“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5
We’re often asked how families can make adoption a more affordable option. And while there are many ways—tax credits, grants, fundraising, loans, the list goes on—the biggest factor for so many AGCI families has always been trusting God and trusting the process. If He is telling you to go, He will find a way to make the finances align at the right time!
Below is a letter of gratitude from an AGCI family that trusted the process and trusted God’s journey to their sons.
To Whom It May Concern,
Like many things in life, adoption is scary. There are so many leaps of faith involved, and you have no choice but to hope and pray for the best. When we adopted Oliver, we were concerned about the finances, but God provided for us when we sold our house and were able to put some of the equity toward our adoption expenses. We knew we would face some medical expenses, but we set aside the money and moved forward. When we met Oliver, we immediately saw that 
there was more to his medical situation than what was recorded in his file, and we were devastated: we knew he would need more surgeries than anticipated. How would we finance this? Thank goodness we serve a big God who isn’t thrown off by details such as this! While we were still in the midst of paying medical bills, we decided to move forward and begin the process for adoption number two—yet we really had no idea how we were going to afford to add another member to our family. God has a plan, and we have been blessed to have Oliver’s surprise medical expenses paid for by a generous donor. How humbling it has been to receive such a blessing from a stranger!
Our first adoption taught us that, while we may not know how He will do it, God will provide for us. As we anticipate meeting our second son with excitement, we know that we are once again entering a serious medical situation. We are still trying to fundraise to bring him home all the while wondering how will we pay for his extensive medical care on top of the adoption expenses? We don’t know the answer to this question, but we do know one thing: this is our son, and we will figure it out. This grant will help immensely towards funding his adoption, leaving room in our savings to begin the life-saving treatments needed upon returning home.
We are so blessed to live in a city with wonderful medical care—and we are thrilled that one of the best pediatric cardiologists is only two hours from our home. In fact, he is the world’s utmost leader in the treatment and repair of our son’s specific heart defect. This is not a coincidence; he needs to come home. We have requested to have our adoption expedited due to the severity of his heart condition. This was unforeseen and has left us less time to fundraise than originally planned, as well as less time to get our home ready to welcome another son. We know that much of the cost of adoption happens in and around the travel portion and that funds are so very needed during this part of the process. We know that God has a plan to work out all of the finances. We praise Him that He will equip us with what we need to carry out this calling.
We haven’t yet met our son, but we are already praying for him in so many ways; that God will protect his heart from the trauma he is about to encounter emotionally, and for the healing that must physically take place for him to grow strong. We pray that God provides us with the endurance that we need to tackle another medical marathon. And finally, we pray that God provides us with the finances we need to bring him home as soon as possible.
We are so grateful for this agency and its role in building our family. We are also grateful to the many donors that make it possible for families like ours to finally realize the dream of a family.
Sincerely,
Nathanael & Lindsey Williams
