"The Anticipation of His Joy Would Kill Him"

Dan Cruver:

I’ve found Martin Luther’s thoughts on how our inheritance as children of God can help us face death to be very helpful. You’ll find his comments here on Gal 4:7 in his commentary on Galatians.

We are not the heirs of some rich and mighty man, but heirs of God, the almighty Creator of all things. If a person could fully appreciate what it means to be a son and heir of God, he would rate the might and wealth of nations small change in comparison with his heavenly inheritance. What is the world to him who has heaven? No wonder Paul greatly desired to depart and to be with Christ. Nothing would be more welcome to us than early death, knowing that it would spell the end of all our miseries and the beginning of all our happiness. Yes, if a person could perfectly believe this he would not long remain alive. The anticipation of his joy would kill him.

"How Many Babies Have You Adopted?"

Good response here to this common objection to the pro-life view.

The Glory and Suffering of Adoption

Owen Strachan has a powerful summary of a recent NY Times article about a family that has chosen the pathway of adoption.  Please read it.  May their tribe increase.

This is a GREAT adoption story

Reminds me of the relentless love of God in pursuing sinners and drawing them to repentance and faith.

Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers = Significant Opportunity

I think there might be a hint of false dichotomy here between political action and supporting pregnancy centers (let's do both!) but I think this quote is quite strong.  At The Vine, we are quite involved at our local CareNet facility and have seen some really cool ministry take place.

Dan Darling:

There are millions of women and young girls living in our neighborhoods who are pregnant and alone. Their boyfriends escaped in fear, and their families might have rejected them. They're facing the mountain of motherhood and wondering how or even if they can raise a child on their own.

This is where the church is uniquely positioned to respond with the gospel, lived out with grace and compassion. Imagine if conservative Christians invested less in political-action committees, candidates, and partisan media and instead opened their wallets to support crisis pregnancy centers. What if we doubled and tripled the number of clinics around the country? What if we worked together to build hundreds, if not thousands, of such centers in America's urban centers?

Supporting local crisis pregnancy centers allows us as Christians to live out our pro-life ethic before a watching world. It puts flesh and blood on our beliefs, pouring the gospel into the hearts and lives of those God has called us to love. Being pro-life is so much more than a political slogan. It's a gospel call to be like Jesus, to give our lives on behalf of the most vulnerable.

Read the rest.

Romanticizing adoption? Don’t do it!

Dan Cruver: 

Romanticizing adoption is so very easy and tempting to do.

But adoption always involves suffering. Just ask any birthmother or any child who is one of three hundred orphans in a Chinese orphanage or any adoptive couple who has lived with infertility for years or any adoptive couple who is experiencing the high-ups and low-downs of the adoption process. Sometimes the suffering is deeply intense and ongoing—like that of an orphan languishing each day in a nightmarish orphanage—while other times it’s the heavy heart of the couple waiting to bring their child home. There is no such thing as adoption without suffering.

The same thing is true of our Adoption through Jesus Christ. The Adoption to which we were predestined (Eph. 1:5) could not have happened without Jesus redeeming us “through his blood” (Eph. 1:7). There is no such thing as being Adopted into God’s family apart from the suffering of Jesus. Jesus cried “Abba! Father!” in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:36) so that we could become sons of God who cry “Abba! Father!” by the Spirit (Rom. 8:15). Our Adoption necessarily involved suffering—infinite and glorious suffering.

Read the rest.

Go to the conference!

"It's Not The Color of Your Skin That Matters" - Live in The Story

For Adoption or Against Abortion?

Michael Spielman:

By the latest count, there are 15 infant adoptions in the United States for every 1,000 abortions. That’s 67 abortions for every one adoption. Among women who visit Planned Parenthood, the results are even worse. According to their own numbers, they perform 392 abortions for every adoption. All the while, the National Council for Adoption states that “hundreds of thousands of families are now available to adopt” (Adoption Factbook, 2011, 9).

The problem is not our unwillingness to embrace adoption; it’s our unwillingness to meaningfully oppose abortion. So long as abortion is kept beyond the realm of moral critique, adoption will continue to be an afterthought. It is only when abortion is removed from the realm of moral acceptability that adoption becomes a real and viable solution to unwanted pregnancy.

Jesus once said that whoever is not for him is against him (Matthew 12:30). Along these same lines, I would suggest that whoever is not against abortion is for it. It’s as simple as that. So, if the question is whether we should be for adoption or against abortion, the answer is emphatically, “Yes!”

Read the rest.

"25 Things I learned from staying with Katie Davis"

Powerful post here.  Read it.

"It was a sight painful enough to make even the most ardent adoption advocate think twice before claiming that everyone should adopt."

Shaun Groves writes powerfully here about a disrupted adoption.

A Frank Analysis of "The Child Catchers"

Christian Alliance for Orphans:

The new book The Child Catchers delivers aggressive criticism of the growing Christian orphan care movement. Author Kathryn Joyce provides important warning regarding potential hazards, excesses and blind spots within the movement.  

At the same time, the book’s overarching narrative and many of its claims often distort more than they reveal. Thoughtful orphan advocates would do well to 1) Listen carefully to the book’s criticism; 2) Affirm its condemnations of misguided compassion; and 3) Confront the book’s many caricatures, half-truths and misrepresentations directly and graciously.

Read the rest.

Meeting For The First Time - An Adoption Story

Ben Peays:

"Showcase the Gospel in Living Color" follows the Chen couple as they meet their adopted son, Jacob, for the first time. This remarkably powerful and quality film shows the intimate moments when a couple becomes a family as the Chens hold Jacob for the first time. As the film demonstrates, adoption can be an outward witness to and expression of worship for God's adoption of us—and a way to showcase the gospel in living color to the world (Gal. 4:4-7).

Austin Stone Church has launched an incredible adoption campaign to try and adopt all 244 kids needing adoption in the city of Austin, Texas. They have also created an extensive foster care initiative to provide Christian homes to children who need a family.

Jacob Chen - An Adoption Story from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.


Recommended Reading:

Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches

The Good Heart of the Adoption Movement

Megan Hill:

At age 34, I'm trendier than I've ever been. When my husband and I adopted our son in 2008, we didn't know anyone else whose family looked like ours. We were more oddity than poster family. But, by 2011, when we adopted a second son, the evangelical orphan care movement had gained momentum, and, like it or not, we were suddenly cool.

Kathryn Joyce's new book, The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption, focuses on the negative consequences of this movement, contending that Christian adopters, "wrapped in the enthusiasm of their new calling, didn't recognize the problems."

Through investigative reports on adoption cases worldwide, she seeks to uncover the implications of what she calls, in a related Mother Jones article, "the evangelical movement's adoption obsession." Joyce criticizes the theological motivation for human adoption, accusing evangelical theologians of "crafting an extensive orphan theology to undergird the movement" as if the doctrine of adoption were something new. Adoption language has been a feature of Christianity from its beginning.

Fundamentally, Joyce believes the evangelical adoption movement has created a supply and demand situation, where the number of adoptable children is much smaller than the growing number of evangelical prospective adopters. In foreign countries, Joyce pins blame for relinquished children on lack of social services, misinformation, shame-inducing moral codes, and poverty. In the U.S., she argues that crisis pregnancy centers use dishonest and coercive tactics to pressure women to give their children for adoption.

While much has been written about the mischaracterization and selective anecdotes used in Joyce's book, sadly, there are even deeper issues about her approach to adoption, children, and women in particular.

Read the rest.

Evangelicals and Foreign Adoption

Great post here from Maralee Bradley in response to this critique of Evangelical adoption that was recently published by Kathryn Joyce.

A Common Fear For Those Resistant to Adoption

Jason Helopoulos:

Though they are Christian, love children, and see the great need for adoption, the nagging hesitation that may hold some couples back is a concern I wrestled with before adopting. It wasn’t so much the money, or the time, or even the emotional ups and downs of the adoption process. It was something much deeper. A question that I often felt guilty for even considering. I asked myself on more than one occasion, “Will I love these children as ‘my own?’" (my emphasis)

Our daughter has been with us for seven years. My son has been part of our family for four years. And I can honestly say, that there has not been a single day that I have thought anything other than, “These are my children.” I almost never think about them being adopted. Someone once asked me if we had told our children that they weren’t our biological children. I chuckled and said, “Of course, but they don’t need to be told. It is pretty evident. They are Chinese and we are Caucasian.” My daughter has the innocent habit of running up to Asian individuals and putting her arm next to theirs and saying, “Look, we have the same skin!” There is no hiding the fact from her!

There are plenty of times in our home life when we talk about them being adopted. They love to hear their adoption stories, we celebrate their adoption days (think of it as another birthday–we always go to a good Chinese restaurant), and we often look through the photo album of our journey to the orphanage, where they spent the early months of their lives. But other than those moments or when a stranger walks up to us at the grocery store to ask where they are adopted from (and yes, this happens often), I never think about them being adopted. I am always caught a little off-guard when someone makes a comment or asks a question about their adoption. I am not offended, just surprised by the question because I seldom think about it.

In no way am I opposed to thinking more about them being adopted. I am happy to think about it and love talking about it with them. The fact is, I don’t think about it much. Because this is just my daughter and this is just my son. The fear that I had before adoption, that a child void of my DNA or blood would somehow not feel like my child, has been so far from realized that it almost seems silly. However, I say almost, because I am sensitive to the fact that this is not true for every single person who has ever adopted. And so the question needs to truly be weighed and prayed through.

If you are thinking of adoption and this thought occupies your minds, it isn’t a wrong question. It isn’t a sinful question. And it is surely not a question that you should feel guilty for asking. But I can say on this side of adoption, if your experience is anything like mine, this question will never pass through your thoughts again.

Read the rest.

The Drop Box

Power orphan care documentary/story. See the trailer here.

Stuck

STUCK TRAILER from Both Ends Burning Campaign on Vimeo.

“He Smelled of Urine and Infection”

Owen Strachan with a powerful post concerning adoption.

Things People Say To Transracial Families

My wife can relate to many of these.


(HT: Bryan)

Some Great News For Those Passionate About Adoption

Jason Kovacs:

We praise God that the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (the bill to avert the fiscal cliff) made the adoption tax credit permanent! 

Our friends at the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute posted this today:

The bill permanently extends the increased adoption tax credit and the adoption assistance programs exclusion. Taxpayers that adopt children can receive a tax credit for qualified adoption expenses. A taxpayer may also exclude from income adoption expenses paid by an employer. The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 increased the credit from $5,000 ($6,000 for a special needs child) to $10,000, and provided a $10,000 income exclusion for employer-assistance programs. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 extended these benefits to 2011 and made the credit refundable. The bill extends for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2012, the increased adoption credit amount and the exclusion for employer-assistance programs as enacted in EGTRRA.

There are still questions about the credit becoming refundable and some have encouraged people to contact congress to push for this.