Adoption is a Trend

   

     I have heard a lot of talk recently about adoption being a trend.  I have heard comments about how churches should not encourage adoption because it makes people feel guilty.  I have heard people say that adoption is a trend that Christians are following just to be better Christians.

I cannot imagine a scenario where this could be the case.  Even if a family began the adoption journey on a whim to avoid guilt or fulfill the need to fit in, they wouldn't last.  A desire to follow a trend wouldn't hold out long enough and the guilt would fade.  A trend couldn't hold up to the test of the adoption journey.  Adoption is not for the trend seekers; it requires more strength and more endurance than a mere attempt to fit in could withstand.   

Adoption is happening more and more and Christians are rising up and bringing home children from all over the world.  You see, the bible tells us...

Isaiah 1:17 "learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression: bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

I know it may seem like trend.  I know a lot of Christians are adopting.  I know a lot of churches are speaking out for adoption and calling people to consider how God would have them grow their family.  This is not promotion of a trend but a call to obey what God clearly says in the bible.  Now I am not saying everyone is called to adopt, but we are all called to "learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause."  What that means for each person is between that person and God.  It does mean for a lot of us that we are called to grow our family through adoption.  

I feel like anyone who has ever gone or is currently going through the adoption process laughs or cringes at these comments about adoption being a trend.  The emotions that flood your life as you navigate through the adoption journey are enough to make even those called and fortified by the hand of God to waver and fall weak.  The journey is long and hard and filled with so many ups and downs that your head begins to spin.  Adoption is very much about growing your family, but it also changes your heart.  It opens your eyes to a world of need and brokenness and beauty and grace.  You end the process a different person that you began.

Trends don't change people. They make you look pretty and give a fleeting moment of significance and worth.  They don't fill you up and force your knees to bow and your eyes to turn to your Savior.  Adoption moves you and allows God to fill you where you once were empty.

Adoption is beautiful redemption for our broken world.  Adoption is the gospel lived out in a tangible way. Adoption is a miraculous picture of what God, through Jesus, has done for us.  Adoption is an amazing way to grow a family.

I don't say all of this to say that my family has this strength and this endurance so look at our awesomeness.  We don't.  We wavered, became weary and wanted to quit.  If this had been an attempt on our part to follow a trend or avoid guilt, we would have given some eloquently stated excuse and bowed out.  In the moments we doubted and were so tired we wanted to quit, what held us and kept us strong was the voice of God whispering to hold on, to fight because our child was waiting for us.  That is the difference in the call to adopt and a trend.  A trend is the pursuit of the latest purse or a home makeover.  Adoption is the fight that brings your child home.

 Adoption is a lot of things, but it is not a trend.