Why Adoption?

Why adoption? Because it's necessary...

One of the things that we regret most about our adoption journey thus far is making the mistake of telling people that we are infertile. Whenever someone hears "infertile," they tend to assume that we are only pursuing adoption because we can't have our "own" children. The mentality becomes sentimental and the focus shifts towards a story of us wanting to become parents instead of a story of a child's life being saved.

What people don't realize is that adoption has always been in our plans. At first we were deterred from having our first child through adoption because of the large financial cost involved. Instead, we decided to try and have children the natural way (which is free) and save up money over the years to finance an adoption (maybe adopting in our mid-30's). As we found out that we were infertile, doctors told us that if we wanted biological children we would have to pay thousands of dollars for reproductive technologies. Well, our decision to adopt was made that very minute. Having biological children would have been amazing, but since we were going to have to spend a considerable amount of money for any option, why not seek to fulfill the Great Commision with a child who's already in need of a family? We decided that adopting was God's plan for us now, rather than later. It just took the doctor's news that day to get us moving towards adoption a little faster! That day we could have scheduled a reproductive procedure for my next cycle, but we left knowing that we would probably wait longer because we were going to pursue adoption instead.

We wish that people understood that...I mean really understood that. We're infertile (conceiving would be difficult) - not sterile (conceiving would be impossible). There's a big difference. We're choosing to bypass reproductive treatments that could potentially give us biological children because there's a HUGE need for rescuing little ones who are already here! Adoption isn't just for the infertile or sterile - it's for many others too who may or may not yet be considering it.

There are millions of orphans across the world...MILLIONS! There are also over 500,000 unborn children living in frozen orphanages in the U.S. alone whose fate at life or death before birth is yet to be determined.

Christians, may I humbly suggest that we stop just saying we're pro-life and be pro-life! Let's stop merely holding signs pleading to "stop abortion" - And let's hold out our hands and say "I will be his/her/their parents!" or help others who are called by God to do so. Let's treat adopting couples as we would missionaries and remember that God's definition for true religion includes "caring for orphans in their affliction" (James 1:27)

"So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." - James 2:17