We are adopted, so we adopt

The events of the past month have caused us to pause, and to reconsider our decision to adopt. Why are we doing this? Why did we choose to step into the painful life of a woman we did not know? What are we trying to achieve by adopting?

There are many places we are tempted to go for answers to these questions. We can listen to our own fearful hearts and hedonistic desires. We can listen to the voices of society which say that it is foolish to make so many sacrifices to become parents while we are still "young". Or, we can listen to the Word of the omniscient, omnipotent God who knows us and loves us. By grace, we have been spending a lot of time doing the latter.

Galatians chapter 4 says that we (all of humanity) were enslaved to the principles of the world, fatherless and unable to help ourselves. "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God." (verses 4-7).

This inheritance from God is not one of earthly wealth or fame or comfort. It is not one of fulfillment through health, safety, or temporary beauty. It is deliverance from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus, God's only "natural-born" Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:12-14). Because we are made pure by Jesus' sacrifice, we can have an intimate relationship with God. We now know what it is to be abundantly loved by a perfect, just, merciful Father - and we want to share that love out of the overflow of what He's given to us!

We are not adopting simply to fulfill our desire to become parents. We are adopting to join our Heavenly Father in His mission to seek and save the lost. Our prayer is that by adopting an infant, we will be able to prevent an at-risk child from growing up without the love and support of a forever family. Rather they will grow up knowing that their mommy and daddy (and birth mother, and many others!) sacrificed and pursued them at great cost, just like Jesus sacrificed His life to pursue us.

The theology of adoption is as simple to understand as is the sacrificial love of a good father for his child. And yet, it is as complex as the deepest questions about faith, identity, and suffering. We just started Adopted For Life by Russell Moore and invite you to join us in reading it to learn more about our calling, as sinners adopted by grace into the family of God, to adopt the children who have been forgotten by our society, but not by our loving God.

Thank you to all who are praying for us & our adoption journey. Every adoption story is one of loss, pain, and brokenness. But we pray that, by the grace of God, ours will also be one of new life, joy, and redemption. Please watch this powerful video to learn more about the orphan crisis in the United States and join us in praying for God to move His church to adopt.