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Adoption: A Love Choice

Doc

Member
Real Person
Giving children up for adoption can be a loving alternative for parents who may, for various reasons, be unable to care for their own children. It can also be an answer to prayer for many families who have not been able to have children of their own. Adoption is, for some, a calling to multiply their impact as parents by expanding their family with children who are not their own, biologically. Adoption is spoken of favorably throughout Scripture.

The book of Exodus tells the story of a Hebrew woman named Jochebed who bore a son during a time when Pharaoh had ordered all Hebrew male infants to be put to death (Exodus 1:15-22). Jochebed took a basket, waterproofed it, and sent the baby down the river in the basket. One of Pharaoh’s daughters spotted the basket and retrieved the child. She eventually adopted him into the royal family and gave him the name Moses. He went on to become a faithful and blessed servant of God (Exodus 2:1-10).

In the book of Esther, a beautiful girl named Esther, who was adopted by her cousin after her parents' death, became a queen, and God used her to bring deliverance to the Jewish people. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ was conceived through the Holy Spirit instead of through the seed of a man (Matthew 1:18). He was “adopted” and raised by His mother's husband, Joseph, who took Jesus as his own child.

Once we give our hearts to Christ, believing and trusting in Him alone for salvation, God says we become part of His family—not through the natural process of human conception, but through adoption. “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship [adoption]. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15). Similarly, bringing a person into a family by means of adoption is done by choice and out of love. “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5). As God adopts those who receive Christ as Savior into His spiritual family, so should we all prayerfully consider adopting children into our own physical families.

Clearly adoption—both in the physical sense and in the spiritual sense—is shown in a favorable light in Scripture. Both those who adopt and those who are adopted are receiving a tremendous blessing, a privilege exemplified by our adoption into God’s family.
 
Unfortunately adoption is very difficult in some parts of the world. In our country, children to adopt are in extremely short supply, as the vast majority of "unwanted" children are aborted (something like 1 in 4 pregnancies ends in abortion). The government puts all sorts of hurdles and bureaucracy in the way of prospective adoptive parents, and if you are finally accepted by the system there's a good chance you'll still never get a child, as there are far too few children to fill the demand. If you do get one you'll have only 48 hours warning by the state system before you've suddenly got a baby.

It's a wonderful way to help those children who survive the womb, but sadly there aren't too many of them left by that point.
 
We have three adopted children, and a brand new baby girl given to us by my wife's neice this past November. God opened doors for us. One young lady lived in our home in 2000-2001. She was still in highschool. She had a 13 month old son, and was expecting a daughter. She did an open adoption with us, and lived with us through delivery. I cut the ambilical cord and we bathed our baby shortly after she was born. Her name is Hannah. I picked her name. She is a daddy's girl. Our boy already had a name and we kept it. A few years later we stepped up and adopted my great niece, who was taken from her mom because of drugs on board. I share this information to let you know that God can help you find someone who is willing to work with you. You can pray and God can bring them to you. We had another neice on my wife's side, who gave us her baby. God gave me a dream last August and told me we woud have a baby in November. The first week of November, my wife's sister called and asked us if we could take her daughters new baby girl. God is good. The fact that my wife cannot have babies has not kept us from getting them. We now have four. God will give you the desires of your heart. Thank God for his bountiful goodness!!! Pray, Believe and Expect!!! Blessings on you and yours.
 
I want to point out that sometimes adoption is not considered because the child is unwanted but because the birth mother feels that it is the best choice for the child. I speak from personal experience and it was a very tough decision for me, I wanted my child very badly but due to other factors in my life I decided that it was best for my baby to be raised in a more stable environment then the one I could provide. I also will not claim that i was living in a proper manner at the time but the conception of my child was not an act of promiscuity, but of rape. Despite the circumstances of conception I Love my child immensely and it was due to that love that I gave my child to a loving family that was much more capable than I (at the time) to raise a child. It was an act of love not selfishness or because my child was unwanted.
 
Well done Jen, it is great to hear that you made that brave and wise choice. Many other women in your situation would have thought only of themselves and aborted their child, to have enough love for them to go through pregnancy and birth and then be willing to give them up for their own benefit is extremely commendable.
 
Thank you followinghim, I appreciate the kudos. I am not saying I made that choice without severe consequences but hopefully most of the negative consequences will be paid on my part not my child's and although I gave my child up for adoption I will always think of them as still my child. Of course there are no legal ties but the heart binds anyway.
 
As an adoptive mother I'd like to say thank you Jen for being so selfless and brave.

We battled infertility for 12 years and I clung to a promise I felt I recieved from the Lord that I would be a mother.
He sent several children through our home during those 12 years and we helped raise 4 teenagers, but in 2009 my sister found herself pregnant and homeless. She knew she could not raise this baby and give her the life she deserved and needed so she asked us to adopt her. I got to be in the delivery room when our little princess was born! :D she is the love of my life and knows she is adopted.

She even knows what the bible says about adoption because we discuss it alot! I believe that God blessed us with her so we could train her up to KNOW that adoption is a gift and not a second class option. Children are a blessing and even when we interrupt God's plan He works it out for the good of all.
 
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