How to Help

A lot of people have been asking how to help us in this adoption process. Let me share a few ways with you:

1. Pray. Seriously we need all the prayers we can get. Specifically you can pray that we will trust God and His timing in all of this. I've said it before and I'll say it again-we really want a baby, but more than that we want our hearts to be warm towards God and we want to trust Him more. Will you pray that for us?

2. Donate money. As I have written before, adoption is crazy expensive. By God's grace we have raised a lot of money towards our adoption, but we still need more. I know some of you aren't in a position to give money or may not want to and that is totally fine, but for many of you I know you have asked about it so I thought I would just put the details on here. Every little bit helps! There are a few ways to donate money so I will list them and then if you decide that's something you want to do, you can choose what works for you.

• Donate through Paypal. Right under the picture of Heath and I there is a button that says "Donate." If you click that button it will take you to our account with Lifesong for Orphans, an organization where you can donate and it is tax deductible. You just go there, make sure it says our name in the blue box, add your credit card info and follow their instructions from there. 

          *** Please note some things about doing it this
                 way. First, it is tax deductible. Second, Paypal
                 will take about 3% of your donation for
                 processing fees. Third, you must donate by
                 July 17th   (that is the deadline they gave us)

• Donate by mailing a check. There are also a few ways to do this. If you want it to be tax deductible then you can mail it to Lifesong at:

           Lifesong for Orphans

          Attn: Racine2798

          PO Box 40 

          Gridley, IL 61744

          Please put Racine 2798 in the memo line of the
          check. Again, you must donate by July 17th.

        

          If you don't need it to be tax deductible and would
          rather send a check just to us (we will use it for
          travel expenses and any fees that we will owe at
          the end) then please email me at
          theracinefamily@gmail.com or message me on
          Facebook and I can give you our  address. 

3. Donate frequent flyer miles/hotel points. That may seem odd, but we will have to travel to pick up our little one and most of the states are not within driving distance so we will have to fly. There is also a time period of up to two weeks that we will have to stay in that state until some legal things are taken care of. Up to two weeks in a hotel can get expensive fast. Both of those things would be super helpful to us. If you are interested in that, please email or Facebook me. 

I'm sure there are lots of other ways that you can help, these are just the major ones we can think of right now. 

Let me take a second to explain why we have asked people to give. We believe adoption is the heart of God. Each of us who are believers have been adopted into His family, so by us adopting a child, we are able to be a picture of the gospel not only to our child but also to those around us (even ourselves). In James 1:27 it says: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." We are called by God to take care of orphans. We really view this as a ministry opportunity and are thankful God has called us to this. We tell you about ways to help so that you can also be a part of this ministry. We understand that not everyone will give, but we can all pray. There is no pressure to give in any way, but we really do beg you to pray for us. 

I hope I explained our heart in all this and that no one feels any presssure. We just wanted the people who wanted to know what to do to know how to do it! 

Not What I Thought

One of the things that has been really hard for me as I go through infertility and even the adoption process is reconciling Scripture with my circumstances and feelings. I think the verses that have been especially hard for me are ones about asking God for something, Him hearing and then Him providing. Now I know that God doesn't say yes to us all the time-he's not a vending machine where we just put our requests in and out comes the answer we want and He's not like Santa Clause where I go to Him and tell Him my wish list and then one day they all suddenly appear. But God loves children and He says they are a blessing from Him. So why wouldn't He want us to be able to have them on our own? I have often felt like God was not hearing me.

Insert here my day of extended time with God. You know the day I studied John 15. I wrote about what I learned about pruning from verse 2, but God was not done with me that day. John 15:7 says: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." My gut reaction was "yeah right." I have a tendency to be a bit cynical! I asked God that day to show me what it meant to abide in Him and I do really want to know what that looks like, but that's not the biggest thing God showed me from this verse. The thing that He convicted my heart over is that even if it feels like He is not doing whatever I wish even though I am abiding in Him, He is doing what I wish.

No, He isn't allowing me to get pregnant or have a baby in my arms right now, but that is not the only prayer I have been praying in the last few years. As I look back at my journals from about 2-3 years ago one of the main things I was praying for my life is that I would recognize my dependence on Him. Whether I feel like it or not, I am dependent,  but I wanted to sense my dependence. Well you know what? I wished for that it was done for me. I have never felt more needy for God or more dependent on Him than I have in the past year. I have a sense of dependency. I also have been praying that I will continually be surrendered to His will for my life. Well guess what, infertility is not my will and to be honest neither was adoption (it is now though!), but it is His and I have to be surrendered to that. I feel like daily I am surrendering my desire for a child to Him and asking for His help in trusting His plan.

When I first read verse 7 that day, I was upset in my heart. I am so thankful that God showed me that He is answering my prayers. It may not be my prayer for a child right now, but He is being faithful to answer and to conform me more to the image of Christ. I am thankful that I can "ask whatever I wish, and it will be done for me."

Blown Away

As this past weekend ended, Heath and I could only sum up how we felt in two words: Blown Away. This past weekend was our Adoption Auction. We had been planning it for many weeks (along with several other wonderful people). On Saturday it was finally here. In all we had over 70 items donated! What blew me away is where all of these donations came from: family, church friends, Bible study friends, friends from college, friends from middle school and strangers. It was unbelievable. I couldn't believe that people would be so generous.

On Saturday I was feeling really nervous about if people were going to come or not. We didn't have any type of RSVP so we didn't know. We set the room up for about 100 people. Right before it started I told my friend Cara that I was nervous about if people would come or not. Her response hit me square in the heart, she said "Whoever is suppose to be here will be here." She reminded me that God was in control and would bring exactly who He wanted. Almost every chair was filled. We had family, friends from BSF, friends from church and even a few people we barely knew. Again, we were blown away.

The auction was a huge success and God used it to raise lots of money for our adoption. With the auction, a matching grant and generous donations from lots of other people, we are right at 75% of the money we need to raise!!! Not to sound repetitive, but we are blown away. Below are some pictures from the auction and faces of people who are helping bring baby Racine home....

We are beyond thankful for all the love and support we have received and continue to receive. God is so gracious to us!!

Pruning

I realized today that I have been talking a lot about the details of our adoption and not a lot about what is going on in my heart. I want this blog to be a healthy balance of both. So since it's been a while, I decided to write some about my heart.

A few weeks ago, early on a Friday morning, I met up with some sweet friends for breakfast at Panera. After they left I decided to stay a while and get some extended time reading the Bible and praying. Little did I know what God wanted to teach me that day. I am going through a devotional book called Jesus Calling (side note- I'm not super big on devotional books, but I LOVE this one! This is my second time going through it. I highly, highly recommend it!) I honestly don't even remember what the book was talking about that day, but I do know it led me to John 15.

John 15 is a familiar passage to me. I remember asking God to help me read it with a freshness. I've read it so much it can easily just be a quick read and then shut my Bible. But that day was meant for extended time so I read over verses 1-16, but I focused in on verses 2 and 7.

Verse 2 of chapter 15 hit me like a ton of bricks. It says "He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." A few years ago I read a book called "Biblical Womanhood in the Home"(another book I recommend) and one of the chapters is called "Pruned to Bloom." Reading this verse took me back to that chapter. Anyway, the bottom line of what I got out of this verse that day is that I am being pruned right now. Pruning hurts. I'm no green thumb so I don't know exactly what pruning entails, but I know you go and cut dead stuff off the plants with some oversized scissor looking things (excuse my ignorance). I'm sure if plants could talk they would say they don't really enjoy pruning, that it hurts to have those sharp things come an cut off part of you. I feel the same way. I'm not a fan of pruning, it hurts and I'd just rather not go through it. What got my attention on that day though was the result of the pruning-bearing more fruit. Just like when a plant gets pruned the end result is more fruit (more flowers), so it is with me. God is going to prune me sometimes. He's going to come in do some cutting away and it's going to hurt, but in the end I will bear more fruit which will make me more like His Son which is ultimately what I want anyway.

To sum it up, I think God is using infertility and even the adoption process (although it's way more fun than infertility!) to prune me. He's using it to reveal my heart and come in cut the ugly stuff off. But His heart in it is so good. He is wanting me to bear more fruit, to be more like Jesus. I love it! I don't love the process, but I love the end result. I have come to a place where I want Him to prune me, no matter how much it hurts, because what I want more than anything is to be more like Jesus.

I will have to tell you what I got out of verse 7 later. I got carried away sharing what He is doing in my heart from verse 2!! He really is so good to us no matter where we are on this beautiful journey!