Our Matching Grant Support Letter:
Dear Family
and Friends,
Over two
years ago, Earl and I, after a time of prayer and research, said “yes” to the
call to adopt internationally. We had no idea the amount of patience we’d need,
the amount of time it would take, or the amount of money it would require from
start to finish. All we knew was God was telling us to say “yes” and we were to
be obedient. We began the preliminary paperwork for Bethany Christian Services,
a local and national adoption agency, and were approved. We met the strict
qualifications for a Haitian adoption. We completed our application for one of
the crèches (orphanage) that our agency works with and were accepted. After
some delay, change in Haitian adoption laws, and change in requirements, our
Home Study was completed and approved to continue our journey. While at a slow
speed, God’s given us green light after green light, keeping us on the road to
go.
Over 40
times in the Bible the word “orphan” or “fatherless” is mentioned. James 1:27a
says Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is
this: to look after orphans… To “look after orphans” is an instruction from
God that may be carried out in differing ways by His people. Our instruction to
“look after orphans” is to actually, physically, look after an orphan through
adoption. We feel led to adopt a male in the age range of 6 months to age 3. We
look forward to the day in the near future when we are matched by the Haitian
government with our son. In the meantime, we pray, we complete what seems like
an endless amount of paperwork, we pray, we take and attend classes, courses,
and webinars to prepare ourselves for parenting a child that may come to us
through a traumatic start or with a health issue, and we pray some more.
One major
area of adoption that has required much prayer from us, is the financial aspect
of adoption. The cost of an international adoption, and in particular a Haitian
adoption, is overwhelming! God has provided the necessary finances needed for
the first handful of fees, thus far, through our family budget cuts, our
savings account, the selling of Haitian jewelry, ornaments, and baking vanilla,
yard sales, recycling beverage cans, from time to time an extra job, and a few
personal donations given to us by friends. Our estimated total cost, from
beginning to end, is in the $40,000 range. We recently, have been blessed to be
awarded an ADOPTION MATCHING GRANT by Promise686, to help raise more of the
money needed to hopefully fund the rest of our adoption fees. Promise686 will
match dollar for dollar everything that is contributed by churches, corporations,
family, and friends. They will match up to the first $4000! Any amount raised
above the first matched $4000 will also go directly toward our fees; meaning
100% of any donation received will go directly to bringing our little guy home.
Would you prayerfully consider “looking after orphans” by donating to our
grant? Your gifts will be tax deductible and you will receive a receipt from
Promise686 for your tax purposes. Promise686 (www.promise686.org) is a
non-profit adoption and foster care ministry dedicated to expanding God’s
Kingdom by helping to bring the fatherless into Christian homes.
There have
been times in our thus far adoption journey that we have been told “it’s
risky,” “it’s humbling,” “it’s hard,” “it’s painful,” “it’s life-changing.” All
I can think of when I hear those phrases, is how my Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ chose to do something risky, humbling, hard, and painful to change MY
life, to adopt me into His kingdom. God decided in advance to adopt us into his
own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he
wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 1:5 NLT. I praise and thank Him
for my spiritual adoption. We will praise Him and thank Him through every twist
and turn of this earthly adoption of a precious boy who needs a family. My
friend, we humbly ask you to join and support us in our risky, life-changing,
hard and painful (at times,) yet gloriously powerful journey. We will praise
and thank Him for the people He calls to join us in our journey. Here’s how you can support us:
1. Through Prayer: Please pray for the
adoption officials and government in Haiti, that they would be quick, efficient,
organized, fair, and family-oriented in their practices and officiating of
their positions and the laws. Pray for the director and care-givers at our
child’s crèche. Pray that there would be ample provision for all of the
children in their care. Pray our son gets the time, attention, love, and his
needs met in a way that might be similar to how they’d be met in our care. Pray
for our hearts, including our daughters’, Willow and London, as God grows us,
changes us, and prepares us for the future addition to our family through
adoption.
2. Through Financial Support: Please consider making a
tax-deductible donation to our matching adoption grant, through Promise686.
1.
Make checks payable to Promise686, Inc.
2.
Please indicate Edmunds Adoption on the Memo Section of your check.
3.
Mail your payment to:
Promise686, Inc,
4729 Peachtree Industrial Blvd, Suite 100,
Berkeley Lake, GA 30092
4.
You can give online to our account at http://www.promise686.org/family-grant
*Note: per IRS guidelines, Promise686
maintains complete discretion and control over the use of all donated funds,
but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.
Thank you
for investing in the Kingdom through prayer and finances-it will be an investment
with an eternal return! We look forward to when we can share with you our
child’s name and picture. As I update my blog from time to time, you can follow
our journey at: www.sunshineedmunds.blogspot.com.
Blessings,
My friends,
adoption is redemption. It’s costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous.
Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed him. Derek Loux
