Adoption is a word that is
very near and dear to my heart. It has
been for a long time now. It means birth parents have the opportunity to give
life and love to a child. It means a
child gets a family and a family gets a child.
I love adoption. I love so many
things about it. The joy, the
anticipation, the hope, the idea of family, the way it brings people together
(and not just child and parents), the miracle of each life, the journey, the
healing, the love.
Why do I love adoption?
It’s sometimes hard to explain, but I will try. You see I was adopted; I wouldn’t be who I am
without my Father. God took me in and
made me His own. He loves me, protects
me, provides for me, sings over me, and delights in me. Where would I be without adoption? I have also seen firsthand time and time
again, what an amazing blessing adoption is; it is a blessing for the birth
family, for the child, and for the adoptive family. A decision made in love for one that is loved,
is most often the case, a decision made out of necessity and pure desire for a
child to have everything he or she needs.
A decision sometimes made in desperation or for lack of a better option.
Adoption though, as amazing
and wonderful as it is, is difficult too.
Adoption is born out of loss. Loss
for the birth family, loss for the child, and loss for the adoptive
parents. Many don’t want to acknowledge
this loss; they don’t want to admit that there is any grief or pain associated
with adoption. I know for a long time I
didn’t.
You
see, I have known for as long as I can remember that someday I would adopt,
someday, I would travel to the other side of the world and bring a precious
child (or two!) into my family. I would be gaining
a child, they would be gaining a mom and dad.
There is so much to be gained through adoption that often we stop there.
Don’t stop there friends, I challenge you to explore the losses, so that you
can truly celebrate the gains.
For
my husband and I, when we adopt, we will have lost a biological connection to
our children (and this is true whether a family goes through infertility or
not). For our precious children they
will have lost their first parents or birth parents and foster parents as
well. They have lost a biological
connection to their family. And in our case, they will lose the opportunity to
grow up in their country of birth. For
the first parents, they have lost the opportunity to raise their children, to
get to be mom and dad, to be there every day.
Adoption is hard people, so very beautiful, but also hard.
Along these same lines, I came across this post today from Together for Adoption that some of you might enjoy reading.
"We have something for you" some friends at church told us. We kept missing each other and it wasn't until a few weeks later that we finally caught up with one another. We were excited to share the news that we had gotten just days before, that we would be adopting TWO kids.
This dear couple handed us an envelope and said, "This is what we have been trying to get to you the past few weeks". We thanked them, and I stuck it in my purse to open later. We spent some time showing them pictures of our little boy and little girl, and then we said goodbye and headed home.
When we got in the car, I opened the envelope to find a very sweet note saying how they want to be a part of caring for the fatherless and how God had very specifically laid it on their hearts to give us this gift to help us bring our children home....$1,000.
Inside this little envelope was $1,000!
We were (and are!) overwhelmed by this family's generosity, but we are even more overwhelmed that God not only knows our need, but He knew it before we did. He laid it on the hearts of this couple weeks before we would find out that we would be adopting two children and have two adoption fees to pay. He knew that we would need this reminder that He already has a plan and that He is going to provide.
What an amazing journey this is, especially amazing because we get to see Him working out so many details and reminding us so many times that He knows us better than we know ourselves and that He not only loves us, but He loves our children. He desires to "set the lonely in families" (Psalm 68:6) and He will work however He needs to to accomplish this.
If you think of it please pray with us for the rest of the funds to come in. We have applied for a few different adoption grants-Lifesong for Orphans, Show Hope, and The JSC Foundation. We can't wait to have more "God stories" to tell you!
