Trust God...NOT Your Insurance Company!! (A Miracle!!!)

I was blessed this past Wednesday night to be able to give a testimony about God's great love and grace. It was fantastic to be able to honor God by sharing what He has done and is doing for our family, especially for Esther Marie. I shared with you recently that a miracle had happened and once I shared at church, I would share on the blog. Thanks for your patience.

To provide a little background, I will tell you that almost two years ago, my husband Jasper started his own architecture practice. It was a scary time and we truly had to step out in faith. God really had given Jasper the dream and desire and so he thought...hey, I'm almost 50...it's now or never. God is blessing the business and things are going well. Business is increasing slowly and steadily and we pray it will continue that way. One of the issues about being self-employed was finding affordable insurance that would cover the needs of all of the children...especially the cleft issues. Again, at just the right time, we were able to get on an open enrollment policy with a year wait on pre-existing conditions...and it was affordable.

I had been having recurring dreams about adopting in 2006...the year Esther Marie was born. I shared with Jasper and he agreed that he didn't think our family was complete yet. In June of 2006, we turned in our application to adopt again. We thought it would take at least a couple of years to get a referral, but that was "our" plan, not God's. We thought we would have awhile to get back on our feet financially after using up our savings and going into debt to start the business. Well, don't count on your own plans and God's plans always aligning with each other!! We received a call with a referral just four months later, and we were stunned to say the least. We had also decided that "we" wanted a child with a very simple special need if the child was going to have one. This child in the referral had cleft lip and palate. I actually asked the agency to email me the list where I had marked that as an option because I didn't remember doing that...I needed to see that for myself. I thought one child (Joshua) with a life-long physical need was about all we could handle! Again, that was "our" plan, not God's.

When we got the file and the photos, we feel in love with her...Esther Marie (the name God had already given to us). I knew it was her, but I had doubts and was scared because it was sooner than we expected. I am sure that is normal, especially when you are faced with needing to make a decision in just a matter of days. We got a medical evaluation from the International Adoption Clinic, and I called the insurance company about coverage. Again, I was stunned to hear that her first surgery would not be covered. I called Karla at the agency and was crying so hard, she thought something awful had happened to Jasper or one of the kids. I told her what was wrong and she assured me that she was okay with us adopting this child because we had always taken good care of the other three children we have, and she knew we would take care of this one too. I had visited many other adoption agency websites and was well aware of the fact that almost all would NOT let you adopt a special needs child unless you had insurance to cover the special need. I am so grateful to Karla that she knew our family and trusted us and God to take care of this child! We tried to find out the exact costs of all of the surgeries she would need to have right away...but no one seemed to be able to give us that information. I searched and searched the net and finally found a figure of $20,000 minimum. We tried to talk to families who had adopted a cleft lip/palate toddler and no one called us back. Why? I believe God wanted us to totally trust Him when making this decision...without speaking to alot of other people. I did share with our church home group and they prayed for us to know God's will. Several days before it was time to tell the agency our decision, we just looked at each other and said....what are we waiting for? We KNOW she is the one...the child I had been dreaming about. The children had agreed also. I showed them the baby photo and said..here is a cute baby, what do you think of her. I didn't say anything about her being a baby from the agency. Both Hannah and MaryAlyce had said...we want her! Joshua just shrugged and said...she's cute. (typical boy reaction??? laugh) Anyway, we called Karla and said....You can take the "hold" off this child on the internet list. Karla said, oh..are you sure? I said...yes, I'm sure. She said she was sorry to hear that. I said...you can take the "hold" off and mark her "matched"..we are taking her! (I know it was devilish, but I couldn't resist teasing Karla..she thought I was saying we didn't want her.) By the way, there were seven other families on a waiting list who wanted her if we had said "no".

Over the next eight months, we looked at our finances and tried to figure out how we were going to come up with all the funds we needed to adopt Esther Marie and take care of this first surgery. We would need $20,000 to $25,000 for the adoption and then a minimum of $20,000 for the cleft palate surgery. Considering we were already in debt, this seemed overwhelming. We tried to find another insurance policy and that didn't work out. We asked everyone to pray for God to provide a financial miracle....THAT worked! When we got home from China and started making doctor appointments and calling the insurance company to see how we could handle the costs, God made a way...and provided the miracle. Friends, family and physicians urged us to contact the hospital and the insurance company to talk to them about the surgery and the costs. I dreaded trying to deal with all of it and finding out the real costs, but I finally made the calls and am so glad I did. I called the insurance company once more and told the story for the third time. She asked me to hold and came back and said to me.....the surgery will be covered. Again, I was stunned, but a "good" stunned! I said to her...please forgive me for not believing you, but I am not sure I do. Could you please check with your supervisor and ask that person? I held on once again for a longer period of time and she came back and said...yes, you are covered. I told her I didn't understand because we had been told THREE times back in October 2007 that we would NOT be covered...and there were NO exceptions. I was told that twice when I called and Jasper called once more and was told the same thing. Our insurance booklet was thick and confusing and we couldn't tell by reading it and that is why we had called them to verify coverage. Now on this day, I was crying and laughing on the phone with this lady and saying...praise God, praise God. I told her I didn't understand but I believed that God was blessing us because we had stepped out in faith to adopt this child even though we had no clue how we would pay for everything!!!! She then told me she believed that I had called in October and been told that we wouldn't be covered because it was right here in their computer records. They had made a "mistake" and she was going to send an email to the man I spoke with in October to tell him so. The other two reps who told us "no" also...well, perhaps they just read his notation and told us the same thing without really checking???? Who knows??? What was the reason for all of this confusion? I really don't know, but I do know it has definitely increased our faith and trust in God and we give Him ALL OF THE GLORY for this miracle!!! Trust God, not your insurance company...that's for sure!!!!

To conclude, I will say that we still have debt for the adoption expenses (about half) and we will have medical expenses...deductibles and 20% of the costs. But I have total faith in God that HE is going to provide ALL that is needed and even more! Thank you again to all of those who have prayed and donated and are helping. We do have the $2300+ in the fund and it will increase! The surgery is August 20th....that date is a miracle also because we got a cancellation date and were stuck in a slot that someone probably would have liked to have had. God is the conductor and He is orchestrating all of it....ALL PRAISE AND HONOR AND GLORY TO HIM!!!!