Licensed and Called!

We were very blessed on Friday to hear the news that our adoption homestudy had been approved!! We are now licensed to adopt a sibling group. Licensed by the state and Called by God.

We’re just so excited.  We are searching the numerous photo listings for children open for adoption.  When we’ve found a few sibling groups we are interested in we can submit them to our caseworker and she’ll look into the group more to see if we’re a good match.

We went to church Friday night for our annual theology conference. We did not know that one of the speakers is an advocate of adoption. He and his wife have adopted five children over the last two & half years—four from the Ukraine and  one from Ethiopia. Hearing their adoption testimony was absolutely AMAZING. They were so willing to set aside their own ideas and allow for God’s plan. They went to the Ukraine thinking they would return with two children under the age of five and came back with a sibling group of four-all of whom were older than that!!   I’d like to share some of what he said here.  I cannot wait to start reading his book, Orphanology, but I need to finish re-reading  Dr. Moore’s  Adopted for Life first.

http://www.betheglory.blogspot.com/  His wife’s blog

http://tonymerida.net/   His website

His book:

Did you know that there are 130,000 children in the U.S. foster care system that are ready to be adopted? That there are MORE than 130,000 churches in the U.S. and that if only ONE family adopted ONE child from the foster care system that we could eradicate that side of the system?

When asked why they’ve adopted they said it was simple:   Jesus

It was theology, not biology.  Adoption is in the scriptures.  Everyone always thinks of adoption as someone’s “Plan B”.   A lot of people assumed that about us since we adopted first.  When we got pregnant less than a year later everyone thought it was a surprise or some freak accident.  Not so much. While every pregnancy is a blessing it was not necessarily a surprise.  We just knew that we wanted to entwine our family with adopted and biological children instead of chunking biological first and adopted second, which is more traditional.  Did you know that adoption was not a “Plan B” in God’s plan either?  He had always planned for His children to be adopted.  

Tony said so many things that really hit home Friday night.  He had eight great points on how adopting children is like our own adoption in Christ. I’m sure those are in his book and I’d much rather you support his ministry and read it for your selves.  I’m certain it is much better worded than my hastily written notes.  One of the questions he has been asked that we have as well is “What’s it like adopting transracially?”  I love his response. “You ought to know! Jesus was not a white man. Neither was Abraham.”  

He also said that we can’t expect to eradicate orphanages or the foster care system. That’s not the point. The point is that we are called by our own experience, the grace we’ve been given in our adoption. We don’t do it for the children but UNTO Him. The faces of the children and youth in these situations are the face of a Jewish Carpenter.

I’ll leave you with a message from his blog because, as I have mentioned, he does word it so much better than I can. J

 “Until perhaps recently, most believers, in my experience, have only considered adoption and orphan care in a couple circumstances. One, they were praying for the Smiths because “they can’t have children and are thinking about adopting.” Or, two, they were taking up an offering to help the state or local children’s home.

Of course, these are good things to do. We should pray for those who are struggling to have children and are considering adoption. And, we should help those who are providing homes to the fatherless. But if that’s all orphan care is to us, then we have missed so much. We need an elevated concept of adoption. We need God’s perspective on adoption. We need to meditate on the gospel more deeply.

I turned into an adoption advocate, an adoptive dad, and eventually a writer on the subject not because of infertility but because of theology.

Believers understand that God is Father. But what kind of father is He? He is an adoptive Father! Do you realize that there are no natural-born children in the family of God? None of us were born Christians. If you are a believer, it is because God has adopted you into the family. That’s it. All races brought together by God’s adoption of spiritual orphans.

Paul expounds on the gospel of God’s adopting grace to the Ephesians, Galatians, and Romans. He shows us that God the Father administered our adoption, God the Son accomplished our adoption through his redeeming work on the Cross, and God the Spirit applied our adoption, giving us a new nature, a new position, and the indwelling presence of God that enables us to cry “Abba, Father.” (See Galatians 4:7.)

Adoption was never plan B for God. It wasn’t an alternative solution. It was plan A. Before the universe existed, God had planned on adopting us into his family through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:5). God did not adopt us because of our attractive merits, but because of His amazing mercy.

Paul tells us to “be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1). His undeserved mercy on us compels us to reflect His adoptive love to a world in need. God’s love is active. Christian love is not based on the idea of just loving people the way we want to be loved. It’s more. It’s loving people the way God has loved us. He acted. He pursued. He showered grace on the undeserving. This is a gospel-centered perspective on adoption and orphan care.

Obviously, not everyone is called to adopt, but every believer is called to act. That means not merely feeling sorry for orphans. Sentimentalism is no substitute for action. In addition to adoption, other ways we can be actively involved include hosting orphans for a summer, financially supporting adoptive parents, fostering children in our community, and discipling local boys and girls from functionally fatherless families.

When Kimberly and I were in Ukraine adopting four children we were interviewed by a local newspaper. The reporter asked me (through an interpreter), “Why are you adopting all of these kids? No one in our country adopts four kids at one time.” I said, “The short answer is . . . Jesus.” It’s really that simple.

Sure, exposure to my sister’s adopted children stirred my affections for adoption. And sure, my awareness to the state of the fatherless worldwide bothered me greatly. But when I began to see how often God talks about the fatherless in general, and how the gospel is reflected in adoption in particular, then my mindset changed.

So, I laugh, but I also grieve, when people say to a family, “Why are you adopting? You already have natural-born children. You can have your own kids.” They’ve missed it. They don’t see that adoption isn’t about infertility; it’s about responding to God’s grace properly: first with gratitude toward Him, and then with active love toward others. How is He calling you to love the orphan today?”

http://tonymerida.net/2011/why-adoption/

Please check out his blog and his book. We were so blessed by his words and pray that your heart is open to them as well. I am by no means trying to guilt or force anyone into adopting children. We do not have to use guilt but instead the Gospel to show why someone should adopt. Those who are called will answer. J  Maybe you are meant just to pass on God’s call to others. Or to encourage or support those who have. We’re licensed for a sibling group of up to four. If God calls us for more or less we will take up His call knowing that He will provide for our growing family. He’s already given us the knowledge of couponing and the absolute willingness to take hand-me-downs (hint, hint). We know he will provide for whatever his plan is for our family.  Here goes!