National Adoption Month

    The following is a speech I gave in church for National Adoption Month last year:

     November is National Adoption Awareness Month, and adoption is very important to our family.

     You may ask, “Why do people choose to adopt?”  Well, adoption is simply another way of bringing children into a family.  The bigger question is,  "Why have children?" Think about it. What logical reason is there that gives so many of us the desire to love and nurture children?

     Kids are: expensive, noisy, messy, time consuming, demanding, and they leave every surface in your home sticky!  There is no logical reason to have children! So why do so many of us choose parenthood?

   I’d like to share some excerpts from an article by Max Lucado that may shed some light on this mystery:

   

    “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.” Romans 8:15

    “That is why adoptive parents understand God’s passion to adopt us.  They know what it means to hunt, set out on a mission, and take responsibility for a child with a spotted past and a dubious future.  If anybody understands God’s ardor for His children, it’s someone who has rescued an orphan from despair, for that is what God has done for us. God has adopted you.  God sought you, found you, signed the papers and took you home.”

     So, it’s my guess that we find joy in putting up with children because our Creator/Father finds joy in putting up with us. (It’s a God thing)

    When we felt the call to look into adoption we chose the route of domestic adoption from U.S. foster care. 

        *These are children who, for whatever reason, have no relatives willing or able to raise them and are or soon to be legally free for adoption. They are there through no fault of their own.

       *there are about 130,000 children in the U.S. who are waiting for forever families.  There are over 2000 waiting kids in our state alone.

       *many of these children are 8 or older, or part of sibling groups.

       *about 20,000 turn 18 and leave the system each year without ever finding a family. The statistics for their futures are dismal.

       *adopting from foster care is very affordable.  Most children are eligible for adoption subsidies and Medicaid until they are 18.  There are also tax credits and state reimbursement of some expenses.

   No one escapes adversity in life, but it’s a lot harder to overcome without the unconditional love of a stable family to fall on.

      And if you have ever felt that, totally illogical, desire to look into adoption, but worried that you couldn’t do it, don’t be afraid to think again.  It doesn’t take anybody extraordinary.  God doesn’t call the able, He enables the called.