Defending The Fatherless

I wrote this post months ago when we were waiting for our girls to come home, but I couldn't figure out at the time how to embede this video, so I put it at the bottom of my blog as a gadget. I'm reposting it so that I can keep it on the blog as a post instead of leaving it at the bottom of the page. I think it is interesting that I wrote that I thought that our girls' adoption was about more than just us. Now I KNOW it was more than just our story to two little girls and I'm excited to see what God does next in our family.



This video and song speak so much to the way Nick and I feel about adoption. I have recently been telling him that I really feel like this whole adoption thing is way bigger than us and our personal journey to our children. This is not just for us. I have a strong sense that God is going to use our story to reach other people's hearts for adoption. This is not to say that everyone is called to bring children into their home, but we all are called to "look after the orphans and widows in their distress" James 1:27.


To look after the orphans in their distress-what does that mean? We live in a crazy busy world where it is so easy to "overlook" anything outside of our safe little bubble of existence. It is easy to overlook the fact that there are 143 million children orphaned in this world. We fill our days with tasks and schedules full of stuff-what does all this stuff mean? We live in a country where even the poorest of poor have more than a large part of the world. Most of us have never gone hungry or lacked for our basic needs. If we're honest, most of us don't even lack for our "wants". We lead lives full of discontentment-always wanting the next new thing, planning the next renovation, next event, always trying to top the last thing, thinking that "when I have this job or this car or this house or this amount of money-then I'll be happy". We are guilty of living in that mindset and the fact is, it just isn't true. Things will never fill you up. When we fill our lives with schedules and stuff, we just end up empty and exhausted.


What does this have to do with adoption you might ask? All I know is that since we've been on this journey, our eyes have been opened to the reality that IT'S NOT ABOUT US. To make it more personal, IT'S NOT ABOUT ME. We live in a "me" society. What's good for "me". How does this affect "me". How does this benefit "me". Once we shift the focus off of ourselves, our hearts have room to begin to see what it is all about-loving God and loving others.


So what is holding us back? What keeps us from taking the steps? What keeps us from taking the focus off of ourselves. The answer is simple. FEAR. Fear of what others think of us. Fear of how our family may look, of being different. Fear of not living up to everyone's expectations and on and on we go until we get so wrapped up in all the stuff that we MISS IT. I'm doing an awesome study on the book of Esther. The author, Beth Moore, notes that the most frequent command in the bible is "FEAR NOT". Of all the commands, this is the one repeated the most. She goes on to say that,"we can protect ourselves right out of our calling, our DESTINY"


For us, we know the calling on our family is to bring our two little girls home, but it can't end there. The problem is to big. It's too BIG. 143 Million wait. We are just one family. What can I do, you might ask? What difference does one or two adoptions make? It is said that you can be a lot of things to a lot of people, or you can be EVERYTHING to one. It starts with one. There is a statistic that if 7% of Christian families in the world adopted ONE child, there would be NO MORE ORPHANS. That's just Christian families. Another statistic states that about 40% of Christian families have thought about adoption, but only 1% ever do it. There are tons of reasons why they never do-finances are at the top of the list. I assure you that if we were waiting for our finances to be ideal, we would have missed the awesome opportunity to be mom and dad to two little girls that wait tonight in a care center across the world. We'd never think it was a perfect time, but God's timing is perfect. Maybe He's calling you for "such a time as this" Esther 4:14.


I look at the other children's pictures that are still waiting at our girls' care center. I think of them going to sleep, not knowing if anyone will ever come for them. I especially think of the older children. The ones that wait "because of their age" as their descriptions read. Like our girls, who were waiting soley because they were 3 and 5 years old and not 3 and 5 months old. I just know that this is not just about us. This is not just our story. God can break through any barrier, financial or otherwise to fulfill his purpose. In the book of Esther, Esther is called to fullfill her destiny. She is reminded that God will fulfill his purpose with or without her. She had a choice, just like you and I have a choice. I'd hate to think of the joy that we would have missed if we had decided not to follow God on this adoption journey.


The bible says,"Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins" James 4:17. "Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know, and holds us responsible to ACT...Proverbs 24:12.


As I said, brining a child into your home isn't everyone's calling, but what if it IS YOURS?


Don't let fear allow you to miss your calling. "You may be one brave decision away from fulfilling your DESTINY".-Beth Moore.