Why not adopt?

  Maybe He is calling you to adopt?  Why not?  What stops us from doing these sort of things?

Well, I can tell you what some of  my excuses and yours might be:

God has blessed me with four children and I have my hands full!

so what's a couple of more! And because He has blessed us, how can I bless others and bring glory to His name through that.

How will I properly give all of my children the attention they need and deserve?

This could be giving your children exactly what they need to see God's heart for His people.

I don't feel the "call" to adopt

James 1:21 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.  There are many great organizations out there for sending money to support children and these are wonderful!  But the ultimate desire is to give these children families and homes and a place where they will hear the gospel and see it being lived out.  Don't turn a blind eye to it and sluff it off, take it to the Lord in prayer and He will lead you where you should go. 

My spouse doesn't want to adopt so it's useless.

Then pray, pray real hard, amazing things happen when we pray!  James 5:16b " The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.  If you are like me, I don't always want to pray for a situation or solution because I don't always want to surrender, but  if we believe He is who He says He is then we want to surrender to Him and he asks us to.

We don't have the money, we could never afford it.

It's amazing how the Lord will provide for the things He favors!  And He favors adoption....after all, if you believe that Jesus hung on that tree for your sin, you too are adopted by Him.  Galatian 4:6-7  "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."  So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir."

Where would I put another child, my house isn't big enough?

 It's better then where they are now!  Double your kids up, plus it's good for them to learn how to blend with each other.  Life will bring lots of moments when blending is needed:)

There is no other investment here on earth you can take to heaven other then your children, so why not invest in them!

I know that not everybody can adopt, but have you prayerfully considered it?

I could write a book on how God has used our adoption to show Bob and I so much about who we are and what he wants and requires of us.  We have learned and deepened our relationship with Him and each other throughout following His direction.  It has also been so confirming that we are on the same page together, walking it out, being stirred at the same time.

You know I have said before, we aren't perfect and certainly are not even remotely thinking that this will be easy.  But God did not promise us a easy road here on this earth but the eternal reward is worth it.  He promises to give us everything we need.  I am very aware how weak I am so to know He supplies the strength empowers me to obey.  There's actually comfort in knowing I can not do this apart from Him.

A blog friend, Tracy posted this and I am reposting here. It moooooved my heart!  Recently Tracy and her husband adopted for the second time by adopting 4 at the same time.  They had 2 bio children first then adopted Levi and then 4 just recently, all from Africa.  She is an incredible inspiration!


About 20 years ago I met a precious elderly woman on a plane.  I've always loved old people and I was drawn to her sweet spirit and her old world accent.  She noticed that I was staring at her arm.  She had a tattoo of numbers on her forearm.  Without me asking, she told me that she was a concentration camp survivor.  Those numbers were her identification mark--- her mark for death.  I immediately felt as if I was in the presence of holiness.  She was completely humble as she told me about never seeing her family again and about how thankful she was to have survived at all.
Grateful that someone believed that she was suffering.
Grateful that someone responded to her cries for help.

Many years later, I had a beloved Bible Study leader who shared as part of her testimony that she used to struggle with the fact that she wasn't sure if she had had the opportunity to help a Jew during the Holocaust, much like Corrie Ten Boom had done, if she would have had the courage to do so.  
She was haunted by that idea.


Recently, Unicef concluded that there are indeed 163 million orphans in the world today.  163 million children marked for death by satan unless a complacent world chooses to stop turning the other way and pretending that they aren't there.
This is our generation's opportunity to stop a holocaust.
Lord have mercy on us if we don't.

What is happening to orphans right now as I write?

They are hungry.
They are eating trash.
They are chased away from the trash.
They are naked.
They are exhausted from running scared all the time.
They are tied up.
They live without shelter.
They live in fear of being abducted.
They live in fear of being eaten by wild animals.
They are raped.
They are prostituted.
They are beaten---in unimaginable ways.
They witness their friends being sold.
They live in fear being sold themselves.
They are forced to lie.
They steal out of necessity.
They are burned.
They are bruised.

Sometimes they wish they were never born.
They feel invisible.
They wonder why God doesn't like them.

They are crying out to the Lord because of their oppressor. Isaiah19:20 


If 6% of all born-again believers adopted orphans that are adoptable there would be no orphans!!!

A blind spot revealed...no longer can I live in denial

Let me just preface, I have many blind spots this is just one that God has revealed to me.

When I think of a blind spot the first thing that comes to my mind is the spot in the car where you can't see when you try to pass into a lane unless you take that quick look over your shoulder.  If you choose to look for the blind spot then you will pass into the lane with no problem.  However, if you choose to not look at the blind spot before passing you run the risk of getting hit and missing the opening you could have had.

Webster's say this...

1 a : the small occular area at the back of the retina where the optic nerve enters the eyeball and which is devoid of rods and cones and is not sensitive to light —called also optic disk — b : a portion of a field that cannot be seen or inspected with available equipment

2 : an area in which often fails to exercise judgment or discrimination

Through the last year God has opened my eyes and ears to the lonely, desperate, lost, hungry(spiritual and physical), disabled, poor, orphaned, widowed, desperate, deprived...and I could go on and on.

Of course, through many years of living I have time and time again seen the ads on t.v. and heard the campaigns and telethons and organizations that help children all over the world.  But sadly, I became numb to the cause.  Somewhere along the way, I didn't feel the burden or responsibility to do something. After all, my life is busy! I have enough to deal with! It's not my fault, why do I have to do something!  I have my own problems! Nothing seems to help anyway!  It's not my problem!

As I just typed those last few words, tears are streaming down my face at the realization of what my heart looked like.  Blind spots are plain old ugly and sinful.

The reality is, that was me, desperate, lonely, lost, hungry, poor, filthy and many more things before Christ came into my life.  I am so thankful that He did not leave me there but gave me a way out. A  hope for tomorrow and a joy in following Him, my Father and my Creator.

I am so thankful that God has shown me my ugliness.  I can't look at a picture of an orphan or of a poor impoverished group of people, I can't watch a video or see a family who has been blessed through adoption without shedding tears.  Some are tears of joy and many are tears of anguish.  But I choose to look, and not look away in denial anymore.  God has not only exposed this area in my life but he has given me a deep desire to serve, in any way that I can.  He has given me a burning, gut wrenching pain that I feel everytime I see photos or videos or words of a song.  I can truly say, Thank you!  Thank you for pulling me up out of myself, thank you for revealing to me what absolutely breaks His heart.

When the blind spot is exposed then can His light shine, it's no longer obstructed and He gets the glory!

Psalm 51:10-13
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
 or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and 
sinners will turn back to you.

We are commanded, yes commanded to make "disciples of all nations"( Matt. 28)

David Platt in his book Radical says this, 

"Jesus has commanded us to go to all nations.  We have taken this command though and reduced it to a calling-something that only a few people receive.  I find it interesting that we don't do this with other words from Jesus.  We take Jesus' command in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations, and we say, "That means other people".  But we look at Jesus' command in Matthew 11:28, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest," and we say, "Now that means me."  We take Jesus' promise in Acts 1:8 that the Spirit will lead us to the ends of the earth, and we say, "That means some people."  But we take Jesus' promise in John 10:10 that we will have abundant life, and we say, "That means me."

Now I know what you are thinking, we can't alllll go, no but we must be willing.  For those who aren't called we still are called to make a global impact by supporting those who do go and there are many other ways.  And maybe He is calling you to go?  Maybe He is calling us to get more involved with the needs around us and the less fortunate around us.

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO WATCH THESE VIDEOS! YOU WON'T REGRET IT!
IT MIGHT JUST CHANGE YOUR LIFE!(turn off music in side bar)

Next Five Minutes from David Platt on Vimeo.

Ordinary Hero~ A day in the trash dump in Ethiopia from Kelly Putty on Vimeo.
...once our eyes are opened we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know and holds us responsible to act.  (paraph.) Proverbs 24:12

Lord, please show us as believers how we can minister to these sweet people, your precious children.  Let us be your hands and feet!

My poor girl

I have been mia for a little while due to Maggie being sick.  She has been sick for over a week now with pneumonia...aka"ammonia"by her sister.  Poor girly has had a rough go of it but has been a trooper nonetheless.  We have been to the pediatricians 3 times in 5 days, thankfully her fever finally broke and we are praying for her body to heal and the infection to leave her lungs.

my sweet girl!

I'll be back soon with some ramblings from my heart....my mind has been on overdrive with my thoughts, feelings, convictions and what have you!