Why Adopt?

For those of you who haven't heard, we have decided to adopt from Ethiopia! We hope that this blog will be a way for you, our friends and family, to follow along with us on this journey. We know a lot of you have questions, and we'd love to talk to you and answer anything that we can. To begin we thought we should answer the most basic question, "Why adopt?"
First and foremost, our decision to adopt is simply a reflection of the adoption we have experienced ourselves. In Ephesians 1, we read of our adoption in Christ:

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

How amazing is that! That the God of the universe would choose not only to save us from our sins, but to actually adopt us into His family, giving us the title of son. This radical love of God is what motivates us to love others.
As you read through Scripture, it becomes evident that God has a special place in His heart for the poor and the orphans. There are 2,300 verses of Scripture pertaining to the poor. James 1:27 says

“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.”

In Psalm 68:5-6 we read

"a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families."

Jesus tells us in Matthew 25

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

Bono wraps it up nicely: "In the scriptures we are not advised to love our neighbor, we are commanded. The Church needs to lead the way here, not drag its heels... But I tell you, God is not looking for alms; God is looking for action. He is not just looking for our loose change--He's looking for a tighter contract between us and our neighbor." We have been learning that if you are a believer, the question is not, "Are you called to care for orphans?" but rather, "HOW are you called to care for orphans?" Right now there are roughly 147 million orphans in the world. It is estimated that if only seven percent of Christians would adopt just one child, there would be no orphans left. Each of these children is made in the image of God and is precious to Him. We have decided that adoption is one way for us to live out the Great Commission at this time in our lives.

-Heather