Hello everyone! It’s the end of the month which means it’s time for another update.

Adoption Update

If you’ve listened to the last episode of the podcast you’ll likely remember that I finally revealed that my wife and I are adopting a little girl from India! There aren’t many details I can really share at the moment, but we are hoping to have her home by the Spring. So far we have completed our home study and have applied for several grants. We are currently awaiting approval from USCIS (US Customs & Immigration) and from an organization known as CARA which represents the Indian government. In addition, God really worked out a difficult situation that we found ourselves in with a person who presented themselves as someone they weren’t. As a result, we paid $800 for a required service that was never completed but after weeks of stressing and feeling overwhelmed/angry about it, I was finally able to get in touch with them. Within an hour of that conversation and as a result of a lot of prayer, we had a full refund.

Please pray for:

• Peace and patience as we work through this long and taxing process.
• Funding for the process (it costs between $30,000 and $40,000 to adopt from India)
• A better paying job in the near future
• God’s provision through everything that is required of us right now

eBook Progress

I am still working on my first ebook, a month-long devotion (now) titled Lessons from Jesus. While progress has slowed as I’ve been busy with adoption stuff and just being really tired, I am still hoping to have an early September 2018 release date.

Social Media

As I mentioned in the last episode of the podcast, I have launched an Ancient Abandon Twitter account, and I’ve revamped the Facebook page. I’ve mostly used them for announcing upcoming posts or podcast episodes, however I also share news articles and discussion starters.

I also wanted to thank everyone who participated on last week’s social media poll. I asked people to vote on their preferred Ancient Abandon content and 69% said they favored theological commentary, while 31% said they prefer current events commentary though it’s worth mentioning that many people commented that they would have chosen “Both” if that option had been available.

To keep up with Ancient Abandon on social media and to be a part of future polls and discussions, Like and Follow on Facebook at facebook.com/ancientabandon and on Twitter @AncientAbandon.

Blog Updates

The last half of July was a good month for the blog. In addition to episode 15 of the podcast coming out, three new blogging through song posts were published. While I haven’t done these music inspired posts in a long time, it has been a refreshing break from the news and politics of everyday life. Be sure to check out the posts covering “Heathens” by Twenty One Pilots, “I Won’t Let Go” by Jason Mraz, and “Halo” by Starset.

Next month I plan to publish an article on the physical, emotional, and financial cost of adoption and the Christian mandate to care for the orphan so be sure to check in, or click the “Follow” button in the side bar to get updates via email.

Podcast Updates

Finally, episode 16 of the podcast will be released this Saturday, August 4, 2018. Be sure to subscribe to the Ancient Abandon Podcast in your preferred podcast player to get the latest episodes as soon as they come out; and if you want to help me out you can take a minute of your time to leave a five-star rating and review which will help it become more discoverable to new listeners.

One last bit of news regarding the podcast: at some point following the release of episode 16 I will be changing hosting services. This shouldn’t cause any issues with you getting new episodes, but in the event that you see a new one posted on the website but haven’t gotten it in your podcast feed, you may need to unsubscribe and re-subscribe again.
With all of that said, thank you all for being here, for your prayers, and for your continued support.

Blessings to you all,
Dan