"Adopted for Life"

While I was in New York I started reading "Adopted for Life" by Russell Moore which my friend, Missy, highly recommended.  One thing that is great about this book is it's applicable to both Christian families and churches- not just for adoptive parents.  This book helped me communicate and clarify so many of the things I've been feeling.

Adoption and the Gospel

"The universe was meant to be a home- where the image-bearers of God rule and serve under their Father.  It was all to be ours.  The primeval insurrection in the garden, though, turned the universe into an orphanage- the heirs were gone, done in by their appetites.  A serpent now holds the cosmos in captivity, driving along the deposed rulers as his slaves.  The whole universe is now an orphanage.  But then there's Jesus.  When we were still orphans, Christ became a substitute orphan for us.  Though he was a son, he took on the humiliation of a slave and the horror of death (Phil. 2:6-8)."

Joseph, Jesus' Non-Biological Father 
I loved the chapter, "Joseph of Nazareth vs. Planned Parenthood".

"...As Joseph images the Father of the fatherless, he shows us how adoption is more than charity.  It's spiritual warfare...We ought to be reminded that Jesus is not born into a gauzy, snowy winter wonderland of sweetly-singing angels and cute reindeer nuzzling one another at the side of his manger.  He is born into a war zone.  And at the very rumor of his coming, Herod- the Planned Parenthood of his day- vows to see him dead, right along with thousands of his brothers."

Reason For Having Kids

"Parenting means sacrifice...Having a baby yanks one into a whole new world of responsibility for the shaping of a life, a family, a future."  Moore goes onto say that there is worry associated to having kids- you want the best for them, and you feel a huge weight to be an example to them.  There are definitely huge responsibilities that come with having kids!  He writes: "...I suppose you could avoid that depression, that anxiety, by seeking to feed only your own mouth, to be held responsible for only your own life, or just yours and a spouse's.  But what if in so doing, you're protecting yourself from more than possible sadness and grief?  What if you're protecting yourself from love?"  

Boy or Girl?
"Parenting is hard, and the sex of your child isn't going to make that any less true."

Being Anxious During the Waiting Period
"There's something about patience that God deems necessary for our life in the age to come...Got makes us wait...And he makes us into the kind of people who can wait.  We rejoice in such things, Paul tells us, because we know 'suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope' (Romans 5:3-4).  Our adoption in Christ involves patient waiting, hopeful anticipation (Romans 8:24-25).  In the earthly scenario of adoption, as in the heavenly experience of our own adoption, we 'hope for what we do not see' because we 'wait for it with patience' (Romans 8:25).  While you're waiting, spend time cultivating the spiritual disciplines you'll need as parents."

This is Not Plan B 
"Yes, there will be some who don't understand why you'd want to adopt...This is because for many who've never experienced adoption, adoption seems to be simply a Plan B for people who can't have children. They're not able to see the beauty of adoption in and of itself. So be it. What better opportunity for you to model the God who adopts from every tongue, tribe, nation, and language and sets all the children together at the same table with the same inheritance and the same love?..."

I could go on and on. I have about a fourth of the book highlighted. What I'm trying to say is that I highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested to know what the gospel says about taking care of orphans.