I belong to a couple of listserves dealing with adoption. Recently the topic of financing an adoption came up (it isn’t cheap), and someone responded with something like this:
I want to share my story with you. We knew we were supposed to adopt, but we didn’t know where the money was going to come from. So I prayed. A couple days later a friend asked me to help at her business for a few weeks, and that paid for the first set of fees.
The second set of fees came due, and I didn’t know where they were going to come from. So I prayed, and held a garage sale. My husband sold his motorcycle, and that covered the next set of fees.
The third set of fees were due, and they were the biggest, so I prayed again, and God told me we could get by on one car. So we placed an add in the paper and wouldn’t you know it, the car sold and covered our last set of fees.
Goes to show you the power of prayer
Now I can’t ridicule this back to the list, these are a bunch of nice Christian woman (and a few Jewish ones), but here is what I would have like to respond:
How great that it all worked out for you. I’d like to share my story with you. Like you we knew we wanted to adopt and didn’t have the extra money sitting around. We decided that my old car would have to service us for a while longer – no new car loan, we’d take out an adoption loan instead.
Now, my household isn’t really religious. My husband’s an atheist, and I’m a Deist. You can pray to a Deist god, but its kind of like having deep conversations with your cat. Fluffy might fill you in on the meaning of life, but really, you do it more for yourself than to get results from Fluffy. But I was still worried about where the money was coming from.
Wouldn’t you know it, before we even started our adoption, we got a phone call. A rich but distant relative of my husband’s (who’d he’d met once) died, and remembered us in her will. Enough money to pay off the adoption loan and buy me a new car (and then some)!
Let’s compare results:
You (presumably), went to church every Sunday and spent time in prayer to get results, I slept in and used the same time to have sexual fantasies about John Cusack.
In return, God gave you opportunity to work for money and sell your belongings for money, while I got significantly more money that I didn’t even have to buy a lottery ticket for.
I think you need to have a talk with your God, ‘cause I got a way better deal from mine.
Goes to show the power of not praying.
Miller
April 9, 2002, 10:42pm
2
“I said a prayer and held a garage sale, and God gave me the money! I said a prayer and sold my car, and God gave me the money!”
Sounds like somebody needs to brush up on cause and effect.
“I said a prayer and vacuumed the carpet, now my house is clean! God cleaned my house!”
BTW, good luck with the adoption. I’ve always felt adopting a kid is one of the noblest things a person can do.
Shade
April 9, 2002, 11:31pm
3
If it helps - they’re going to pray anyway, and at least this way they take responsibility for themselves and make what they want happen.
Shade