Why You Should Not Adopt

I really liked this article: Why You Should Not Adopt. 

What I specifically liked was this statement:

Find your job and do it well. Learn how to interpret your own musical score. Don’t play the part written for another. If you play your notes and I play mine, together we will make beautiful music.

I must admit that it feels a little like being punched in the gut when someone says, "Why are you helping couples adopt newborns in the USA when there are so many children in foster care?"

Honestly, it feels like the equivalent of saying to someone, "Why are you heading overseas to be a missionary when there are unsaved people in the USA?"

Listen, I think there are a ton of great and worthy causes -- specifically when it comes to the plight of women and children. 

Do I think people should adopt from foster care. YES! 

Do I think people should adopt from overseas? YES! 

For me, my heart is with the infertile woman. These are women who have never given birth to biological children. They are women who yearn to hold a newborn in their arms. 

My heart is with these women because I was this woman.

I have often said that the Lord has called us all to the orphans and the widows. I believe this. But what I may have never clearly explained with my words is that I do not think every person is called to adopt. 

Say again?

I do not think every person is called to adopt. 

Instead I think we are called by God to help orphans and widows in some way because he commands us to do it. Maybe it means you help fund a couple who is adopting at your church. Maybe it means supporting one of our couples at Because of Isaac.  Maybe you are helping to spread the word or sponsoring children through worthy causes like World Vision. 

Listen to the calling on your life. Heed God's calling in your life. Respond to what He is calling you to do. Quit wasting time questioning the calling of others. Spend that time answering the call yourself.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27