Next stop China

Next stop China
Next Stop China!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Moses and adoption

Sunday morning our sermon was about how both Moses' mother Jocabed and Pharaoh's daughter chose life for the baby Moses rather than death.
I would like to expound on that a little and take it in a slightly different direction than the sermon.
There are over 147,000,000 orphans in the world. This means that there are millions of modern day Jocabeds. A woman who knows that she is dying of AIDS and takes her child to an orphanage rather than leave it to fend for itself when she dies. She chooses life for her child. A woman who watches her child slowly dying of starvation and takes this child to an orphanage rather than let it die. She chooses life for her child. They give up living (or dying) with the children they love in hopes that someone else (modern day Pharaoh's daughters) will also choose life for their children.
The question is -Is the Church encouraging it's members to choose life for these children and adopt them?Or is it ignoring the fact that there are millons of birth mothers praying that someone else will choose life for their children. These birth mothers who may be just like Jocabed and know that keeping their children with them would mean certain death, are willing to give up knowing and raising their children in hopes that someone else will.
As you know from reading the Bible, orphans weigh heavy on the mind of God. Why do they not weigh heavy on the mind of the Church? God had a plan for Moses, and I am sure that He has a plan for every orphaned child and He asks the Church to carry out His plan for them.

Deuteronomy 24:17-18 Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

1 John 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

And lastly...
Proverbs 24:11-12 Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, "but we knew nothing about this," does he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?

I hope this link works. A great blog post about the "Cost" of adoption http://haskinsadoption.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/are-we-really-considering-the-cost/

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Encouragement

I have been tag team teaching the teen girls this quarter at church with a friend of mine. The first 3 weeks of the quarter, I taught the ladies class. Part of that class was about our adoption and what the Bible says about it. Mom suggested that I use that as a lesson for the teen girls and I am so glad I have. I have avoided blogging about all of the negative comments we have recieved about adopting, or even more prevalant than the negative comments, the completely ignoring of it. No I don't want to be the center of attention, but since the 3 years we have been going at this, I have one friend I talk to about it all the time and another that asks me how it is going, where we are etc. I appreciate that so much, but that is pretty much it.
When whining to my friend about it one bad week, she asked me what I wanted from everyone. It was one of those whines where you don't really no what you want, but you know that how things are can't be right. But I think it just came down to the fact that I wanted to know that people cared. Sadly, I haven't felt it from many at all. But as always, God reminds me that what I do in life all comes down to me and Him. What does He want me to do? Is He for me doing this? Then why do I care if everyone else is? Did He put it in our hearts to adopt? Did I not promise to Him when we first started that I would have faith that any delays were His doing so the timing would be His perfect timing? Forget that people don't care, remember that God does.
That has completely changed my attitude. Most days. Do I still fall into the pity party of no one gives a hoot? Some days, but it is farther and farther between.
Anyway, back to the teen class. After doing two classes on our adoption, etc. My teacher/friend comes up and says that it has really impacted the teens and stated they had no idea we had gone through so much to adopt and had lost so much money, etc. They wanted to know what the church was doing to help and why weren't they helping. She mentioned that a long time ago I had mentioned a benefit dinner and they were so excited and wanted to help. This brings tears to my eyes. Someone does care!
I don't know what will come of it, but I am so grateful that I found caring when I wasn't expecting it or looking for it. Thank you God!
As a disclaimer - as pointed out by my wonderful friend who still comes around even though I whine - perhaps it is not that people don't care, they just don't know. I realize that my perception of no one caring may not actually be the reality.