Last night I finished reading an amazing book, Adopted for Life by Dr. Russell Moore, the dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Moore and his wife, Maria, dealt with infertility which led them to the idea of adoption. They adopted two little boys from Russia. In his book, Dr. Moore explains the importance of Christians adopting and encouraging the adoption of children based on the fact that we as believers are adopted into God's family. Since high school, I have had a desire to adopt. I always assumed that I would adopt children rather than have my own. I once had a high school friend tell me that adopting over having biological children was a very selfish decision. (I don't miss high school, do you?) Anyway, it breaks my heart to think there are so many children in our country and throughout the world that don't have loving parents, grandparents, and extended family to care for them. Tears streamed down my face as I read about Dr. Moore's sons lying in their own vomit and excrement in the Russian orphanage. How could anyone treat a child that way?After all, the Bible says that true religion is to look after widows and orphans. Why those two groups in particular? Because those were the two groups that could not take care of themselves. I believe the same principle applies today as it did at the time James wrote it. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.-James 1:27
I will admit that there were two parts of the book in particular that made me angry. Not because I disagreed with what was being said, but because I strongly agreed with what was being said. Here is one example:"The way we see such things has everything to do with the way we see our family responsibilities, including the joy of adoption. Speaking of the family, Wendell Berry laments the fact that so many crucial aspects of familial life have been outsourced to corporations through such means as institutionalized daycare, preschool, and nursing homes."
Can you guess what I'm going to say? Yep. I believe it is important for me as a mother to be at home with my children rather than send them to daycare or preschool. (I have not dealt with sending parents to nursing homes so I cannot really speak to that, but I do believe the same principle applies-the family should take care of those individuals if at all possible.)
So you might be wondering why I was angry when I read it. I feel it is what Scripture teaches, yet I also feel that the God I serve is making it a very difficult for my family. Don't get me wrong...Mark and I are okay for now, but our current situation is not a long term plan. We have been praying for over a year now that God would provide us with a long term solution and we haven't received that answer yet. So for me, it is very frustrating and aggravating to read such quotes as above because I agree and I want that for my family.
Okay. I'll leave it at that. I could say more, but you've read it all before.
I highly recommend reading Dr. Moore's book, whether you want to adopt or not. He mentions several times that you may not be the one who adopts, but you may be used to encourage others to adopt. My prayer is that one day in the future God will lead Mark and I down the road of adoption.
I'll leave you with one other quote from the book that really touched Mark and I. This is Dr. Moore talking about wearing a birthday hat on his son's birthday.
"I'm the man with the plastic birthday hat on my head. And I'll wear it all evening, even after the kids have taken off theirs. It's my theologian's cap; it's taught me far more about my God and his gospel than the tasseled formal scholar's hat on my shelf ever has."
How true.