[bajj]

What kind of support did you receive from your church and from your fellow Christians when you were starting the adoption process?

What could they have done differently to show more support?

[mama_again]

Hi, I am new at this forum and the first for us as adoptive parents. We are believers that have been Chosen for an adoption we did not seek, it just happened. It was God ordained, God inspired and Gods leading us in this. We just prayed as did the birthmother and her family. We were linked up and today we are celebrating with our precious daughter. We know that God's hand has been in this and He has entrusted with a Moses. She is truly a gift to us. We are excited and so richly blessed. Our church family not only has provided the homecoming of meals, nursery items such as crib etc., but they financially supported our trip out of state with hotel stay, food, time off work etc. Now they are providing a baby shower, along with another shower from friends, co-workers and family members. We have have had MAJOR support and blessing in this and are so very thankful for a church family that loves beyond. It makes me realize how tangible Gods love really is, especially when this came as a surprise to us. You see, we are over 40 and are on the way to a 5th grandchild. That is why we know God has chosen us for this precious little lamb. Everyone that sees her, loves her and is so thankful that we have been chosen, even the birth family has been gracious and praying for us through it all. We would go it again, because we know if He is for it, noone can be against. Blessings!

[bajj]

Thank you for sharing your story! What a wonderful blessing!

My church family was very supportive with my adoptions, especially the first. They decorated my house and left tons of gifts on the day we were bringing him home. They brought food for 2 weeks, plus gave a huge shower.

It is wonderful to have so much support, isn't it?

[TxMom65]

Mama Again, I also feel that my husband and I were led to an adoption that we did not seek. You have written how I feel exactly.

I am a teacher at a local elementary and always teach VBS in our church during the summer. During the 2005 session we were asked to pick up some kids close to our home who didn't have a ride. I knew them and knew their foster care story through school. The little girl began talking to us on the way home the 1st night about how she wanted a family.

THat night my husband could hardly sleep. He kept asking about her. The next night she was late coming out because she wanted to look perfect for us. She wanted us to adopt her. Almost a year later, they did come up for adoption. My husband and I prayed and then we asked our church to pray. So many closed doors before us came open.

It was a hard fight but we now have our daughter. Towards the end we were told that our journey was over, we would not get her. We were devasted. That day I found a rock in my car that had the word BELIEVE on it. It turns out that the rock was from VBS 2005. She had left it in my car.

Now, I have my car detailed about 2x a year and it had just been the week before. Soon, they called back and told us that we would indeed get our daughter. THrough it all our church has been there for us. Their prayers, gifts and support have been awesome. My friends at work have been just as kind.

If you made it this far, Wow.

[Barksum]

Our church family supported us through prayer, and then when our kids came home they supplied us with meals, and baby showers. We were the first in our church to adopt while attending that church; other families had adopted, but years earlier when they were attending other fellowships. Additionally, we weren't all that young-young. Sort of moderately young. We were in our 30's/40's (Dh is older than I by a few years) and already had a 7 year old the first time we adopted, and we adopted a toddler, not an infant. AND our toddler was adopted from foster care and had/has some special needs. Lots of firsts for our church!

We did get some comments about the foster care aspect. Not everyone was whole-heartedly for working with foster children, or adopting a foster child. We had comments about 'how could we DO that to the child already in your home?!' or about 'taking other people's problems into your home'. This attitude surprised me a bit as it was coming from fellow Christians. These concerns and criticisms died down with time, for the most part, so I'm hoping that God was able to use our family to show that He can overcome sin and use His children to bring light to others in various ways...among them foster care and adoption.

The funny thing was that my Dh was a foster child for 16 years; he lived with his last foster family for 11 years. Happily for him they were a Christian family who didn't feel he was someone else's problem, and they showed him the love of Christ. Through them he came to a saving knowledge of Christ as well. So we are kind of a living picture of what God can do in broken families through the intervention of foster care or adoption.

[bajj]

Thank you very much for sharing that, Barksum!