Adoption Sunday

I had the privilege of sharing in church this morning about our adoption experience and I wanted to share it here on my blog since Iris and adoption is the reason I began to write this blog. Enjoy!

Well, adoption has not always been near and dear to my heart. As a matter of fact, 3 1/2 years ago before we began the process of adoption I didn't care about adoption, I didn't think about the plight of orphans and I really only saw it as a plan b or last resort. Thankfully over the last few years God has shown me how wrong that view is and I'd like to share with you how that change came about.

In early 2009 I had my 3rd miscarriage and I was in a lot of pain. I remember someone flippantly saying why don't you just adopt and it felt insensative and made me angry.
You see, I had a vision of how my family would come to be and it didn't involve adoption. My view was very narrow and I just assumed it was my right to get pregnant and carry a baby to term. I didn't think that God might want to bring about our family differently.
I was so anxious to be a mother that I began to look into adoption because I was curious and what I found blew me away. A veil was lifted and for the first time I saw a world I knew nothing about. I was so saddened by the need, especially Ethiopia. That country was just heavy on my heart for some reason & so I read mostly about Ethiopia & the statistics broke my heart.
Just to name a few:
1 in 10 children die before their first b-day
1 in 6 children die before they turn 5
Annual income is less than 160.00
47% of population live below poverty rate
Average life expectancy is 48 for a man, 50 for a woman
Estimated number of street children 100,000 & in the capital of Addis 40,000

After reading these heartbreaking facts I became excited to adopt. It was so much bigger than my pain and my desire - what did God want to do through Joe and I to begin a family. It didn't matter if I had a house full of children or could never get pregnant again - I wanted to adopt.
So, we began the long 3 year process & it was a lot of work. Financially it was impossible, but every step of the way God provided a way and it was such an encouragement to us when people would give financially because it showed us how great God is and to see that others would invest in our family and care about adoption - it reminded us of how little we are and how great God is.

Last December, the day after Christmas we flew to Ethiopia for the first time to meet our daughter Iris. I will never forget meeting her, it was one of the greatest moments of my life and I recall looking into her eyes and telling her "you will never be alone again. You are not an orphan anymore. You have a family, a mom and dad who love you." It was so special and yet there are so many needy ones out there who don't have that. I would urge you if you never considered adoption or thought one day you might want to adopt to seek the Lord concerning this. The need is great and time marches on. If Christian's don't step up and help give these orphans homes then who will?
If you don't feel led to do anything than help those who do. I can't tell you how exhausting the process is...it's emotionally draining, very invasive of your privacy, (all a labor of love though) financially overwhelming and so to have people come along and care and give and pray, it's a huge encouragement.
Also I'd suggest reading Adopted for Life by Russell Moore. I don't think there's another book out there which has such great content with a biblical perspective on adoption. I love his line when asking a couple who are considering adopting but wanting that first child to be biological "do you want to be parents or conservators of your genetic material?"

So today adoption is very near and dear to me. If I had never miscarried and had that loss then I never would have looked into adoption and I wouldn't have my daughter and I'd be missing out...and I wouldn't even know it.