was as a grad student (and we all know how much they make!) and we paid moving expenses ourselves. According to the IRS that qualifies us for not paying taxes and instead getting a decent refund. But apparently for adoption grants that just isn't good enough. We still can't figure out who is getting the grants, but we're pretty sure it isn't us.

When we decided to go ahead with adoption, it wasn't because we had the money. Actually, it was terrifying to think of undertaking this with literally no money. But we felt God was calling us to this, and to do it now. We figured, well, there are lots of grants out there. We'll research them and apply for them all. And we did. (Most actually weren't accepting applications by the time we could apply because of lack of donations. ) But all that we could apply for, we did. And God has been closing those doors.
In shutting those doors however, God really has opened up other ones. I was telling Dr. Daddy today that our child will have an even better story than if the adoption was funded by grants. Because this child is being brought home with the love and sacrificial giving of people that we know. We can put faces to people that have already invested in our child's life. I feel like our child is already surrounded by love and prayers of friends and family who are just as anxious to meet our little one as we are. The fact that the people who have given us money are not monetarily rich just makes our child's story more beautiful. Thank you, to all of you who have given and prayed- both things are necessary. Our dossier is now en route (or maybe already there) to Ethiopia!!!