Hand In Hand

We are so excited to be accepted for the Hand in Hand Grant!! After mailing out many grant applications, it was SO wonderful to see a "yes" in my inbox!

For those of you that don't know about Hand In Hand.....

HANDinHAND Christian Adoption, Inc. is dedicated to helping children become part of "forever" families by partnering with Christian couples to help carry the burden of the cost of adoption through matching grants and the raising of support. We believe we can accomplish this goal by working together with private donors, churches and the family and friends of adoptive couples. We are not an adoption agency and we do not place children with families. We do work with families that have already begun the process of adoption to help make that process more affordable.

So our family was awarded a matching grant for up to $3500. So if we can raise $3500, Hand In Hand will match that amount dollar-for-dollar.

We are excited to get this opportunity and we are grateful to God for blessing our finances with this grant.

If you feel led to give (any amount is SO greatly appreciated) you can make your check out to:

Hand In Hand Christian Adoption Inc.

And mail it to:

Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc.

James & Kathleen Ellis

18524 Juniper Street

Gardner, KS 66030-9147

They said don't make the check out to us.... just reference us on your envelope. :)

My prayer is this: That God will lay our family on someones heart. That they will feel led to help us move toward our $3500 goal with any amount...small or large. That God will allow this grant to really bless our saving toward our adoption and toward making our family whole.

Asking for donations is HARD! I'm not one to ask for much of anything...especially money. I moved out of my parents house when I was 16. They moved to a really small boarder town in TX and I was crushed to have to leave my friends behind. I basically made life really crappy for them and decided to move back to San Antonio on my own my Jr. year of high school.

I worked at the horse race track there in San Antonio at night to make money to live off off and then I went to school during the day. It was SO hard. My stubbornness didn't allow me to ask for help and I was so embarrassed when someone would help without me asking.... It made me feel like a failure. Oh dear sweet PRIDE!!! ugh.

I always did things on my own.

So this is hard.

VERY hard.

Asking for others to help me become a Mom is so humbling, so pride-swallowing....

My faith has grown by leaps and bounds throughout this process. That was God's intentions, I know. He knows how to draw us closer to him. So now I give it to Him. This grant, this adoption, my infertility, my health, our family.... all of it. to. Him.

Thank you to everyone that "get's it". That gets how it feels to have to ask for money for something you feel called by God to do. That gets not having the ability to run out and "do" with your own checkbook. That gets what it means to be "called" by God to do something. That gets what a "Sun Stand Still" prayer means....and how much faith that really takes. Thank you to those who pray for God to lead them to give or to really "get it", or to simply pray for families like ours to become whole.