Guest post by Shannon Hazleton from Our Blessed Life.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
James 1:27 (ESV)
Mamas, do you want the hearts of your children to be closely knit with God’s heart? Teach them to love orphans! The Bible is full of scripture conveying our Father’s heart for the fatherless, and commanding us to care for them as well.
Indeed, to be a Christian is to love orphans.
Yet, when I was young, I knew nothing of the plight of 147 million orphans worldwide, many of whom are abused, hungry, sick, and needing special care. So how can we, as a family, get involved and teach our children God’s heart in the process?
Do a Word Study
Older children can do this as a project on their own, or the whole family may get involved. Using a concordance or an online Bible program, conduct a search for keywords such as “orphan” or “fatherless” and discuss the many passages you find. Pick one or two verses to commit to memory or post on the bathroom mirror.
Reach Out to Adopting Families
Some of our closest friends recently adopted three special needs children from Eastern Europe. Whenever they were conducting a fundraiser, we were sure to spread the word and help. And what a blessing it has been to get to know those children since they have come home to the States. If you know a family in your community or church is adopting, get to know them. Ask how you can help.
Read and Pray
Early on in our own adoption journey, my young daughters found me looking at children’s pictures on Reece’s Rainbow. “These boys and girls don’t have a Mommy or Daddy,” I explained to my 4-year-old. It wasn’t long before my girls were asking to see those pictures daily, and including many of those children in their bedtime prayers.
I also recommend visiting No Greater Joy Mom’s blog, who has adopted some wonderful kiddos, and passionately advocates for orphans, and Katie Davis’ blog. Katie is a young woman living in Uganda, who has become “Mommy” to 13 orphaned girls.
Adopt
Anton & Lena - our soon to be adopted kids
This one has impacted our family the most. If someone would have told us a year ago that by August we would be traveling to a country in Eastern Europe, and adopting not one, but two young children, who happen to be HIV+ … Well, I would have laughed and thought that person was definitely wrong. Surely God had not called us to that path.
But in the last six months, God turned our world on its side. Through a few books my husband Jeff was reading (Radical, by David Platt, and Adopted for Life, by Russell Moore), God began to open our eyes, as Jeff would find himself in tears while reading over his lunch break at work, or I would find my own heart stirred as he read portions to me in the evenings, after the children had gone to bed. Messages that were preached on Sunday mornings only seemed to confirm was God was saying. His Word was opened to us like never before, and the message was clear: rescue the fatherless.
Our hearts were convicted. And there was only one answer, yes, Lord.
Through our own adoption journey, our two oldest biological daughters (ages 3 and 5) have begun to learn that the world is bigger than our little family, and that there are children who don’t have families, and have never heard the name of Jesus. (Though their little minds can scarcely imagine what that is like.) And it blesses our hearts to see them pray for those children, or hear them say, “we can be their family!” The step we have taken towards adoption has been life-changing and family-altering. It has been scary and difficult at times, and the journey isn’t over yet. But we are already reaping bountiful blessings.
Not all of us will be called to be an orphaned child’s ‘forever family’, but we can be a prayer warrior for an orphan, or sponsor a child through ministries like Gospel For Asia or Compassion International. This is a wonderful opportunity for our children to pray for, and even write letters to sponsored children.
No matter the age of our children, we can open their minds to a world that is different from their own, and help knit their hearts to the heart of the Lord.
“Father to the Fatherless,… God places the lonely in families…” Psalm 68:5 (NLT)
Shannon Hazleton is a busy stay-at-home wife to Jeffrey, and Mama to three little ones at their home in Nederland, Texas. They will travel soon to bring home two more beautiful little ones from Eastern Europe. She writes at Our Blessed Life.
I love this post. We completed “A Hole in Our Gospel” and the accompanying “Six Week Quest” by Rich Stearns last winter, and felt the Lord moving us to adopt as well, but surprisingly, though the foster route, not straight adoption. We completely understand and desire reunification with their biological family of any child placed in our home, but also know that eventually, one of our placements will be for forever.
In regards to the special needs child in foster to adopt, while it is absolutely true that one needs to be expectant and willing for various outcomes, foster families are now licensed for either basic or specialized placements – with children with moderate to severe physical, emotional or psychological diagnoses placed in specialized homes. We anticipate placement will have accompanying emotional/behavior issues that the Lord will help us and our children (both biological and foster/adopted) to work through, but children who need specialized care, a group home environment or 24 hour care would not be placed in a basic home.
Lindsay,
I am SOOOO excited that you are adopting! i am adopted from the USA however have family adopted from other countries. Also my mother-in-law was adopted. What a blessing God gave you and placed on your heart to do that. I enjoy your web site since we are like minded people in many ways. Good luck to you and this new adventure and my you be blessed beyond measure by these children!
Megs
you can follow us on our family adventure working with the AIDS orphans of south africa at littlefingersandfrosting.blogspot.com
HI there! I am a Mummy of 2 adopted children. I live and work with orphans in KZN South Africa, The AIDS and orphan capital of the world.
Thank you for putting this post out there. As Christians I believe that the orphans of this world are our responsibility.
Have a very blessed day.
Vashti
It is amazing that God is working through you in this way. When we open our hearts, and our eyes to the world around us, He always seems to find ways for us to make a difference. Congratulations on your upcoming adoption!
My husband and I have had a similar journey. We have several friends who have adopted, and a few who are in the trenches of the process, so it’s something that’s been on our minds the past few years. We also read Radical and Adopted for Life and both of those have been *very* convicting for us, to actually DO something with our faith, and with the wealth that God has given us. Add to that a mysterious infertility issue that prevents us from having any more children (we currently have 2 boys ages 3 and 4) and you have the perfect recipe for wanting to adopt. We’re going through the foster care system, and we’re starting the process next week. I’m excited, even though I know that there will be many challenges waiting for us!
Thanks so much for this. We are in the process of adopting through the foster care system. Two years ago, I would have laughed if someone suggested we adopt! I’m so thankful that God eases us into things gradually sometimes. I feel like we have grown & have been stretched & yet I know that we will grow & be stretched more in the future.
Thank you so much for this post! My husband and I have been having some long talks about adoption recently. We have two children of our own and our youngest is 5 months. We both feel that adopting a young child from the foster care system is something that we want to do. We are going to start actively saving for the fees. If anyone has any resources they can point me to that would be great.
If you adopt through the foster care system, you should have minimal fees. The only thing we had to pay for was our background check, which was about $100. Everything else, including the home study, classes and lawyer’s fees should be paid for by the government. So few people want to do foster care and foster/adoption that they try to make it as easy as possible.
Even better, you will also get a monthly stipend for the child while they still are in foster care, and if the child qualifies, you may continue to get a stipend until they are 18, even after they are officially adopted. Furthermore, you will also get a $7,000 tax credit the year you finalize the adoption.
Not that money should be the main issue or motivation, since God can provide even the (massive) expense of a private or overseas adoption, but it is definitely a relief to not have to pay all of that. When you start the process and get to know the kids in the system, your heart will break and it will be hard to stop at one!
Thank you so much for the info. I am still in the research phase, and one of the main delaying factors for us was how much it would cost. I knew that foster care was the cheapest way to go and that they have so many kids that need help right here in our area. I didn’t know that it was that cheap though. Thank you!
I feel like I could’ve written this post. We, too, are on an adoption journey and I have seen it do so much in our oldest son’s heart. His compassion for others in the world is growing through this journey just as much as Mommy & Daddy’s is, too.
Thank you for writing this, it’s as if we share the same heart! Thank you for sharing this with the Passionate Homemaking readers.
Awesome article! Congrats on your upcoming adoption!
God provided our child through adoption/foster care, and what an amazing journey. It truly was a journey that required trusting God, as only He could help us navigate through it.
As we raise him, our goal is to teach him God’s graciousness and how we can be a blessing to others who are on the same journey.
Thanks for the post.
i love this post! and dont forget to pray for the orphans in america, not just overseas… there are 500,000 children in the foster care system in the US, 100,000 of them available to adopt today if someone was willing… pray that christians in our country will step up and eliminate this problem!
Adoption in the US isn’t that easy. If there wasn’t so much red tape involved, I’m sure more people would adopt in the US. Not as much red tape overseas.
Adoption in the U.S. can be easy & quick, our adoptions prove that… but it does not come without risk and all of the emotions that go along with it – but what worthwhile things don’t involve some level of risk?
Amanda is right, adoption in the US is actually quite easy (much easier through the US foster care system than a private US adoption).
The issue comes when couples insist on a healthy, white, female infant. Take away even one of these standards and tens of thousands of children are available for immediate adoption, and more are coming into the system every day. We had foster children in our home 2 weeks after having our home study approved, which was about 7 months after we started the process.
Some states don’t allow children to be adopted out of foster care by a homeschooling family. This forces many families who have a heart for children to pay much more for a private or international adoption.
We adopted my brother out of foster care. In addition to being mentally handicapped, he was later diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrom. He is now an adult in a group home working towards independant living.
I would urge everyone who is willing to adopt a special needs child to really consider the permanance of it. We know of several children who were “returned” to foster care by their adoptive families because of the difficulties in raising them. How can the children ever recover from that?