DONATE YOUR PRAYERS!!

I believe that the Power of Prayer is strong and can do great things. I need prayers that we can come up with the funds needed to bring Jiliang home. We need to raise $9000. I know it is meant to be! God has graciously given me many signs that Jiliang is the right path for us. I believe in the power of prayer, and I feel that this might be a TEST for me to depend on HIM a little, no, a LOT more than I have in the past. In the hardest times of my life, I realized that I didn't ask HIM for help. As soon as I asked, things got better. This was a pattern with me over and over. I have always been a person of faith, but 2006 was a tumultuous year for me healthwise, and I lost a lot of my faith...well, it shook my faith completely. (This was the year that Jiliang was born, coincidentally.)
In 2007, I asked God to bless me and heal me and promised that if He did I would spread HIS word. I prayed a LOT, not knowing what was to come. I was having a third surgery, with two prior botched surgeries. I also had chronic pain. This was all due to birthing complications in 2004. I prayed about it, and decided that trusting God was my only option and that if HE healed me, HE must truly be watching over me. I don't think that our bodies are ever the same after trauma and surgery, but in my opinion, HE healed me, which was a Miracle!
The last year has truly tested me! That is all I am going to say. :)
I prayed and prayed, but felt that God was nowhere to be found. Then, wow, recently everything started to fall into place and I finally had an opportunity to switch to the Special Needs program (I wanted to in 2007, but our previous agency eliminated theirs after our dossier was on its way to China). Roads that I ended up on that didn't make sense at the time - hence unanswered prayers - start to really make sense. A job that I had inadvertently taken has currently blessed me with the skills that will help me better parent and communicate with my daughter-to-be.
In the back of my head, I have that voice saying that it is selfish to ask for help for me. My heart tells me to do whatever I need to bring her home. She has a complicated heart defect that requires surgery. I really do think that this is God's way of telling me to PRAY my way through it! He wants to show me what HE can do. It's easy to look back and say that it could have just been a coincidence. I think HE knows that I need a lesson in faith, but I also promised HIM some things, and I need to keep my end of the bargain.
Will YOU all say a prayer?
I apologize for the length, or if this seems too forward. I decided to take a leap of faith and I hope that I didn't overstep.
Faithfully,
Jill