Being Adopted

Foster Care and Adoption is something I’ve always thought of pursuing.  It was pointed out to me once that there is a strong need for single female foster parents for children who are traumatized by being around males. I’ve also told myself that if I am single when I am forty then I would love to buy a house and do foster care for teenage girls, but I wonder if I am strong enough for all that could come with that.

There are fears that come along with thinking of foster parenting and adoption.  There is always the concern of getting attached to a child, and then they end up going back to their parents.  Maybe they go back to a really bad situation.  I’ve told myself that if I were going to do foster care it would have to be with the mentality of loving that child while they were in my life and knowing that at least they would be safe while with me.  If I were going to adopt I would have to get over my own selfish feelings of “what if they want to go back to their real parents when I’m the one showing them real love.”  I know it would lead to heartbreak in some cases, but I don’t think it would stop me from doing it or loving them.

I’ve recently been thinking on this concept while comparing it to being an adopted child of God.  Sometimes I feel like a lost child with life circumstances that can be hard to see through.  The reality is, that as an adopted child of God, I don’t have to worry about any of those situations as I have God’s grace through Jesus.  My life concerns fail in comparison to what He has already eternally done for me by adopting me and bringing me into His family.

The reality is that I am not the best adopted child to have.  With as much as God has loved me and adopted me I still turn from Him sometimes.  If my fear in adoption is that a child would turn away from me and want to go back to real parents, then as an adopted child of God, I am the child in my own worst fear.  I turn from Him by sabotaging myself in subtle ways or falling prey to not believing Him when he tells me how amazing and loved I am.  I do to Him exactly what I fear a child would do to me someday.  I would rather go back to my “real parent sin nature” and follow my desires that I think will lead to happiness, rather than just be loved by Him.  My sin nature tries to call me home and I get tempted to ignore the love of my adopted Father that I know and have experienced.   

I was encouraged recently by a friend to revisit Ephesians 1 and some of the many spiritual blessings that we have as children of God. 

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

The amount of love and blessings God has for me is astonishing.  To be able to have me as an adopted child, who continually must turn back to Him because of my wandering heart, speaks so highly of His love for me.  I am so grateful that His love for me is better. I am so glad that no matter what, I know where He stands and how He cares for me.

I recently listened to a sermon from a friend where he referenced the above passage in Ephesians and said, “We worship a God who loved us before the beginning of the world, gave us an inheritance, and when we screwed it up, He buys us back again.” 

The freedom from being loved immensely always draws me back to Him.  It always brings me back to a place where I can put aside my own selfish pursuits and just be loved, have fruitful relationships and love others from a genuine place because of Him and the knowledge that He loved me enough to adopt me.

I pray that if I ever do foster care or adopt a child it is without fears of how they would  or would not love me, but is from a  place of how much love I would have to give them.