Just A Family

Our sweet two year old

"Important to realize.  We adopt not because we are rescuers.  No, we adopt because we are the rescued."  David Platt

If you don't know who David Platt is, he is the author of the book Radical and pastor of a large church in Birmingham, Alabama.

David Platt is passionate about the orphan, the widow, and the poor.  Those in society most overlooked.  

His passion is contagious, and I dare you to read Radical and not be changed.  It is a fairly short, easy to read, but hard to swallow, statement on "church" in America and truly he tells it like it is.

"We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves."  Ouch.  How many of us want to hear that message on Sunday morning?  It is the truth though, and for too long the church in America has preached a gospel that says God wants us to be happy and prosperous.  I believe that is the lie that satan has sold us, and we in America have bought it - hook, line, and sinker.  

God wants us to be holy, as He is holy.  Happiness is an emotion, it goes and comes with the day - or the hour.  Joy is lasting and deep, and comes from walking closely with our Creator.  Joy can be found in any circumstance.  Happiness, at its true definition, is an illusion.

When you are the parent of a child who is adopted, you often endure people telling you how "lucky" your baby is to be in your family or how "wonderful" it is that you "saved" him or her.  I know most people mean well and if you are reading and have said this to me, I am not in any way offended.  I do want to offer my two cents worth on the subject of adoption, though.  

People go into adoption for a myriad of reasons, but at the end of the day, we are just parents.  Just a family, like any other.  We don't distinguish between our "biological" children and our "adopted" ones.  By the way, please don't ever distinguish a person's children by their "adopted" ones and their "own."  Again, I know most people mean well, but this can be a really hurtful statement.  They are all our "own" children and we do not view them as any different.  Yes, I know which ones I gave birth to and which one is adopted, and in some families it is obvious - but, they are all my "own" children.  

I love the concept of adoption.  It is such a parallel to our relationship with God and His finished work on the cross through the sacrifice of Jesus.  He adopted us as sons and daughters and now our relationship is complete, whole, and eternal.  He sees us as His very own and we are entitled to all of the inheritance of "natural born" children.  We are all God's own through the miracle of adoption.

So, why, as followers of Jesus, is adoption important?  Are we all on some power trip, running all over the world like Angelina Jolie, "saving" children from lives of poverty?  I have been accused of this, so I know it is not all that far fetched.  

I certainly can't speak for everyone, and I don't know why Angelina Jolie adopts - I hope because she loves children and I certainly don't know her, so I can't say anything to the contrary.  However, as a follower of Jesus Christ, I adopt because I acknowledge what has been done for me.  I did not adopt my sweet baby boy to "save" him.  I don't know what his life would have been like without us, but I do know that God's purposes for Patrick's life are sovereign, and with or without me, Patrick will grow up to be whatever God plans for him to be.  It is not about me rescuing him and bringing him into a "better" life.  It is about God rescuing me and breaking my heart for the things that break His.  It is about seeing a need and doing our very best to meet that need, in the name of Jesus.  Patrick's birth mom had a need.  She needed for her son, whom she loved, to be raised in the kind of home that she could not provide.  We are privileged and honored to help her meet that need.  

Our son is a joy and a blessing in our life.  We cherish him and love him with our whole hearts.  The blessings are ALL ours and if anyone has done any "saving" it is him.  He has saved us from a life of thinking only about ourselves.  He has saved us from saying things like, "we are too old" or "we don't want to start over."   

Furthermore, at the end of the day, we are just a family.  I get aggravated when my little guy dumps an entire bag of chips on the floor and laughs, or throws a huge fit because he doesn't want to sit in his car seat.  I struggle not lose my temper sometimes - and sometimes I do lose it.  I feel overwhelmed, stressed out, and like I can barely accomplish the bare minimum some days.  I am not a super mom.  In fact, I can assure you that I am one of the most disorganized, non domestic women you have ever met.

When I say I want to adopt more children, I am often told I must have tons of patience or what a "good" person I am.  Apart from Christ, I am not a "good" person and I am not capable of doing a "good" thing.  Anything good that comes out of me, is only a reflection of Him.  I want to adopt more children because that is what followers of Jesus do.  They see their brothers and sisters in need and they try to offer a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus.  As long as there are children going to bed at night without a mommy and daddy, then I am willing to do my best to meet their needs, and the needs of their birth parents, many of whom truly do love their children and simply can not care for them.  Just like I would want one of my brothers and sisters to do for me if it were my children going to bed hungry and cold and alone.

When all is said and done, we get to step into what God is doing AND we get to be blessed with precious children to love on.  There is nothing any better than that.