Why adopt?

"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." James 1:27

To help offset some of our adoption costs, we are doing a little fundraiser. We are partnering with 147 Million Orphans. If you use our direct affiliate link to purchase merchandise (tshirts, necklaces, cell phone cases, etc), 30% of all monies go directly to our adoption agency. The rest of the money goes directly toward orphans. I just LOVE that!

Here is the link:
http://www.147millionorphans.com/?AffId=52

Today was our last homestudy visit. In about 2 weeks, we should have our approval from DCFS and our homestudy is officially complete. Once we have our approved homestudy, we can begin the paperwork for immigration and our dossier. To celebrate, we took some new photos of our kiddos. Children are such a blessing. We are so thankful that God is filling our quiver one by one! (Psalm 127:5)

This past week has been a little tough for us and we are learning more to walk by faith, give up our rights and desires, and trust God. It has forced us to go back to the Lord's living word for encouragement, peace, and to remind us why we adopt in the first place. Adoption is expensive, inconvenient, and our children don't always love us back! The overall response we've been getting this week is... So, why would we do this?

Our answer is simple: "We love because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19) When Christians adopt, we demonstrate love to the watching world. We not only show love in word, but also in action. When we adopt, we choose to give our life away. Adopting children is a like living out the gospel in your living room.. Adoption's redemptive response to tragedy is a tiny reflection of what Jesus Christ did for us, sinners. Jesus Christ, the perfect redemptive response, laid down his life in order that we could be saved through faith in Him alone. Chad and I certainly do not redeem our children by our acts alone. God does that great work when He uses our obedience to bring these precious children into His light, which provides them with a future and a hope.

My life is not my own. James 1:27 mandates us to care for widows and orphans. This requires sacrifice. It's not easy to give up the things I deem more important or worthy of my financial, emotional, and physical resources but God demands me, as a follower of Jesus Christ, to do it anyway and trust Him to be with us every step of the way. Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers you did it for me (Matthew 25:40). Thank you Lord, for this awesome opportunity to strengthen our faith, build our family, and to use us as a vessel for your kingdom purposes!