Our Family Story
We have
been blessed with two AMAZING boys! Jeremy and Drew never cease to amaze us
with the unique personalities and gifts the Lord has given them! We have
decided that we are done having children biologically, but still have a desire
to have a girl. We truly believe that adoption is God’s “Plan A” for our
family, not a last resort, or a “Plan B.” We are excited to embark on this
crazy journey to bring our daughter home!
Why Adoption?
We did
not come to this decision lightly and definitely sought counsel before pursing
it fully. Our question eventually became, “Why not adoption?” With 163 million orphans and only 9,300
international adoptions last year, we knew we needed to do something. We hope
to be an inspiration to others and that our desire to adopt will become
contagious to many. Adoption is our personal, tangible way to carry out
Christ’s mission in helping orphans!
The following quotes are from
the book Adopted for Life, by Russell
D. Moore. This book is one of the many avenues that opened our hearts to
adoption.
“We believe Jesus in heavenly
things—our adoption in Christ; so we follow him in earthly things—the adoption
of children…”
“Adoption
is, on the one hand, gospel. In this,
adoption tells us who we are as children of the Father. Adoption as gospel
tells us about our identity, our inheritance, and our mission as sons of God.
Adoption is also defined as mission.
In this, adoption tells us our purpose in this age as the people of Christ.
Missional adoption spurs us to join Christ in advocating for the helpless and
abandoned…”
“You have a stake in the
adoption issue, even if you never adopt a child…For some of us, I hope this
book changes the makeup of our households. For some of us, I hope it helps
change our monthly bank account balances. For all of us, I hope it changes
something of the way we say, ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ in our pews next Sunday and
the way we cry out ‘Father’ on our knees tonight.”
Why China?
When we were
reminded about the “one child policy” for urban couples of China, our hearts
broke. Parents want to have a son because this ensures their future care. A son
is everything. If they have a girl first, most choose to give her away to life
in an orphanage, or leave her abandoned in the streets. This means that at
least 90% of China’s orphans are girls. Our desire is to rescue a girl from a
life of orphanages! What a great way to have an “in” with a closed (to the
gospel), communist country too! We will, in a sense, be bringing a piece of
China to America to teach her about her Creator, in hopes that she will in turn
win many others to Christ.
