My daughter Kim and her husband Toby “finalizing” adoption of baby Brandon on National Adoption Day, November 19, 2005
“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” (James 1:27 NLT)
A baby—precious, fragile, helpless, dependent, sweet, needy, and full of potential—without a family is destitute, institutionalized, alone . . . heartbreaking.
Any child at any age without a home, without a family, without love is heartbreaking.
James 1:27 tells the church and every Christian that it isn’t enough to feel sad or compassionate about an orphan. The very foundation of our faith says we will take care of them. I have to think that when God uses the term “caring for orphans”, He means more than putting them in orphanages and the foster care system—He means they are the personal responsibility of the church.
National Adoption Awareness Month
November has been designated National Adoption Awareness Month, and specifically this year, tomorrow, November 23, is National Adoption Day. Eight years ago, my family became a “forever family” to my precious grandson, Brandon, and he became legally ours in a courtroom on National Adoption Day. We can’t imagine our family without Brandon, and I try not to focus on what his life would have been like had his teenage mother not put him up for adoption—or even worse—had she availed herself to a morning after pill or aborted her baby or left him on a doorstep. I’m still in awe and wonder that God bestowed such a precious gift to our family— baby Brandon.
God’s Plan A
Today 1 in 6 couples struggle with infertility, but with advances in infertility treatment, adoption is not always considered a viable option, or perhaps considered as a Plan B when all else fails. My daughter Kim and her husband Toby, Brandon’s “forever parents,” struggled for years with infertility and, then, felt God calling them to a “ministry of adoption.” Many of you may have felt that same call to adopt a child into your family and have experienced the joys and blessings of “caring for the orphans.” Adoption was never meant to be Plan B—it’s always been God’s Plan A. But my daughter stresses that a couple shouldn’t consider adoption until they can look at it as God’s plan for them becoming a family or adding to their family.
Adoption blesses the adopted family, the adopted child, and the birth mom.
God’s Plan for Orphans Is Not Just for the Infertile
In the Bible, God talked openly, and often, about orphans and the responsibility of the church to take care of them. Many churches today focus on caring for other nation’s orphans, which is admirable. But what about the orphans in your own communities and in the overflowing foster care system?
It is an awesome thing to have your family sponsor a child through Compassion International or one of the other organizations that help indigent children in foreign countries, but it’s also, our calling to do something up close and personal for a child without a family in our country.
One of my son-in-laws regularly visited the local county orphanage to play with the children. Sadly, the foster care programs today are overflowing with children who need a loving, Christian home and parents.
What is your church doing to help? What are you doing? What is your family doing?
Raising the Topic In Your Family
My grandkids bring their DVD’s when they come to visit. Recently, they chose to watch The Search for Santa Paws, a movie I hadn’t seen. As I started watching it with them, I had a “Holy Spirit” moment when I realized one of the subplots was about orphans being rescued from a bad foster care home and being adopted by a couple who couldn’t have children. The next night they watched Kung Fu Panda 2 and this movie also had an orphan theme.
How many of your children’s DVD’s have the same theme? Here are a few more: Meet the Robinsons, Elf, Annie, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Aladdin . . .
- How about watching one of these movies with your kids and discussing an opportunity for them to help a child that doesn’t have a family like they do.
- Go with them to one of the websites at the end of this post and talk about the pictures. Let them pick out a child to sponsor as a family.
- Read the story of Moses in the Bible and discuss how he was an adopted orphan.
- Talk about how every Christian is adopted into God’s family.
- Discuss the feasibility of fostering a child in your home.
- Pray for orphans in your family devotions.
I would love to hear your ideas so leave a comment and tell me what your family is doing to fulfill James 1:27.
What is Our Responsibility as a Church?
As you give thanks around your tables this Thanksgiving for the blessings and the families God has given you, who do you need to reach out to who longs for a family of their own— the orphans, the empty-arms parents, the pregnant women trying to decide what to do with her baby?
Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans. (Isaiah 1:17 NLT)
Organizations that Help Orphans and Indigent Children.
This is not an extensive list. Google “Caring for Orphans” and you will see more opportunities to sponsor a child.
American World Adoption—Christian Adoption Agency
Bethany Christian Adoption Services—This is the organization my daughter went through to adopt my grandson, Brandon.
Janet Thompson is an award-winning author and speaker, TMI Mentor Mom and the author of Dear God, Why Can’t I Have a Baby? A Companion Guide for Couples on the Infertility Journey in which Janet and her daughter, Kim Mancini, share the story of Janet’s grandson Brandon’s adoption.
Please visit Janet at:
www.facebook.com/Janetthompson.authorspeaker
http://www.linkedin.com/in/womantowomanmentoring/
www.pinterest.com/thompsonjanet
https://twitter.com/AHWministries
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