The Beauty of Adoption

Adoption has been on my mind a little bit recently. So has pregnancy, and doing them both simultaneously has given a chance to reflect on something: adoption brings people together. I'm sure you're stunned by my profundity. But let me explain.

Although I do believe getting pregnant is pretty amazing given all the odds against it, there is a certain ordinary-ness to it. People are happy for you, excited at the new life, but it normally doesn't bring communities together. With our adoption experience, we went in pretty much only knowing that this was what God would have us do. We certainly didn't know how we would afford it. Our agency walked us through each step very nicely, but that doesn't pay the bills. We figured we would apply for grants after taking out a personal loan. And we got rejected for each and every one of them. We could either get bitter about it, despair for how we would pay for everything and mistrust God, or we could simply accept that, affirm our trust in God, his timing and his ways. He provided in AMAZING ways. Ways we did not expect. People gave that we totally did not think (or expect) to help out have incredibly generously. Friends and family.

But also, our church. We have not been members for even a year at our church. We did not want to go begging for money, but somebody (the senior pastor) told us to ask about it. Well we were still holding out hope on the more anonymous-and-therefore-less-humbling grants option, but we decided to inquire anyway. The church did not know that we did not get any of the grants we applied to. But they did know our estimated costs of adoption and, (the humbling part) our budget. The leaders opened up to the congregation the opportunity to help pay for our travel. We have been immensely blessed.

Wonderful as that is, even more encouraging has been the fact that now that people know about our adoption, they are praying for us. They have asked us how it is going. There was even one mother who saw me at Costco and stopped to pray right there with me. People have given generously for the fost home that Adisu is living in now. Those children living there now, and many subsequent ones will be well clothed because my Bible Study provided two duffel bags FULL of clothes for the kids.

But what I think is the best part of it all is, that people in the church know the church is serious when it says it support life. Children who were in the service are hearing about adoption, seeing people who actually go through it. And other couples are considering it to. I know God doesn't call everyone to adopt, but he does call us all to take care of the orphans. I love the fact that our church, friends and family have all participated in that call, not just for Adisu, but also for other children too.