In September 2008, my son and his wife felt God calling them to adopt a child – preferably a girl. They have two terrific natural born sons, so they are in the minority of people who choose to adopt. Since most couples adopt because they can’t have children any other way, my son and his wife did not request a newborn. Wanting to keep the existing birth order in their family, they did ask for a child under three.
Anyone who has been through an adoption process or is related to someone who has knows that adoptions are expensive and enormously time consuming. Deciding to adopt a child makes a bold statement. Parents (and in some cases, siblings) are willing to pay the price to adopt a child.
In their case, two adoption agencies (the first one didn’t work out), much money and three years later, the day finally arrived. With all the hiccups in the process, one blog entry of my daughter-in-law’s was “God has a plan, God has a plan, God has a plan.” Today, we know what that plan was.
In September 2008 Olivia’s birth mother was in her first trimester. After giving birth to Olivia seven months later (March 2009), she left her on a doorstep where she was found and taken to a foster home.
The referral from the agency came just after Olivia’s second birthday in March 2011. As soon as we all saw her picture, we knew why God allowed the delay. Everyone instantly knew that Olivia belonged to our family. She was not even born when they started the process with the first agency.
Olivia will know she is adopted. She will know that she is loved and wanted. She will be told that she was longed for, chosen and considered worth any price that had to be paid so she could be part of the family.
God wants, longs for and choses to adopt those who accept the sacrificial gift offered by Jesus Christ. He paid the highest price for each child of His: the life and death of His only begotten Son.
To all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God…God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure (John 1:12, Ephesians 1:5 NLT).
One Focus Ministries 