The Spirit of Adoption

A very opinionated post…so, if you don’t like opinions…. I suggest you stop reading. Right now.

Not only am I a bit enraged that Pat Robertson is speaking such nonsense on international television but I feel like I have somewhat of a response for the woman who called posing this question to the 700 Club.

If you don’t know what I am talking about…let me catch you up.

“In a recent broadcast of The 700 Club, a woman sent in a question about a man who wouldn’t marry her because she has children who were adopted internationally. If they were her “own” biological children, he would have no problem, she said. But because they were adopted, he saw too much risk. Host Pat Robertson’s female co-host bristled and said he was acting like a “dog.” Robertson disagreed.

He said the man “didn’t want to take on a United Nations,” and that, after all, you never know about adopted children; they might have brain damage and “grow up weird.”

I feel like this is an area of life that I can be opinionated in… due to the situation that I find myself in. I am a single mother to a 3-year-old little girl who I am in the process of adopting from Haiti. I have many times thought about this situation for myself. Will I ever marry? Who will want to marry me with an internationally adopted child? Will it be more difficult to find my helpmate due to my current situation? All valid questions to ask. Do I know the answers to any of these questions? – Negative. So a part of me is tracking with this lady posing her question to the 700 club.

The one thing I am sure of is that whomever the Lord has for my helpmate is going to be a very special man… and he is going to have to win my daughter’s heart as well as mine. Although I do have a lot of questions, I’m not sure the right question to ask is about the guy’s spiritual standing. – If he doesn’t feel like he could raise internationally adopted children (which does come with it’s own challenges) then LET HIM WALK ON. HE IS NOT FOR YOU!

True and undefiled religion is the care for orphans…and it is God of the Universe who has put the spirit of adoption into our souls! This is eternal and important work. It is holy work. 

So, sweet lady, please do not let this guy discourage you! The Lord has equipped you to raise these beautiful people and in His sweet and perfect timing He will provide your helpmate. And He will have just as much of a calling on your husband’s heart to raise them as He has put on yours!

As far as truth to counteract the nonsense, Russell Moore said it best! “I say to my non-Christian friends and neighbors, if you want to see the gospel of Christ, the gospel that has energized this church for two thousand years, turn off the television. The grinning cartoon characters who claim to speak for Christ don’t speak for him. Find the followers who do what Jesus did. Find the people who risk their lives to carry a beaten stranger to safety. Find the houses opened to unwed mothers and their babies in crisis. Find the men who are man enough to be a father to troubled children of multiple ethnicity and backgrounds.”

May we continue to walk boldly, confidently, and faithfully on the path that the Lord has set before us.

I am absolutely in love with this precious gift from God… and I cannot wait to meet her earthly father :) Trusting that His timing is perfect and that the Lord is preparing her father even now.

Phoebe-Kate

Until then… if you don’t want to parent an internationally adopted child, don’t waste your time here… I won’t be calling Pat Robertson for any advice :)

Read Russell Moore's full post