Friday, February 10, 2012

Why Share About Our Adoption?

I’ve struggled with how much I should share about our adoption journey. I realize that it can seem boastful to talk about yourself and what your family is doing. We aren’t supposed to publicize our good deeds…right? However, for several reasons I felt it was important to share our adventure with others? Here’s why:

1. When you have good news you want to share it! If we were pregnant we would surly tell everyone that we were expecting. Well, through adoption we are expecting…and we cannot wait to welcome our new child home! Adoption, for us, is not a good deed to brag about. It is a privilege and a blessing to rejoice about.

2. As we were sharing our news with close family and friends, we came to a stunning realization. Many people were puzzled about our decision. Why adopt? (Especially if you can have children of your own). Don’t get me wrong…people were not negative or upset about our decision. However, there reaction was subdued in comparison if we told them we were pregnant.

I’m not trying to be critical of certain individuals. I feel that these reactions are more of an indictment of the church. We have not taught enough about the Biblical imperative to care for the orphans and the widows…to help those who are most vulnerable in our society. Thus, I want to be a part of the solution in sharing about this amazing responsibility we have as Christians.

Do I think every family should adopt or be a foster family? No. However, I do think that every Christian family should consider it and pray about it. Adoption is in the very nature of our Heavenly Father. He not only calls us to care for orphans, but he demonstrated his own love for orphans by adopting us into his family! God is good!

“Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.” Ephesians 1:4-5