Let’s Celebrate National Adoption Day (even though it was last Friday)

Last Friday was National Adoption Day. To be honest, I didn’t think much about it, other than to pray for one great little boy we know who was being adopted that day. It had been a busy week and we were headed into a big weekend, so I was kind of distracted.

Then the pictures started coming in. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. New families. Everyone smiling, slightly dazed that this was finally happening, celebrating the miracle of how God has a Plan B for each of us when we need it. And a bunch of little kids just being little kids, running all over the place and occasionally bursting into tears or wiping food on their beautiful special day clothes.

I was extra excited to see these awesome sisters get adopted. They were featured on a Wednesday’s Child segment last winter and one of the girl’s former teachers (who hadn’t even known they were in foster care) saw the news and said to her husband, Maybe we could be their family? And look at them now! It’s just gorgeous. After years of waiting, at an age where kids usually give up on being adopted, God placed them in their new family. Love, love, love it.

Then this morning I saw this story about a couple who had already adopted one girl and was preparing to adopt two more children…then they found out their first daughter had two siblings who needed a home. So as of Friday, they’re a family of SEVEN. God. Bless. Them. I mean, how awesome? It gives me chills and tears all at the same time.

But here’s what I find most exciting about this story: at the end of the newscast, the reporter said, “There are approximately 600 children in Massachusetts waiting to be adopted.”

600? That is TOTALLY DOABLE, you guys. Seriously, that’s not even a thing.

Well, it’s a thing at the personal level. You’ll notice when your cherub leaves toothpaste all over your bathroom sink. The uptick in laundry will be exponential beyond all reason (unless it’s negligible because your cherub is filing his dirty laundry in the lower drawers of his dresser). You’ll have more routines and inside jokes and personal conversations over things you’d forgotten from your own childhood. And sometimes you’ll get so angry that you won’t even be able to remember the consequence you’d decided on for if this behavior happened again, and it will be all you can do not to blurt, “That’s it! You lose everything! No TV…or electronics…or protein…or socks…or…ANYTHING for the rest of the century!!!” But you won’t blurt that. You’ll pride yourself on how much you’re growing in self control :) You’ll learn that because you’re the parent, you can calm down, give the consequence later, then sit back and enjoy while your cherub vacuums the whole house and then rakes the leaves in the back yard. You’ll realize that some things are a big deal, but most things aren’t. You’ll get awesome at perspective.

It will disrupt your flow, true. But you’ll be part of God’s Kingdom being made real here on earth. That’s in the Lord’s Prayer. The one Jesus recommended.

YOU COULD BE THE ANSWER TO JESUS’ PRAYER!!!

Bet you hadn’t thought of it that way :)

Massachusetts friends, consider adoption. Seriously. 600 kids. We can do this. It’s the best kind of effortful growth.

Spend time on the M.A.R.E. website.

Email Sarah at CFCS and inquire.

Practice saying, “I’m thinking of adopting a child from foster care.” And then don’t say that to anyone, because people will try to talk you out of it because of some horror story they read or saw on the news. Ignore those stories. You’re not thinking of adopting a horror story. You’re taking a couple of first steps to see if there might be a child for whom you’d be a great parent.

Ask God if He wants you to consider this. Then, when you totally freak out and panic, write a big check to CFCS or MARE. Seriously. Give them lots of cash. It will give you some breathing room AND a tax deduction. If God wants to put adoption back on your radar screen after that, trust me, He knows how to get your attention.

600…599…598… we can do this.