As we’re working overtime to get our dossier completed and *hopefully* sent off to be state sealed by the end of next week, I thought I’d address this question; because I’m not sure I have in blog form.
[Note: As I write this, I want you to know I’m writing from my heart. Please do not take this post as condemnation, but as a way for you to look at international adoption in a different light.]
This one questions that we get asked probably as often as “But she won’t be sick or have like HIV right?”.
My response to the question of “Why don’t you adopt from America? There are kids here who need homes too. Why Ethiopia?” is simple.
Why not?
Why should a child’s latitude and longitude coordinates choose whether or not a child can have a second chance at a family.
But the even simpler answer?
Because God told us to.
That may not make any sense to you, but when KC and I started praying about adoption we honestly thought we’d adopt domestically or from a Latin American country – either one would be “easier”. KC’s white. I’m half white, half Mexican.
Square peg. Square hole.
But you should know by now, that’s not how God works. He stretches us. Takes us out of our comfort zone – away from the easy and pushes us towards the hard.
Each of us has a heart for something different. If we all had the same passions, things would get pretty boring and a totally one sided.
KC and I are adopting from another country. We’re passionate about that. KC will kill me for saying this, but even with all the unknowns, I’d adopt internationally AGAIN!
IN. A. FLASH.
Because that’s where my heart is. That doesn’t mean KC and I haven’t considered foster care and prayed about it. We have. But we were drawn elsewhere.
Take my friend Lindsay (who is letting me share a part of her story). She’s a momma of two blessings. One adopted domestically and one biological. She and her husband are getting close to finishing their paperwork so their house can be “open” to adopt through the foster care system.
That’s where her beautiful heart is.
That doesn’t mean they didn’t consider and pray about international adoption. They did. But again, they were led elsewhere.
The dream God gave them is different than what He gave us.
Does that make one of us better than the other? Is her daughter more deserving than my daughter to have a family because she was born in America?
Is my daughter more deserving than her daughter to have a family because she was born in a third-world country?
Think on that.
Mull it over.
Am I more deserving of God’s grace because my sins don’t seem as “big” as someone who is caught up in addiction? Thievery? Murder?
Are they more deserving of God’s grace because their sins are “bigger” than mine?
Think on that.
Mull it over.
Just as much as I have been given a second chance due to my transgressions, my daughter, Lindsay’s daughter, the other children out there without parents…… they too can and should be given a second chance at a family.
So please friends, think about these things the next time you hear of someone adopting – be it domestically or internationally. Those comments you’re making are in regards to a child.
A real.
Live.
Child.
My child.
Who has endured more death, pain, and heartbreak than most adults.
She is loved and adored just as much as her brothers are.
I am loved and adored just as much as my 6 billion other brothers and sisters.
Why Ethiopia?
I say why not.
{“Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:10}
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