WHY?......

I have needed to get this in writing for a while now, but have not really had the words....so many people want to know WHY. "Why do you want to adopt?" "You already have a child of your own." "Why do you have to go to Ethiopia?...there are so many children available here"

These questions stir somthing in me...I just wish I could spit out all the feelings I have and all the scriptures and background of our life that lead us to this point, but it is hard for me when I am in that moment. This weekend we went to a 'together for adoption' conference and we were flooded not with information on physical adoption of orphans but spiritual adoption, our adoption by God through Christ. This is an exerpt from a book Adopted For Life written by one of the speakers there this weekend Russell D. Moore ( I really recommend the book!)

"Not everyone is called to adopt. No one wants parents who adopt children out of the same sense of duty with which they may give to the building fund for the new church gymnasium. But all of us have a stake in the adoption issue, because Jesus does. He is the one who tells us his Father is also "Father of the fatherless" (Psalms 68:5). He is the who insists on calling "the least of these" his "brothers" (Matthew 25:40) and who tells us that the first time we hear his voice, he will be askin us if we did the same."

To me is it simple...I heard God telling me that we were to adopt more clearly than I have heard anything in my life before. I knew the desire was from God and when I told Matthew about it and watched his heart also grow in the desire I knew it was from God and that was that...we were adopting! But it isn't easy to make that very clear to everyone and especially to those who don't seek God daily. So I hope this makes it more clear....
Scriptures tell us that God has adopted us, He didn't just reconcile us to Him, he took it further and called us his children....
Romans 8:15-16
"For you did not recieve a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you recieved the Spirit of adoption. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father". The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children."
Galations 4:4-7
"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under the law, that we might recieve the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir."
Ephesians 1:5-6
"In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves"
This weekend's conference helped me realize even clearer that the reason we have the desire to adopt is because God has adopted us! Adoption is at the very heart of God and the more you know God, the more you too will know and desire the spirit of adoption.

Now...WHY ETHIOPIA?
Again, it is simple to me, once we started really researching adoption, Ethiopia is where I was always drawn to - We looked into adopting here in the US, but Ethiopia was always on my heart. When I compare the orphan here in the US to the orphan in Ethiopia...there is no doubt that the conditions in which a child must live in here in the US is still far better than the conditions a child lives in Ethiopia. That is not to make light of the the need of orphans here! Also there are far more couples willing to adopt a child here domestically then there are couples who are willing to cross oceans and even racial lines in order to adopt.
Some statistics:
U.N. estimate of the number of orphans in the world today: 145 million
Number of children in the foster care system in the United States: Approximately 500,000
Number of children in the foster care system waiting to be adopted: Approximately 130,000
Of those 145 million worldwide, 5 million of them are in Ethiopia! Ethiopia has one of the largest numbers of orphans in the world. It just makes sense to us, God is leading us there, we are willing to face the diseases and uncertainties and racial differences... Of the millions of orphans worldwide I don't think the argument or comment should be..."Well why there and why not here?" but rather to see that it is a child who once had no parents, had no love, had no one to rock them to sleep at night that will now have all of that....who cares where they come from...what matters is that there is ONE LESS ORPHAN!!
I hope I have not rambled too much...trying to really put into words and facts what seems so simple and true to me is hard but I think it needed to be done!