National Adoption Month

For any who didn't know, today marks day number one of National Adoption Month. Big adoption awareness events will likely be happening all over the country.

If you didn't know, I love adoption. I love the fact that we have been able to adopt. I love the fact that adoption is in the Bible. I love to consider the fact that we all (if we so choose) have been adopted into the family of God. I like to think of our natural adoptions as a picture of how God adopts us....

Imagine how God feels when we choose to follow Him. When He chooses us to be a part of His family. He welcomes us with open arms....imperfections included. He is thrilled when one more of us here on earth become one of His children. Sound familiar? Any who have adopted knows exactly what I am talking about. Even those who haven't adopted likely knows what I'm talking about. Our children didn't choose to become a part of our family....we chose them. The minute we received their pictures...before we even met them...they became our children. We loved them as much as a bio parent loves his/her bio children before they are born. Some people can't comprehend that. I couldn't either until our journey began. God does miraculous things in hearts.

Some folks choose to forego bio children and to build their families solely through adoption. Some families do multiple medical treatments and finally land on adoption as the way to build their families. Some families have unexplained infertility, choose to do no medical intervention, and adopt because they would like to have children running around driving them nuts giggling, shouting, and arguing. Any way a family goes about it is a good thing, in my opinion. Children are waiting on families. Many, many children. Roughly 147 million children.

However, not all 147 million children are actually available for adoption. Many 'orphans' are not true orphans as we consider them. Many have families....moms, dads, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents....but the families simply cannot care for them and give them up for adoption. Many 'orphans' living in orphanages will never be available for adoption because their birth families hang onto a thread of hope that someday they will be able to care for them themselves. It's sad. It's hard to imagine. It's not fair. It's life. Maybe not life as we would prefer, but life isn't always as we prefer it to be. Ever since Eve chose to eat that fruit, life has been less than ideal.

The Bible tells us to 'care for the orphans'. We all read that. We all interpret that differently. And that's just fine....in my opinion. For some that may mean that we actually care for the orphans by bringing them into our home as our 'own' children (I don't like the question, "Are those your 'own' or are they adopted? Are yours your 'own'? I believe that they are all God's...simply loaned to us to care for them for a time.). For others that means that you pray for them and sponser a child or several. Some pack a shoebox full of stuff to be sent off to some orphan....giving them a Christmas that they will never forget. Not everyone is called to do the same thing. Thankfully. What a boring world we would live in if we were all called to wash windows on skyscrapers in downtown NYC.

Any way you look at it, the Bible says to care for the orphans. It doesn't say that all must adopt a child. Frankly, I don't think that all should adopt a child. Sometimes I wonder if we should have/be, but thats just Satan peeking into my life.  We are all answering God's call for our lives, just as we are. The calling is different, our God is the same. Praise Him!