Just Jump!

During this season of waiting, we are keeping ourselves busy with life  raising the funds needed to bring our boy home. I am completely overwhelmed by God's gracious provision to this point. Over and over and over again, He has provided the needed finances to proceed with each step of this journey. No, we have not had the money up front--but just enough for us to keep walking by faith. Often, this is just how God works. Because the point is that He wants us to walk by faith.

There have been a few points along the way where we have thought that we might have to freeze our progress and take a few months off to save up money. Other adoptive families and friends have encouraged us to just keep walking...to only stop when the door slams shut. The worst that could happen is that we'd move through the process more slowly. We've continued forward by faith, and guess what, God has provided each time--just in time.

Ok-I just want to give a shameless plug. Maybe you've been reading this blog because you are interested in adoption too. Maybe you would love to adopt a child, but the financial hurdle seems insurmountable. I want to encourage you, friend. God owns it all. He has promised to care for the fatherless. He has promised to care for you. Now, I am not trying to encourage reckless abandon. Be wise with your finances. You should not bring a child into your home unless you have the sufficient finances to feed, clothe and care for him.

BUT-If the finances are the only thing stopping you-the financial cost of international adoption-then just jump! 

It might take a while. Your timeline might move slowly. There will surely be roadblocks along the way. But there are countless grants, low/no-interest loans, and creative fundraisers that you can do to make this possible. If God is working in your heart to adopt a child, and you have the ability and means to care for that child once he's home--Jump! :)

You see, adoption is a picture of something far greater than even adding an orphan into a family. It is a picture of the Gospel. Our adoption as sons. You want to talk about great cost? Let's look at how much our adoption into God's family cost.

While it costs us a lot to adopt children, it cost God the blood of His own Son. It cost Christ to give up His whole life, in obedience to the Father. Christ, the One who 'endured the cross' came to redeem us and make us part of the family. Orphanology

Be moved by that. Because that was the cost of your adoption. But as Christians, we are no longer orphans. We are sons. We have been gloriously adopted into God's family, giving us a part of His inheritance and a seat at His table.

So back to the picture/shadow of our adoption. There are 147 million orphans in this world, over 5 million in Ethiopia alone. God has commanded believers to care for the fatherless. How are you obeying that command? The command doesn't mean that every family is supposed to adopt, but it does mean that some of us are. Let's be a Christian community known for our love and care for one another and the least of these. Let's make it popular. Let's do it. Because we, of all people, have a great motivation.

"The deepest and strongest foundation for adoption is located not in the act of humans adopting humans, but in God adopting humans. And this act is not part of his ordinary providence in the world; it is at the heart of the Gospel." John Piper, Adoption: The Heart of the Gospel