Some of you know we’ve felt called by God to adopt a child into our family. We’re adopting a little girl from China and will be matched with a specific child, prayerfully, soon. Then we’ll travel to our little one’s orphanage in China to bring her home. As a family, we’ve been excitedly praying for our new little girl and working hard with fundraisers in our neighborhood such as lemonade stands and animal care.
What has prompted us to adopt? We’ve always considered adoption to be a holy and noble pursuit, and yet it remained aloof. But then, after four of our own, something changed in our hearts. All of a sudden, adoption wasn’t just for others anymore. There was a deep desire in our hearts to reach out to children in need – the fatherless.
James 1:27 tells us that true religion is caring for orphans. Having read that scripture hundreds of times before, there was suddenly new meaning and purpose in those words. There was conviction. We knew it was pointed at us and our desires matched where the Lord was leading. In our hearts, we would consider the one orphan that we might call son or daughter and feel our hearts break with compassion, sometimes bringing us to tears. Godly tears.
God desires for orphans of all nations to be loved, cared for, and adopted into Christian families—ultimately so they can become saved and adopted into His eternal family through Jesus Christ. There are over 147 million orphans worldwide and 120,000 children currently in the U.S. foster care system. It is estimated that less than 10 percent of these children are adopted into evangelical Christian families. Ultimately, we feel clearly directed by God to adopt and we want to obey Him.
One of the biggest challenge is not opening our hearts and home to a child, but it is finding the finances to make this happen. The estimated total cost for the adoption is $30,000. That’s certainly money we don’t have, but we know God is faithful and is leading us to trust Him.
Pure Gift of God is giving us an Adoption Matching Grant of $2,500 to help pay our adoption expenses. This means, if we can raise $2,500, Pure Gift will match that amount up to $2,500, for a total amount of $5,000 raised. Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us meet this matching grant and cover the remaining amount needed for our adoption expenses to bring this child home? Our goal date is January 1, 2020, but funds will be accepted towards our adoption until the child is in our home and/or our adoption is complete.
Thank you for investing in the Kingdom through prayer and finances—it will be an investment with an eternal return! God has grown our faith to believe that where He calls us, He will provide, specifically in adoption. So here we stand on the precipice of adopting an orphan…knowing full well that God’s plan cannot be thwarted by our limitations or weakness. Zachariah 4:6 says, it’s “‘not by might nor power, but by my spirit,’ says the Lord.” And again, 2 Corinthians 2:9 says, “my power is made perfect in your weakness.” In faith, we trust that God is calling us to adopt a little girl from China. She may or may not be born yet, but one thing is for certain, God has created a place for her in our home and in our hearts.