The Faith of Adoption

The Faith of Adoption

Posted by Candace

I just finished a book called "Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage". It is the journal of a woman who lived in China for 4 years and volunteered at a local orphanage. Needless to say, it was heart-wrenching. She speaks of conditions that would cause most of us to turn our backs because we simply could not watch. She details her experiences of the overwhelming need of the children to just experience human touch. These are children that are not held or rocked or sang to...who receive cold baths and frigid conditions (even inside) in the winter and battle heat and bugs in the summer... who share bottles and bowls of rice because there is not enough to go around and often pass illnesses like cattle. These are children who would thrive in loving families, but waste away because of deformities or imperfections.

I have had several people question why we didn't adopt locally when there are so many children in our own backyard that need families. My answer has been that China is where God led us, but even as I said it, I felt a certain sense of guilt... NO MORE! The needs of these international children are just as great, if not greater then those in America. The conditions I read of would have caused national crisis and attention here in the states and resolved quickly, while this woman worked 4 years to put a dent in the care of these children with fundraising and the like, and still ended up resigning her post because she just could not deal with seeing children die that could have been saved.

As you can imagine, this book hit a personal nerve, and after I was done I wondered if I even should have read it. But I know that it was placed in front of me for a reason. I will now pray harder for our Kate... I will be more committed than ever to go get her... and I will be the first one to offer infinite hugs and kisses and touches to our little girl. If anything can make up for the 2 years of pain and abandonment she has already faced, we will do it!

Yes, adoption has been a arduous journey of waiting. Yes, adoption has been an expensive journey. Yes, adoption is a more difficult way of adding to a family. But not because of these things, you know why it is more challenging? Because it requires FAITH. Faith that God will provide funds, faith that He will provide the child that belongs to you, faith that He will actively work in the process step by step, faith that He will be amazingly present with your child until you can bring him or her home for good. Yes, adoption is a calling. But before you let yourself off the hook...it is a calling for ALL of us to care for widows and orphans...it is even what James calls "True Religion". Not everyone has a desire to adopt a child, but as adopted children of Christ, we should ALL have a desire to do SOMETHING. So as a passionate mom waiting on her little girl, I ask you to examine your life, your priorities, your giving, your faith... where are you helping the 147 million orphans waiting for love? Are you just assuming that someone is taking care of them? Maybe God wants to take care of them through you. Maybe He wants to take care of them through some of the resources that He has give you. Definitely He wants to take care of them through your awareness, your prayers, and your voice. Will you become a part of the solution? If you can only help just one, will you do it? Don't ignore the urgings inside of you for a more comfortable or easy life. Let the Holy Spirit interfere with your 5 and 10 year goals, and then watch as He works right before your eyes! I promise, it will be worth it!

"Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has in store for those who love Him."

She's Ours!

She's Ours!

Posted by Candace

So I received the call today right before David and I left on a 6 hour wine tour with the people on the trip we are on. I was very anxious about touring the vineyards, just because I am always anxious about anything I have never done before and "caves" had been mentioned :). As soon as Emily's number popped up, I knew. Tears came to my eyes before I answered the phone. Emily said, "Well, we got your letter." I lost it. Crying in a lobby full of people and trying to pull it together enough to talk to Emily, I could barely believe that the letter we had waited over 90 days for had finally come. And with it, a guarantee that Kate is our daughter!! She is our daughter! The enemy has no power over her life any longer! She will belong to us and we believe that she will also belong to Christ.

With this journey has come much waiting, but we have also battled. Since we got Kate's preapproval letter, the enemy has come against us with full forces. He started by trying to convince me that I was not a good mother. I almost believed him...HA! He has brought all kinds of fears, all kinds of worries, all kinds of lies about God not being big enough. Well, HEAR ME, DEVIL! You are finished! Christ is Lord of the Roberts' family and that now includes Katherine Hope. You stinkin' liar! You have to leave us alone. Yes, I am fighting mad! Maybe you don't believe in spiritual warfare, but we wrestle with principalities and powers....and we WIN! ALWAYS! Because greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world! The devil HATES adoption and he will do anything in his power to stop it. He hates the picture of Christ's love for us. Kate cannot deserve our love, she cannot earn it, and she cannot buy it. It is simply hers. It is hers because she exists. When she comes home, we have high hopes that she will accept our love. We cannot force her to, but if she does we will lavish it on her every day for the rest of her life. So it is with our God, He loves us in spite of our past and our present, and He hopes for a future for us that accepts that love wholeheartedly and without reserve. The enemy HATES this, so he does everything in his power to distract us, to shame us, to lift us up in human strength. He lies, he kills, he steals, he destroys...he wants us left abandoned on the steps of life at the mercy of his grip, but Christ has come to give us life and a home and a family and Kate is the picture of this. The enemy does not loose his grip easily, but he MUST loose his grip.

So I sit here tonight in front a warm fire in Napa Valley, CA completely amazed at our God's faithful love...it never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on us...NEVER! I am so excited to see how God will use Kate's story to move people out of darkness into His marvelous light and from the domain of death into life everlasting. Can you imagine what God has planned for the life of this little girl? Can you imagine what God will do even in our boys' lives as they watch the real life results of adoption? Isn't He even now doing something in your heart through the story of this little girl on the other side of the world? I know that you cannot imagine what He is doing even now in us!

"I sought the Lord and He delivered me from all my fears... He is on my right hand, I shall NOT be moved."

The Uniqueness of Adoption

The Uniqueness of Adoption

Posted by David Roberts

Once again, not doing so good tonight at sleep. Probably the long day planned tomorrow keeping me up. For some reason, could not stop thinking about Kate tonight. Figured I would post on all the recent thoughts and happenings in our adoption process.

For starters, it is a little strange that a few weeks ago, our Youth Pastor, Rich Griffith presented an entire Sunday message on adoption from a spiritual perspective. He has adopted a little boy from the foster system and it is an amazing story. While we do hear about being adopted by God… all the time in church, I cannot remember a message like that in 36 years of attending church on a weekly basis. The fact that it came in our first year at The Orchard and while we are finalizing Kate’s adoption was pretty amazing. Anyway, this was just another confirmation of what has been an amazing and long process over the past year+.

I have to admit that talking to some people about Kate is often frustrating. We tend to get one of two responses. First, we often get a confused look where the other person is clearly confused as to why we are doing this. The other response is one of telling us how great we are for rescuing this little girl (bla bla bla)… Sadly, the second response is closer to accurate with the roles reversed. In the end, I think it will be Kate rescuing us from ideas and shells we never knew existed.

I think one of the biggest revelations for me in this process is realizing the amazing spiritual side of the process. While I am a true Arminian at heart, I have to admit that this experience at least makes me uneasy around my Calvinist friends. Every time we think we have it figured out, something different happens and only later do we find out the “why”. Even now, we are asking ourselves almost daily why the last part of the process seems so delayed from what we expected. Without even thinking too much, God makes multiple reasons very clear to us. We are definitely starting to trust God more legitimately rather than in theory, but it is not always a romantic experience that makes it all better. There is not a day that goes by anymore that I don’t find myself thinking about life with Kate. Just the other day, I found myself wondering what we would do if something happened and we were denied the final adoption approvals. My mind raced to what amounts of money, time and energy would be expended to overturn such an event. It only confirmed in my mind what I would do if I lost Jordan or Nathan unexpectedly and how I would spend every waking moment of my life to get them back. The reasoning for this is that they are our own, just like Kate even though we have never laid eyes on her before and hold on to a precious few pictures watching her look into a camera in one image with a clear look asking why they have placed her on a brick platform and left her on her own while they must be taking a picture with a mechanical device that she has probably never seen. She looks so confused and almost has an attitude in her look. I like her already.

As time passes without her physically, I continue to daily wonder what life will be like. In theory, we could not be any more different. She is eastern and we are western. She is learning Mandarin Chinese and we speak English. She looks different and has black hair while we are all brown/blonde’s. We have all had parents while she has never known a parent in her life. The only thing I can think of similar is that we are all in the lower 1% of our respective populations in size. For that, Kate will fit right in from the start with all us little people. I check in around 5’6”. Candace cannot be much more than 5’ flat. The boys are uniquely small in their school classes and little Kate is in the lower 1% in sizing charts for Chinese girls. Seems pretty cool that God chose to give us a little girl that literally fits right in. While the differences are stark, there is not an ounce of disconnect with Kate even before she arrives. My mind races continually to how the next 15+ years will play out. Where will she go to school? What will it be like to watch her graduate high school and college? How will I ever walk her down the aisle and survive? What will I say to the little boy that wants to take her out on a date? What details will I describe for him of what I will do to him if he ever violates her in any conceivable fashion? Will I utilize the gun polishing technique in front of him while I am having that conversation? In what amazing way will she server God in her life? These questions and more consume my mind at times and I just want to get on a plane and start the new life as a family. Believe it or not, I keep asking Candace if we are going to do it again! She is not really up for a true discussion there, but we know there is no way we could rule it out. I have a sneaky feeling that somewhere long into the future, we will look back and wonder how much of life we would have missed had we never walked down this path the first time. Cannot wait for the trip very near and I keep rehearsing in my mind that moment in Guangdong when we go up on the platform and take her from a social worker for the first time realizing she is really ours, permanently. Probably not far off from how God feels every time he pulls a life up to a new level. I hope she looks at us like she did this piece of cake on her birthday...