Today we had our second of four home study visits. Questions such as why are we adopting, why China, how we met, strengths and weaknesses, etc. It was fun! We are having so much fun. At the same time, it is still so overwhelming and emotional for me. I start reading information to Daniel about the adoption and I can't make it through the sentences without crying. We are so amazed right now that we are actually doing this. It feels so good. To know that God is using us to change Hope's life. The more we read about adoption, we actually wonder why we didn't do it sooner. It just seems so natural to us. Here is an excerpt from John Piper, a father who in his fifties adopted a child with his wife who had the desire for years! It touched me so greatly, I wanted to share it:
• Adoption is from God. Ephesians 1:5 says, "In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace." So adoption was part of God's plan. It was his idea, his purpose. It was not an afterthought. He didn't discover one day that against his plan and foreknowledge humans had sinned and orphaned themselves in the world, and then come up with the idea of adopting them into his family.
• Consider adopting children into your family as an overflow of the inheritance that you have in Christ from God, your Father.
• We adopt a child not for our own glory but for God's glory. God adopted us for the praise of the glory of his grace. Therefore we adopt for the praise of the glory of his grace. The questions you ask as you ponder adopting a child who needs a family are not first questions of feasibility or affordability. The questions you ask first are: Is my heart fixed on glorifying the grace of God? Is my aim in this to make the grace of God look glorious? Is Christ the center and goal of this decision?
• We dare only adopt children if we have a firm faith in the all-sufficiency of God's future grace. The pain of adopting and rearing children is sure. It will come in one form or the other. Should that stop us from having children or adopting children? No. The self-centered world "cuts their losses" by having few or no children. But we grieve, hoping that they will see that the grace of God is sufficient for every new day no matter how difficult, and that there is more true joy in walking with God through fire, than walking on beaches without him.
• What matters is not that we do all we might have done or all we dreamed of doing in this life, but that while we live, we live by faith in future grace and walk in the path of love. The times are in God's hands, not ours.
Isn't that beautiful? I know that not everyone is where we are right now. Last year, I wasn't here. But God has brought me to this place and it is so lovely and pure and fulfilling that I must share with you these things as I walk down this new path in my life. I hope it touches people along the way. And I hope that others will decide to adopt as well as God speaks it to them. Hope.
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