Do You Have What it Takes to Adopt?

Last week, I outlined 5 reasons NOT to adopt. If families are honest with themselves, they need to take a good look at that list to ensure they don't fit into any of those categories. Although families often have many motivations to adopt, I've found several that go much deeper than finding another child to fit in your family or purchasing a minivan.  

Having the right motivation going into adoption will propel a family to do the hard work of the adoption process. Here's a list of valid reasons to adopt:

To provide a forever family to a child

Adopting isn't just about getting a sweet little baby. It extends way past diapers and even past 18 years of childhood. Adopting is adding to someone to your family for a lifetime. This includes fully accepting and embracing a child, including their heritage and culture. Being a family means creating memories, passing on faith and traditions, teaching values, and offering unconditional love and acceptance.

You have the ability to care for a child in all ways

Adding to your family is not only a great opportunity and privilege, it's also a tremendous responsibility. Being a parent means you have the extra resources of finances, time, energy, space, and love. Having children is demanding and realistically evaluating your life to see if you have resources to spare is a critical part of becoming a parent.

You understand your own adoption

If you're a believer, you've been spiritually adopted. Our adoption as God's children through Christ is throughout scripture (John 1:12, Romans 8:14-16, Galatians 4:4-6). As families our role is to reflect the fatherhood of God. What better way than to open our homes to adoption the same way God did for us? Our homes and families can be an overflow of the goodness and grace we've received in our own lives. If you truly understand the gospel, adoption is as natural as your own sonship in the Kingdom.

To be an active part of the life movement

There's not a more profound statement you can make for being pro-life than adopting. In the United States, over 4,000 babies are aborted every day.  Birth mothers are faced with the agonizing choice of not being in a season to parent and feeling like they have no other choice than to abort their babies. But we can offer them a choice. Adoption offers hope, restoration, and redemption, not just for a child, but for everyone involved.

When adoption is more about the selfless love of a child and an extension of your faith, you know you're ready to jump in. Nothing is more rewarding than knowing you're making an eternal impact on someone's life. 

Let's fill the world with minivans.

(As long as you have good reasons to get one.)