Adoption

Many of the things I post on this blog come from another blog I read called Take Your Vitamin Z. It is the personal blog of Zach Nielsen, a worship leader in New Mexico. His first post this morning is on his family's decision to adopt a child. His only reason for not adopting, he says, is selfishness. May we all be moved to adopt quickly, saving as many kids as we can from certain despair and tragedy.

By faith and prayer our family has decided to move forward into the process of adopting a child into our family. We have four main reasons for this:

1. We want to model the gospel of Jesus as ones who have been adopted into the family of God (Eph. 1:3-10).

2. We desire to see James 1:27 lived out in our lives by caring for orphans. Why not care for one by adopting them and giving them a new life?

3. We want to see a culture of adoption raised up at the church where I work and as a full-time staff person we believe that it is very important that leaders model the values that we teach.

4. Our only real reason for not adopting is selfishness. If we can afford to support three kids I think we’ll probably be ok with four. The prospect of having an even crazier home, or getting up with another child in the middle of the night, or having enough energy to train and discipline another child pales in comparison with the overwhelming needs of an abandoned child who needs a loving Christian family. You could respond and ask, "Do you think that all those that choose not to adopt a child are selfish?" Certainly not, but it might be a good idea to ask yourself why don't you don't want to adopt? Of course there are good reasons, but if you are able and in light of the huge need in our world today, why not? I recognized the legalistic danger here. Adopting a child is not a Biblical command and we cannot place this conviction of ours on anyone else as a mark of true spirituality or something like that. But I think this danger is worth the risk in light of the need.

We are moving forward with All God's Children as our adoption agency. Would you pray with us that God would provide the means to see this desire fulfilled and that our family would be nothing but a blessing to an orphan child?