Why Are We Adopting?? (part 2)

by Sarah

This is a question that, I’m sure, some people take for granted. And others of you have probably wondered why we are choosing to adopt. I mean, seriously, we’ve got four kids already, right? And if we don’t have the “extra” money, why are we doing it?

Well, the obvious answer is that we have prayed and truly feel as though God is leading us in this direction. On a practical level, if you sat down with Joe and me you would probably get different answers from both of us, and yet still the same – mine would be a lot more wordy than his, of course!

As I’ve heard this question asked, Joe’s response is usually something like “well, why not?” We know that this is a good thing. God has commands us to care for the widows and orphans (James 1:27). In the book of Mark we are reminded of God’s command to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That is pretty hard to do by itself, but then in John 15:12, He takes this love to a much higher level. "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”

My answer is usually to go back to the fact that ever since I was a teenager, my heart has always been touched by adoption. But I thought that was something you did if you couldn’t have biological children. I have deeply desired to be a mommy ever since I can remember, and there was no doubt in my mind that if I couldn’t have had biological children that I would’ve wanted to adopt.

However, in more recent years, through God’s grace, it has become a reality in my mind that adoption is not just a substitute for procreation. It is a wonderful plan for bringing the “fatherless” into a loving family. A family where they can not only belong physically, but also where they can learn how to be adopted into our Heavenly Father’s family! I mean, what greater example of this do we have than that of God’s love for us? In Romans 5:8 it clearly states that while we were still in our sin, Christ died for us. Now that is a loaded topic in and of itself! In a nutshell, God is holy, pure, perfect. God loves us, but He cannot have anything impure or sinful near Him. So there is the dilemma – God desires to have a relationship with us, and without Him we are hopeless. Each of us has a debt from our sin that we cannot pay apart from our own eternal death. In our sin, everything about is us in complete opposition to God and who He is. The verse could read that when we were the enemies of God, Christ died for us. Unbelievable! Not only did God love us as His enemies, but He chose to solve the problem by putting our sin onto His Son who took the excruciating punishment in our place! And now, because of this sacrifice, God looks at us and sees Christ’s blood – Christ’s perfect holiness – and He adopts us into His family – not as servants, or even good friends, but as sons! I have heard this “story” since I was born, but never have I been able to see it so clearly and so deeply as in this past year as God has been leading us through this process to adoption.

We have every confidence that as God leads, He will provide. We have already seen that so clearly evidenced over these last several months through many friends and family who have chosen to step out in faith and join us in this ministry of adoption. He will provide financially, physically and emotionally for us, the children we have now and any children He adds to our home. God has not promised that we will ever be able to adopt any children, but we are willing to follow as long as He leads us, however far down this path He chooses for us to go. Our prayer is that we will be willing to go and content to stand still, or even stop . . . that we will not become so enamored with the gift that we forget the Giver!