Lessons in Adoption Part 1
There have been times in my life that have surprised me. I don’t mean surprised me like a surprise party. But surprised me in that while I thought I was doing something to help someone else, I ended up being the one helped. Over the next several posts I am going to share a personal story from my life that I hope will inspire and bless. I want to share the story of our adoption process. My wife and I have three great children. The youngest, Gehrig, was adopted from Poland. It was a long process that had a few valleys to go through. Although unaware of it at the time, in hindsight, I can see how God’s hand was over us.
I must admit in the beginning that I was apprehensive about adopting. In fact, I really tried to go a different route. It was about 2005 I began to feel the call. I knew God wanted my wife and I to do something but I wasn’t exactly clear what that something was. I prayed about it and thought constantly about it. I began noticing all around me constant things being mentioned about adoption. Billboards, tv commercials, radio commercials, radio interviews, etc. It felt as if it was non-stop. So, what did I do? I did what any self-righteous Christian would do when he is trying to kind of half-way fulfill God’s calling. I tried to compromise with God. Rather than yield to God’s call exactly how He wanted me to live, I tried to throw God a bone. I thought there was no way that we could adopt. It was too expensive, too time consuming, and it would take us away from our two daughters. My plan (notice I said MY plan) was, rather than adopt, I would donate money to an organization that would help other people adopt. Surely God would be satisfied with that.
Isn’t that how we often want our relationship with God to be. We want it to be a one-sided relationship in which God should just consider Himself “lucky” to get what He does from us. He should be satisfied with what we offer and not request anything. We want the relationship to fit within our parameters or our idea. We can often be very closed minded when it comes to God. We pretend to want to know what His will is for our lives but, truth be told, we only want to know His will as long as it fits into our will.
The rich young ruler came to Jesus asking what he must do to receive eternal life. According to Matthew 19:16-22, the young man left his conversation with Jesus sad because he didn’t get the response that he wanted from Jesus. He made out like he wanted to know how to live but in reality, he only wanted it if it fit into his plans. I was playing the same game as that rich young ruler. I just thought I wanted God’s will. What I really wanted was my own.
So, for a few years I donated money to an organization called Show Hope. This organization was started by Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth. Their purpose is to help provide funding for adoptions to those who can’t afford it. It is a great organization and I still donate even now. I think God blessed someone through the money I donated, but it was not what God wanted me to do. He wanted more. I had to get my heart right to give Him what he wanted.