389. my adoption into Christ's family! I'm so very thankful for the immense blessing of being adopted as daughter to Christ, that I get to share in His family and be heirs of His kingdom! What a truly special gift!
390. adoption-the act of making someone who was born of another family a part of your family. I'm thankful that it is possible to adopt children who have no family and make them your own.
391. classes, seminars, books, and all other education to help with adoption!
.....so this call I am referring to is the one from God on all believers to care for widows and orphans. In James 1:27 we are told that the most pure and undefiled worship is caring for the widows and orphans and actually meeting them in their affliction. We are all called to play a role in the care of orphans and it looks different for many people, but for us it was distinct that the call was to adopt.
It started on Easter in 2011. Church was at the Frank Erwin Center (for my Oregon peeps reading this, it is like the Rose Garden). Worship was starting and out walked a choir from Uganda of little kids that came to worship with us. Our adoption story does not begin with a sad story, we didn't hear a tragic story or abuse or neglect and feel bad. Our story starts with seeing joyful children sing and worship Jesus genuinely in such a way that I was moved. Not because of myself, but because God used this precious group of children to change my heart, to open my heart to something I never ever wanted to do.
Everything so far that I have said I would never do, God has laughed and said "we'll see about that." I never wanted to marry a military man, move away from Albany, Oregon or adopt, or have 3 kids. I wanted to stay in my hometown and have 2 kids and a dog and never leave.....well here I am, married to an amazing man who happens to be a Marine, we live in Pflugerville Texas, and are about to have a 3rd child through the process of adoption. God is funny, but He sure does know best! He is a God of providence and we trust and know we are here exactly where we are because it is where we are meant to be!
Saturday we went to the adoption seminar and too many things were said to ignore God's calling us to adopt and NOW. We as people tend to mistake peace from God as the kind of zen peace where you sit and feel calm. Jonah was going to "not Ninevah" or against God's will for him to go to Ninevah and there was turmoil in his ship and it was the craziest storm the men had seen and Jonah was sound and peacefully asleep completely disoebying God. Clearly he was not doing what he should have been, and yet he felt pretty peaceful. In Luke chapter 22 we see Jesus so distressed he is literally sweating blood and yet He is obeying God in the hardest thing ever imaginable, He was headed to be crucified and die on a cross for our sin. He probably didn't feel very peaceful, and yet He was obeying and He didn't let the hardship and stress and all the other horrible feelings He was having turn Him from obeying God the Father.
I think we were waiting for a zen peace, we were waiting for the right time, to buy a house and settle down and then we would start the process, that is what the world would say to do, it makes sense to the world, but God doesn't ask us to obey when it makes sense to the world and He doesn't ask more of us than what He is willing to help us through. I can't even fully explain all the details that revealed to my husband and I that the time was now, but finally it was like we couldn't go on saying not yet, when we felt like God was saying "how many more signs can I show you before you obey Me now?"
We know full well that what we are about to do doesn't make sense to everyone, that is will be immeasurably hard, that we we struggle, we will fail, we will do and say the wrong things, we will hurt, but we know that we won't suffer alone, we have God in this and He will draw near to us while we draw near to Him.
WHY ADOPT?
We didn't decide oh we need another kid, we want 3, (welll my hubby apparently did want 3 kids once I was preggo with Kenni) but I was very content with just 2. We don't have a burning desire to have more kids. We are called to adopt, to care for the orphan in this way. God loved us first and adopted us into His family and He sent His son to suffer and die on a cross for us, to save us, to make us His own, that is the beautiful picture of the gospel. Adoption is a beautiful mirror of adoption, we are going to bring a child into our home and love him/her like Christ first loved us and we are going to teach them that we are not perfect, but we serve a perfect God and that Jesus loves him/her and will never fail our child like we probably will. We are going to make this child our own and we are going to struggle with our child and rejoice with our child for every step of healing that they take. We are not ourselves cappable of healing our child's hurt, but God is and we will be praying for our child.
We could have had a 3rd child biologically for free since we are military, we could have just decided to expand our family and paid for a birth certificate and that would have been great too, but we instead listened to what God wanted for us and we are growing our family this way, by loving one of His children who were not able to stay with their biologic parents.
Help us:
Please pray with us for our child, for their safety and nourishment, for the process to go smoothly, for discernment for us as we are referred to a child-that we would say yes to the child God has in His plan for us. Pray for the financial needs to be met as they come. We emailed the lady today at Breath of Life and are waiting for the next step to adopt domestically here in Texas a child that is at least 3 years old. We are going to be a mixed family and we appreciate your support and prayers!
