I can’t take credit for writing any of this…I copied it from a friend's blog, and she copied it from helpadopt.tripod.com. It so blessed me, because it speaks well about the heart of adoption and what adoptive families experience. Hope you enjoy it!!!
“Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40
Adoption is a great way to help children! God is calling all kinds of families to adopt, and they come from all economic situations. The usual cost for adoption is now tens of thousands of dollars! It is cheaper to give birth than to pay for an adoption, and health insurance won’t cover adoption like it covers a birth. When someone adopts a child, they are making a huge sacrifice. We all need to be ready to help these adoptive parents so they won’t suffer financial difficulties or give up on adoption. In many cases, adoptive parents provide homes for children who might have died or been aborted. Here is a way to help save innocent human lives.
Every child deserves to grow up in a loving family. There are loving families who want to adopt the unwanted children…but sadly the expense of adoption often stands in the way.
There are staggering numbers of abandoned and orphaned children worldwide. These numbers are increasing rapidly because of AIDS, wars, famine, terrorism, politics, and impoverished societies in which parents cannot afford to keep and raise their kids. While sponsorships and orphanage support can improve life for some of these children, there is no substitute for being in a loving home and being part of a family who will love you forever, no matter what.
Adoptive families are missionaries. This is a calling, just as missionary work is. The adoptive families will lead their children to Christ, ensuring them of a good eternity. We should be supporting this in every way we can, including financially. If you are not feeling a call to adopt a child, you can still help with the finances to enable someone else to adopt. What treasure in heaven we’ll have if we help these kids find their way into families!
God invented adoption, and it pleases Him when we care for the fatherless! We were adopted into the family of God, when we accepted His Son as our Savior. Adoptive parents do not experience the usual fanfare lavished upon families who birth their children. There seems to be a sort of discomfort or embarrassment about adoption, and people tend to view it as second best. It is not! Adoption is God’s first-class way to expand families! Please celebrate with adoptive parents exactly as you do with parents who birth babies!
Concrete Ways to Help
1) Donate directly to adopting families. Cash will help them with adoption and travel costs, and gift certificates will help them to furnish their child’s room, choose clothing or provide for other needs they have for their new child.
2) Take love-offerings at church for families who are adopting.
3) Hold fund-raisers such as a garage sale, spaghetti feed, carnival, car wash, bake sale, babysitting, can drive, newspaper drive, candy sale, and so on.
4) Donate frequent flier miles to a family who has to travel to adopt.
5) Have an “orphanage shower” or collections box, providing the needed donations of new children’s clothing, toiletries, and medications the family will need to donate to their child’s orphanage. On top of a large, mandatory, cash donation to their child’s orphanage, they will probably also need to take supplies to help the children who remain there.
6) Encourage an adopting family. Pray, call, send cards, letters, and let them know they are important to you and on your mind. Treat them as you would any other expectant family. Understand that adoption can be even more stressful than birthing a child, because of the uncertainties, financial pressures, and the invasion of privacy required. Adoptive families need you, your prayers, and your love!
7) Host a shower. From newborn to teen, the newly adopted child will need all sorts of things that other kids take for granted. Babies need a crib, high chair, stroller, clothing, diapers, bottles, and toys. For older kids, think big-ticket items like a bed, bike, jacket, shoes, school supplies, toys and games. Adopted kids usually come to their new families with nothing. Imagine having to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a child’s adoption, and then having to scrounge up more money for things like a bed, clothing, and other things. You can help them get a start in life with your thoughtful gifts.
8) Bring meals to the family after they adopt, just as for someone who has given birth. This is especially appreciated by families that must travel great distances to bring a child home. Jet lag is exhausting, especially when combined with the stresses and adjustments of adopting a child. While churches commonly provide meals for a week or two when a family has a new baby, few think to do this for those who have just adopted a child.
9) Offer to help them with child care, pet care, yard work, errands, and house cleaning, just as you would for a family who has added a birth child. Remember how tired this family is after bringing their child home!
10) Welcome the new addition warmly! The family whose mission it is to raise this child will love you for it!
11) Adopt a child yourself! If every family adopted a child, imagine the impact that would have on the Kingdom of God and on the orphans of the world. Seek God about adopting a child of your own. Can it be God’s will for you to fulfill so many scriptures? It might be! Don’t let fear scare you, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind. If you are not adopting because you are afraid to, then examine that fear and know it does not come from God. God does not call the equipped, He equips the called!
“Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers, who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well, because they went forth for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.”
3 John 1:5-8
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen; To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.” Isaiah 58:6-9
Blessings!
