Those are easy words to say! But they are true nontheless. God is faithful, all the time. It is we humans who tend to get in the way. God is faithful is so many things that I think we often loose focus on all the ways that He shows us that faithfulness. We tend, for whatever reason, to limit this statement to finances and relationships. And so, staying true to form, that is also what I will focus on for the purpose of today’s blog.

The adoption process is always full of challenges, and while fostering is a similar yet different road, it has its share of challenges also. Anyone who has ventured into either area is noding their heads right now! It is what you sign up for. There is no such thing as a “simple” or “easy” experience. While this takes many forms, one that seems to bring a lot of stress is the finances. Adopting is not inexpensive, but then again neither is raising a child, so maybe the cost is just a downpayment on future negative cash flows! It seems like an ill advised quest to come up with money for something that will, in the end, cost you more money. But this is not a business decision. It is a soul decision, and those decisions should not be made based on money anyway.

While I know that just thinking about the cost causes many to decide not to adopt.  That is a mistake. God is faithful, in this area and many others. Time and again I have seen God open doors and provide for people who started down this path not knowing how they will get to the end. Sometimes it is in overt and practical ways and sometimes it is miraculous. But it does seem to require a little bit of faith to take that first step. Kelly and I probably take that step a little more easily now than we did on the first adoption because we have the hindsight of seeing God move and provide over and over throughout the last seven years. We have seen everything form God providing all the finances within two weeks of our deciding to adopt, to the gates of heaven opening up and money pouring in during the 11th hour just before leaving for a foriegn country. There have been times were we have been blessed enough in our own finances to pay for much of the adoption, and there have been times where there seemed no way that we could provide any. But God was, and is, always faithful. And He has provided in different ways and at different times through every adoption.

Our current adoption is no differnt.  Over the last several weeks people have opened their hearts to this journey in truly awe inspiring ways.  This has included a friend who told me months ago that God has called he and his wife to give to others, our family who continues to support our adoptions beyond anything you can imagine, our adoption agency who helped us find grant money, and even the authorities in China who have graciously adjusted their expectations for the ophanage donation.  These few weeks have reinforced that God is faithful.

I can hear you saying, “Well, that is easy to say when things are going well.”  You are correct.  It is easier to state that God is faithful when times are good.  But God is always faithful, even when things are not going well.  No one lives on the mountain top all of the time and our life has been no different.  There have been times of very difficult passages, places where God did not always feel as close as we would like.  But those challenges gave us the opportunity to come to the end of our selves and to the point of accepting God as faithful no matter what the outcome.  Faith grows much faster in the valley than it does at the peaks!

So if God has called you to adopt or foster, remember that God is faithful.  Take that first step and see how God works out the details.  You will not be dissapointed!

Cameron