So, "Why adopt from China"

This is a question we have prayed about and discussed at length. First off, God put an initial burden on my heart for SE Asia. Having been there in the past, I have seen first-hand not only the unimaginable living conditions for many of these unwanted children, but I have also seen first-hand the extremely dark area they will grow up in, which essentially means there is little to no hope for these children to ever accept Christ as their Savior and Lord. For example, in the slums of New Delhi, India, I cannot put into words the living conditions. If you have seen Slumdog Millionaire, it does not even come close to what the actual conditions are like. On top of the living conditions, the percentage of Christians in northern India is 0.02%. To bring that home, that would equate to about 400 total Christians in the State of Alabama.

I have put together a brief slideshow giving some staggering statistics about orphans around the world, and specifically in China. The sites that produced the statistics can be found on the links on the side.

We must make a choice! The ultimate question we must ask, “what do I find the greatest joy in doing?” There are only two possible choices in answering that question: 1.) Doing what I want 2.) Doing what God wants. Real lasting joy and satisfaction comes when what we want is the same thing that God wants! That is when real change in our lives occur! As one of our key verses in the picture above says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart,” Ps. 37:4, if we are truly seeking Him, He will change our hearts to want Him more and He will give us more of Himself, which is what we treasure above all else! “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” Matthew 6:21.

Also, the value placed on human life is far different in China than it is here. This is a billboard that targets college age women in a Chinese city that has a huge college population, approximately 11 million college students.  Notice her wiping her forehead as if saying "WHEW!"

Here is how this billboard translates:

Students are our future, but when something happens to them, who will help and protect them? Chongqing Huaxi Women’s Hospital has started Students Care Month, where those students who come to get an abortion can get 50% off if they show their student ids. Abortion surgeries are the most advanced in the world, won’t stretch (your womb), won’t hurt, it’s quick, and you can do what you want afterward, it won’t affect your studies or your work.

How sad it is that people advertise the best way to do what you want is to have an abortion. This clinic also advertises “You can get your life back” and have a quick and confidential abortion. In one year, this single clinic has an average of 230,000 abortions. It is also important to note than countless abortions in China are “forced abortions” due to the “one child policy”. This law is a primary driver behind the celebration of boys being born, as the future of the family will depend on him. As a whole, China has far more abortions than the rest of the WORLD COMBINED, approximately 13,000,000 per year with a worldwide total at about 16,000,000. The overwhelming majority of these abortions in China are girls.

With all of these almost unreal statistics presented here, it is no wonder that God has called us to adopt a girl from China. One of the big questions nagging my mind is this, “WHY HAVE I WAITED SO LONG?” I can only trust in God and His timing to answer that question. There is no justification that will suffice, especially in light of His Word.

MAY HIS CHURCH ARISE!

Seeking Him,

Andrew

The Next Question, Why International Adoption

Following from the first question, “why adoption”, the next logical question is “why international adoption?” That is a really good question and it makes logical sense when you think of all the needs here in our own nation and the additional resources it takes to adopt a child from another nation. Our answer here is not a universal for anyone who considers adoption because each family has to follow God’s lead in their own hearts and He has led many to adopt domestically.

A similar question is typically asked about missions as well saying, “why go to other countries when there is so many lost here?” I think Robert Coleman said it best in his book The Master Plan of Evangelism where he said, “Contrary to our superficial thinking, there was never a distinction in [Jesus’] mind between home and foreign missions. To Jesus it was all world evangelism.” Too many times we draw lines between “us and them”, showing where our hearts really are. This was a lesson even the disciples did not understand early on. Jesus told them in John 10:14, “I have other sheep not of this fold. I MUST bring them also.” The same concept applies to adoption, there is no “us and them”. Every single child needs to be shown the love of Christ regardless of where they were born. And the real truth be told, many why ask that question about why go to other countries for missions instead of doing missions here have not shared the Gospel with anyone recently and are full of excuses why they have not.

After establishing there is no difference between “us and them”, now the questions are related to what are they being taken from. Typically our first thought goes to their physical living conditions. As we discussed this is not the primary reason, but just to put things into perspective, most children in foreign countries live in conditions we cannot even imagine. This video was made by someone at our former church and it is MOVING. Please take 5 minutes to watch.

 

Not only is their living conditions so much worse than ours, their spiritual poverty is so much darker than ours. Here is a couple links to sites that put the current condition of the spread of the Gospel around the world.

IMB People Group Statistics

As you can clearly see, the US is far more reached that many foreign nations.

Lastly, Jesus commanded us to “Go, make disciples of all nations” in Matthew 28:19. 

Therefore, as He said, “there are other sheep” that “MUST” be brought. Therefore, since we love Him above all else, we must “GO”!

So the big question, “Why Adoption?”

I cannot really put into words all the emotions and thoughts running thru my mind as we are looking into what it means to adopt a little child. Surprisingly, it is not fear, anxiety, or doubt. Of course, there is a lot of questions we have related to logistics, adjustments, and finances, but there is no question about this being God’s specific plan for our lives and our family. It is important to first note there is a difference in having specific questions and questioning God and His call. I am fully convinced as followers of Christ, we can be absolutely sure of God’s call for specific actions in our lives. 2 Peter 1:10, “Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure.” This passage is telling us how we can be sure we are called by God, both for salvation and for our specific actions in our lives. He is not a God of confusion, but a God of clarity.

So, “why adoption?” Overall, I want to be clear as to what the overarching reason is, and I believe to adequately convey that message, I will to begin by listing things that ARE NOT the primary reasons we are adopting.

First, we are not adopting to save this child or children from their current state of living, meaning their poverty, lack of possessions, and very little hope for a prosperous future.  Often when we see images and hear stories of what children around the world grow up in, we want to rush to rescue them from their living conditions. There is no doubt that seeing those images stirs our hearts with compassion for them and we should “help even the least of them”. It is not uncommon for people to begin, and even go thru with, the adoption process because they want to “rescue” these children from such conditions. The problem with that reason is, what distinguishes us from American Idol Gives Back? While there is no doubt we are bringing them to better living conditions, but this is not why we are adopting.

Second, we are not adopting out of a sense of duty or a command of obedience. The Word is clear that we are “to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Here the term “look after” means “to take responsibility for”. We as the church are to look after and care for orphans, but there is a multiplicity of ways to do this. Examples include helping families adopt financially, logistically, prayerfully, helping them after they adopt, supporting adoption agencies, etc.

Third, we are not adopting out of a debt of gratitude. In other words, we are not adopting because we feel like we need to pay God back because He has been so good to us. A lot of times, there is a danger when we receive God’s blessings that we feel obligated to “pay Him back”. God is very clear that He gives us things, even talents and gifts, for the building up of His church and to reach the lost, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms,” (1 Pet 4:10). However, 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Tying these two together show that we are not to give for any other reason than out of the joy of our hearts! Which leads directly to my last point.

So, we ARE adopting because we want to know God more, experience His presence in our lives more, experience a fuller presence of His joy, and glorify His Name throughout the nations. In seeking Him and seeking to know Him, He has made it abundantly clear that we have to follow Him to “look after orphans” by taking someone, a little girl, outside of our family and making her a part of our family and loving her as if she is our own. THIS IS HOW HE LOVES US! We are “eagerly awaiting our adoptions as sons,” (Romans 8:23) because He took us from outside His chosen people, Israel, and adopted us Gentiles into His family. He is our Father. There is no clearer picture of the Gospel in action than can be found in adopting a child, who does not deserve nor is entitled to a better life (JUST AS WE ARE NOT!), but someone they have never met loves God so much that they gave up whatever it took to bring them home! This shows the most important point. WE ARE NOT THE RESCUERS HERE! We are ones who HAVE BEEN RESCUED! When we take this approach, it changes everything! We go because He came. We love because “He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Matthew 13:44, Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then IN HIS JOY went and sold all he had and bought that field.” No matter what the costs, we have found something worth losing everything for! WE WANT TO KNOW HIM, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead,” (Phil 3:10 – 11).

Therefore, IN OUR JOY, we must follow Him to finding our next child, our first daughter!


Andrew

Do Not Worry...

Today I am writing as I am so humbled and overwhelmed at how God is graciously allowing us to be a part of the work of His kingdom.  Yesterday we received our initial application forms to send in, and Andrew and I finalized our decision for me to possibly go on a mission trip to Lasi, Romania and surrounding impoverished areas in May if there is room.  The reality of all of this happening is surreal to me.  As I look around at our home and possessions, I feel so unworthy to make any attempt to go and give comfort to those who have so little-void of even basic necessities.  I am so thankful that my salvation is by grace alone and through faith alone-and that God's sanctifying work in my life is just that-HIS.  But God did lay a passage on my heart this morning, and when He does that, I can count on Him working some major changes in the way I view things in life, which of course leads to a change of my heart, leads to a change in desires, leads to a change in what I do.


 Luke 12:  22-34    And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.  For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. ...  And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.  For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.  Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

    “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Below is a site where I found some interesting facts about children living in Romania.  There are approximately between 3,000-5,000 children living on the streets in Romania, a third of which are in Lasi.  Romania is a closed country to international adoption.

http://www.fiosif.ro/021.html

Our first post-the reason for this blog....

To our friends and family who will read this blog, we hope you will be blessed as you follow along on the journey we believe God is leading us on... the journey of adoption.  As a married couple, Andrew and I have pretty much always considered that we'd both be open to the idea of adoption one day.  But we were spurred onto the idea when the pastor of our former church home, David Platt, encouraged and arranged for local foster care/adoption agencies to hold training classes at the church.  Andrew and I both felt that God could be calling us to be foster parents and or adopt, if not immediately, then definitely at some  point in our future.  So with that, and the fact that God provided for us to find wonderful childcare for our boys while we were in class, we signed up to take the GPS classes from Alabama Baptist children's home in the spring of 2010.  The classes were wonderful and prepared us for the many possible issues that foster and adoptive parents (domestic) may face.  However, even though we both felt like we wanted to be a foster family or adopt, we did not feel that God was calling us to either of those at the time.  So from then on, my prayer became, "Lord move us to adopt or become a foster family when you want us to.  We want to do this, but being already so content with the precious boys we have, and being such an overwhelming process to get through, we will need you to energize us to begin this process."    


So the Lord has answered our prayer this December 2011 in that both of us feel as though the Lord is ready for us to begin the process of adoption.  For me personally, it has been like a hefty dose of baby fever, only in my mind the little girl(s) we hope to adopt are not infants and look nothing like either of us.  I have dreamed and pictured in my mind little girls of various ethnic backgrounds and have wondered how they will feel to become a part of our family and to leave the cultures they have lived in.


So where do we go from here?  Currently we are still praying through what country to adopt from and our next step will be to talk to an adoption agency.  Right now we are leaning toward China, where so many girls are aborted, abandoned, or killed in infanticide due to the one child policy in the urban areas and the preference there is among parents for boys.  Truthfully, we are open to adopt from any country the Lord would show to us, but in particular to countries where life, and specifically female life is devalued.  We would love to adopt from India, but that process is currently on hold.

 Zechariah 4:6 ..."Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts."