[poppy]

Just wondered if you have a biblical verse for knowing God wanted you to adopt? If so, would you like to share it and tell why? Not meaning to pry, just ... I'm not sure. Maybe just searching for an answer or proof of the answer I've been given.

[blessedbybug]

I'm not one to search for "proof" per se, but to walk forward and see if God blesses my faith in action with an open door. Something I have always lived by are the words of Psalm 37:3-5... "trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him and he will do it."

What does this mean to me? "trust in the Lord and do good.." speaks to the need for me to do what I already know he wants me to do, to live a committed life to my relationship with him, to my marriage and to my call, regardless of how he chooses to bless me in other avenues of my life. "Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness..." says to me that I should 'bloom where I'm planted' and move forward in faith, working hard to till the soil so I'm ready for when the next thing he will bring comes. "Delight yourself in the Lord" means to me that I need to live in him, find out what he wants for me, what his hopes are for me and then "he will give me the desires of my heart" because when I finally want what he wants for me (even if it hasn't been what I wanted in the beginning), then my heart's desires will be filled. "Commit your way to the Lord" means that no matter what you do (and God may bless MANY different avenues...) do it always seeking what God wants for you and knowing He has your best in mind.

Whew... got long winded there... probably more than you asked for but these verses have sustained me through some very difficult times of waiting in my life, and I can truly say that he HAS given me my heart's desires... it hasn't been how I thought it would happen, but truly better than I could have imagined.

Blessings on your journey...

[StorkWatcher]

Hi, Poppy!

I didn't have a particular verse, just a feeling.

I've always felt God wanted me to be a mom. I think that's where some of my God-given talents are.

When we didn't have children naturally/easily after being married a long time, we didn't even consider going through any extra testing or treatments. Adoption was a natural choice. Because I'd always known I'd be a mom and prayed for a child, I thought that God's answer was leading us to adopt.

Faith was the main thing that got me through the adoption journey (believe me, it's a test!), and I found comfort in God in many ways aside from the scripture that might jump out at me once in a while.

I hope you find your answer soon! I know you can find comfort and peace and guidance, too.

[punchkin]

I don't have any peticular verse per say. As I am secure in the love of Jesus, I just always felt that what God has for me, is for me.
I'll share a story with you though. When dh and I found out I couldn't bear children, he of course was very acceptable and comforting to me. He always said that as long as we are together that, this is all that mattered. But me, well a rage began to well inside of me that I can't to this day explain. I questioned everything. My life, my marriage, and yes even God. I felt I had no right to life, when I couldn't bear life, if that makes since. I wanted a divorce, I wanted to die, I just didn't care anymore. Thru many sleepless, tearful days and nights, the love of my dh and family, and of course the never ending love of Jesus, I made it thru.
Through all of this my mother always told me to stand still, and watch the salvation of the Lord. Fast foward to about 5 years later. We are raising my 3 nieces. We brought all three home from the hospital. They are now 15,14,and 11. If we had kids of our own I don't know if I would have taken all 3 of them. Although i'd like think we would have. Thank GOD for his infinite wisdom. Since then I've been walking by faith and not by sight. Knowing GOD HOLDS ALL POWER IN HIS HANDS.
Fast foward again- 3 years ago I started dreaming about this beautiful fat newborn baby girl, almost everynight. I thought ok somebody in the family is going to have a baby, Not. I was presented with this baby. We were not trying to adopt, or foster. She literally fell in our laps. AS I looked at this beautiful fat baby girl, I realized that this is the baby that i've been dreaming about. She is now our forever daughter. she is 2. happy and healthy. All I can say is praise God.

I don't share this story with many people. But, felt the need to do so today. For everyone that is waiting, that have failed adoptions, to those that don't see a way . This story is for you. Hold on to your dreams, don't give up. It WILL happen when you least expected.
Bless you all!!!!!!!

[Maggie Beth]

A few years ago, I was taking a bath and reading the Christian magazine, Sojourners . One of the articles quoted Dorothy Day, a famous Christian social worker and activist as saying, "Family is whoever shows up!" At that moment, I felt that God was letting me know that we were meant to adopt.

I found out recently that our daughter shares a birthday with Dorothy Day -- November 8th!

[handfull2b]

We are in the process of adopting from China. We started a bible study on the book of James and in the first chapter is my favorite verse. "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." James 1:27

I believe that God placed this conviction on my heart, all the glory to Him!
Blessings
Maria

[poppy]

Thank you to each of you that replied. Our pastor says he has a verse for all of big decisions and I guess I just keep looking for one to. I think when the decision is something BIG like adoption, most people don't just go " okay God" at His first prompting. Okay maybe some of you do ,but not me. Oh, I've been game since high school and before I knew the Lord. But it has taken a lot of 'prompting" (lots of hints and what I call WINKS) from God before I said "Okay I get it now. I'm listening and willing to do what you ask." I guess I've been looking for the ONE verse to confirm I'm doing the right thing. Now I know that it's not just one verse but the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the many versus God has shown me that show I am doing what he wants in my life in general. God placed adoption of a dark haired little girl on my heart in high school and showed me recently that He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the Lord, and do good: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Thanks for listening, Kaila

[hdallas]

what a blessing to read this thread. Thank you
everyone who shared. It blessed me. My husband
and myself found out Wednesday we have an
approved homestudy. We have submitted to several
counties and we are excited about our new soon to
be addition (need to find a match still) God has
our match!! God Bless!!!!

[aspenhall]

This helped in my days of longing for a child...

Isaiah 54 :1 SING, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.

It made me feel that my abilities as a parent would be strengthened because of my wait to have children. And my children would be better off for it as well.

AND, I can't remember where it is, but there was a scripture somewhere that said Something to the effect of,......He that is compelled in all things the same is a slothful and not a wise servant..........

Which basically meant to me. You can't expect the Lord to just tell you what you should do if you haven't done any of the footwork/research yourself. So I went and met with the CW's and gathered the info and then went back with knowledge and asked the more specific question of "Should I apply with this agency"

I hope this helps

[ggman]

ALmost 3 years ago I gave birth to my daughter, Virginia. Getting pregnant/pregnancy was a difficult time for me. It took us a long time to conceive even though the test showed that everything was fine. I had a difficult pregnancy in that I was very sick... I barfed ALL THE TIME and had some scares with bleeding.

After DD was born I knew that I would have to "rev myself up" to do the whole journey again as it wasn't as easy for us as it was for many others. Everytime we started praying about it we just felt like God was saying, "not now." But I knew I wanted more children.

So last year we were planning on starting to try again. One day (last April) I was sitting in church and this man came up front and started talking about a mission trip to Haiti that our church was taking. I sort of tuned out, realzing that it was not at all practical for me to go when I felt God really speak to my spirit and say, "Gwenn, you are going on this trip." I am like, "No way God, I am not at all interested-- I don't even know where Haiti is, who would watch my daughter while I was gone..." ANd i just started listing off all the reasons why I couldn't go. But all the same I just felt God saying, "I will work all that out, because you are going."

I couldn't udnerstand why GOd would want me on this trip. I didn't feel qualified, I didn't have any of the skills that they mentioned... but I took the leap and went. Long story short, it was the most amazing experience of my life. Haiti is an absolute paradox, it is amazingly beautiful in many area, and utterly filthy and disgusting in others. I loved it-- every moment of it. Mostly I fell in love with the children there, one little baby in particular who's mother had died in childbirth. I would have taken him home with me if I could have. My eyes were opened to the dire situation of poverty in Haiti. The statistics are staggering. There are many, many children in orphanages due to the abject poverty.

When I got home in talking about all of this with my husband, we realized that the reason that God was telling us to "wait" was because he had a special blessing waiting for us with a Haitian child.

I don't know what the future brings, but I hope that there are a lot more children in it. (Biological and adopted!)

The verse in James mentioned by the pp is a verse we cling to-- we ARE commanded as CHristians to care for the widows and orphans. It feels REALLY good to be doing something that we know that God smiles on.

THanks for letting me share... I ahve really enjoyed your stories... Sorry mine is so long!

-Gwenn

[etaag]

We have 2 bios (7 and 8). My husband and I had causually discussed adoption over the last 16 years. But 1-1/2 years ago I had a big hole....an emptiness....like I was missing out on God's big plan for me. So I began praying for revelation. During one of these times, I was tearfully thanking God for "spoiling" me so much (wonderful husband, great healthy kids, nice home, not alot of suffering and tragedy). This is when he said "Then share what you have." Well a few days later, while volunteering at school, I came in contact with a 6 year old little girl. She had just came into foster care and had been placed in my daughter's class. So, I worked with her quite a bit, as she was very behind. I had told my DH about her, and he asked me if this may be our calling. He was very open to it. But, I am very hard headed and wanted more confirmation, flashing lights maybe. So, not having read my Bible in a more than a few weeks, I prayed over it for more confirmation and I opened where I had left off, Romans Ch. 8:

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children* of God.
15 So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family*-calling him "Father, dear Father."* 16 For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children. 17 And since we are his children, we will share his treasures-for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.


We, as Christians, are all adopted children of God! How wonderful! I know that it does not say "Go adopt", but to me, it was an answered question "should I". How many verses could I have read that morning? And the one on God adopting me is the one that I read? The big lights are starting to flash!

And my favorite book is James. I love the verse quoted by Handfull2b above, it is one of my favorites, too.

Even after this, I found adoption "creeping" into my everyday life, shows that happened to come on TV, people I ran into, etc.

God knows me and that I have to be hit on the head sometimes. We were approved Foster to Adopt, legal risk, 2 children ages 5-12. We are just waiting for Him to match us with the right children. Even if we are never matched, it is ok. We have walked this path for a purpose. The many people we have since come in contact with, and the information we have shared and used could be all that He needed from us. And that is ok, too.

Sorry so long!

Just trust in Him,
Melissa

[Luv2hike]

After two miscarriages and seven years of infertility treatments...we were trying to figure out what to do. It was Christmas--we went to the mall. The kids were in line waiting for Santa and suddenly we just could not stand it anymore. We had looked researched adoption as a way to go if medical treatments failed. I knew it was time to stop being a lab rat and start being a mom. I can't quote any scripture on it, but about a year later (and it was a very difficult year) our prayers were answered with wonderful birthfamily and a beautiful son. Now we are searching for baby number two, and have been for almost two years. Keep the faith. I still have mine. :-)

[Truthdefenders]

I have lots of verses that helped me to discern God's will for us. My life verse is Psalm 82:3-4 ----
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Rescue the weak and needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

I use this a lot when I speak on Pro-Life subjects, but it also applies to adoption, as well. And not that we are rescuing our children from wicked people, directly, but orphans are pretty defenseless against wicked people.

Another favorite passage is in Exodus 2. It's the story of how God directly led Moses to be adopted by Pharoah's daughter.

Mostly, though, we knew because God put it our both our hearts at the same time, and we couldn't find a verse that said, "Don't take care of the orphans.". So, if it's in our hearts and it's in line with God's Word, then we should go for it. So we did. I have seen God's hand in every step of the process so far.

[momraine]

We never dealt with infertility, so for us that had nothing to do with our decision to adopt. We did feel it was a calling, but it wasn't a specific verse. For us, God used a series of co-incidences. (we call them God-incidences)
1. I was looking up something on the internet for some friends and kept accidently getting this webpage about deaf children for adoption, in particular one little boy a year younger than my youngest who was in Eastern Europe. He really stayed on my heart. But, I was able to ignore it.
2. We got a new pastor, (happens every couple of years in the Methodist church) This one brought with him a passion for Russian missions, especially working in the orphanages for the disabled.
3. Friend of a friend opens Russian adoption program, offers us substantial discount if we will be first.
4. Church member offers free homestudy.
5. Missionary brings back story of boy with missing leg, prompting me to learn about children with missing limbs.
6. My husband's job transfers us to a new job. We discover we live 30 minutes from one of the best pediatric Ortho surgeons in the world.

Anyway, there were many, but we knew our daughter is meant to be. This next adoption has had similar co-incidences.

There are many verses to me that support that calling, all the ones about widows and orphans, all the ones about the stranger in your land, all the ones about caring for the needy. All the ones about faith without works, the ones in Romans about God adopting us, etc.
We used the one in Daniel on her announcements, that says "for this child I have prayed and God answered my prayers".
I know that in Jeremia (I think 29) God says "I know the plans I have for you"
Well, he wrote that for the children too! He had a plan for them to prosper and so if we are his hands and feet, then adoption is a way for them (at least my children who were and are living in orphanages) to prosper. Jesus talked about loving our neighbers and about teaching the children, what better way to teach them love than to give it to them? Besides on the whole, I am the one who came out ahead, people think I rescued these poor disabled children, ha! The children rescued me from a life that would not have known as much love, and determination and faith. My child amazes me daily and I know her new brother will do the same. My bio kids are better for having had the experience. They are very aware that they are blessed. We got in on something amazing! If the world knew how much these kids have blessed me we'd have people lining up and fighting over every single child in the world. People are missing out on some wonderful blessings.
That's my opinion, of course I may be a little biased, LOL