Adoption Blog Post You Should Read

I wanted to link to a blog post from an adoptive mother that highlights what adoption can really be like behind closed doors, The Ugly Side of Adoption. Christians struggle sometimes with how they behave “in church” and what life is really like at home. People want to hear about the beauty of adoption and would be dismayed to hear of the pain. Yet, we should not be afraid to speak of the pain. A lot of these kids have been traumatized, some worse than others, and that is very real. I liken it to the post-traumatic stress that some veterans have. I read an article a few years ago from the point of view of the wife of a veteran, describing some of what her husband was going through, and I immediately thought of some adopted children, and some foster children, who are going through the same thing.

Adoption is beautiful. It is of God. But, this isn’t Little House on the Prairie, and many adoptive families are struggling. I’d like it if in our churches we could be up front about the struggles as well as the beauty.

So, my linking to this blog is not to complain about adoption, because I am pro-adoption. I link to this blog post because the writer explains her situation well and it gives other adoptive parents assurance that they are not alone in struggling.

Originally posted: http://christineareed.com/?p=164

Adoption

The Bible says in John 1 that all who received Jesus, “to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (NIV) Adoption is an important concept in Christianity. Jesus is the one and only son of God, but through our belief in him, we become adopted into God’s family.

The Bible also says in James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Those in the broadcast area for Channel 11 in Toledo, OH (SE Michigan and NW Ohio), will remember a segment called “Home for Keeps.” Chrys Peterson would meet with kids in foster care in Lucas County and give a brief introduction to their lives. One evening, my husband and I saw a broadcast about two sisters who were in separate foster homes, needing to be adopted together. At the end of the segment, we looked at each other and in a moment that seemed an inspiration from God, we said, “That’s what we can do!”

We had been married eight years, and although we wanted children, we didn’t have any. We realized that through adoption we could become parents, and we could offer a home to kids who needed one.

Indeed, two years later, it seemed a God-send when we got a call from a social worker about two sisters, currently living in separate foster homes, who needed to be adopted together. We recently celebrated the eighth anniversary of our legal adoption of those siblings. Of course, those who have adopted or worked with foster kids can tell you, it isn’t easy. I hope in this section of the blog, however, to encourage those who want to adopt and who have adopted. Preserve.

My wisdom is hard-won, it comes from failing and making mistakes, like most personal testimonies. The adoption has taught me more about God and about myself than any other experience I’ve ever had.

 

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1, NIV)

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:7-12, NIV)

 

Originally posted July 20, 2014, http://christineareed.com/?p=152