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Why Adopt?

This is part of the letter that we shared with our families when we announced our decision to begin the adoption process. It's probably the best way to sum up how the Lord led us to pursue adoption... 

Dear family,

We want to share with you some of our thoughts as to why we are pursuing adoption. We believe that God is leading us in this direction, and we would greatly appreciate your prayers and wisdom as we seek to follow God’s leading.

Here are some of the motivations that are driving our desire to adopt:

  • God has adopted us—rebellious, hateful, selfish sinners—into his family, and he has made us his own children. He has made us his legal heirs; everything he owns is now ours. Saving, delivering, rescuing—these are at the center of God’s being. Adoption is a way for us to be a living picture of God and of the gospel. It’s a way to portray the adoptive love of God before the watching world, before the hosts of heaven, and before God himself—right in our own home. 
  • “Father of the fatherless…is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home” (Psalm 68:5-6). God’s heart is full of love and concern for the fatherless. He is the Father of the fatherless. Maybe he has decreed that we would be his means for caring for the fatherless; maybe our home is to be a place for “the solitary.”
  • God tells us that caring for orphans is “religion that is pure and undefiled.” God has given us the desire for holiness. Taking orphans into our home is a way to give pure expression to these desires.
  • Adoption is a way for us to have a small mission field in our home. We bring the helpless from another nation into our home, teach them the Gospel, and live it out before them. Since we have been married, we have prayed that we would be used by God to expand his kingdom. Maybe this is part of the answer to that prayer. 
  • Who is going to rescue, love, care for, and train up helpless children who have no parents? Young Christian couples. If we don’t answer this calling, who will?
  • If we receive a helpless child into our home in the name of Christ, we will, in some mysterious sense, be receiving Jesus himself into our home. 
    • “And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” (Mark 9:36). 
    • “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:31-40).
  • We do not want to waste our lives. We do not want to live for ourselves. “Lay down your small ambitions!”…this is the cry of our hearts. But it’s also the cry of God’s heart: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.” (1 Corinthians 5:8-9). Adoption is one way for us to pursue a life that would glorify God. 
  • Our life is very short. We are not here to be comfortable. We are not here to please ourselves. We are here to bring glory to God with our short lives before he takes us home. Is there a better way to glorify God than to take helpless children into our home, care for them, and teach them the Gospel?
  • God, in his goodness and mercy, has chosen to withhold biological children from us up to this point. This has been part of his good and perfect will for our lives. We believe that part of the reason for this was to turn our eyes towards the millions of orphans around the world that will grow up without families. If we had gotten pregnant right away, we may never have considered adopting these children. By God’s grace, we can honestly say that the joy and excitement we feel when thinking about adopting equals what we would feel if we were to get pregnant. This is not a “second-best” option for us.   
  • “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Adoption is a way for us to reflect the love of Christ, and his deep concern for the poor and helpless.