What comes next...

(I shared our story of how we decided to adopt in my last post. If you missed it, you can read that here.)

Now that our application has been submitted, we need to start our fundraising while we wait for our approval which should come in 1-2 weeks. Once our approval is here, we will have a couple of weeks to submit the first round of fees that will get us started in the home study process.

To do that, we have set up a t-shirt fundraiser to kick things off! This shirt has us really excited because...

1. It's a little nerdy, just like us.

2. It has a dual purpose - to remind you to pray for our family and our child as well as to help you start gospel-centered conversations.

I'm going to give you a breakdown of the meaning of the design, but if you are as excited as we are and want to order your shirt RIGHT NOW, you can do that here.

When it came to designing the shirts for our fundraiser, we knew that we wanted a design that would tip it's hat to the fact that it supported adoption, but at the same time didn't scream "I'm a fundraiser shirt!"

As we considered our own adoption in Christ, we came to Romans 8:12-17, which says:

So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those led by God's Spirit are God's sons. You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father! " The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God's children, and if children, also heirs ​-- ​heirs of God and coheirs with Christ ​-- ​if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

​The greek word that was translated "adoption" here is huiothesia. The meaning... Adoption, adoption as sons; the nature and condition of the true disciples in Christ, who by receiving the Spirit of God into their souls become sons of God.

This sparked the idea to create a design around the greek word that would serve not only as a reminder to remember and pray for our adoption journey, but also to hopefully help you initiate gospel-centered conversations for the sake of the mission.

We can't wait to see you in these shirts and hear the stories of how God uses them to open doors for conversation!

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How you can pray:

• Pray for our whole family as we prepare to welcome another child into our home.

• Pray for our child who God already has set aside for us - for safety, health, and to experience love where they are being cared for.

• Pray over our fundraising. The numbers are BIG, but our God is BIGGER.

• Pray that God would allow our story to reach the people whom He would call to support us - even beyond our usual circles of influence.

Other ways to support:

• Send a financial gift.

• Get creative! What talents can you leverage to help us raise funds? Let's chat about it!

• Share our story and invite others to follow along.

We will be forever grateful for any support that you can give!

- The Minter Family