Public Declaration

For years I've been drawn to the idea of adoption. I can remember being in high school, confident that I wanted to adopt when I was older. There is a deep place in me that feels called to love unwanted and forgotten children. Now, I realize that some people put their child up for adoption because they love their baby so much that releasing them into someone else's care is the greatest form of sacrificial love they can show. But let's be honest, there's plenty of stories not involving sacrificial love.

The older I get and the closer I become to having a family, the desire to adopt is only growing. Dare I say it may even be part of my calling.

I can remember quite vividly when I was in Thailand having this picture in my head of a big house on a piece of land with broken children scattered about outside the house. And I would mentally stare at that picture, longing to bring those children inside the house. My house.

The year leading up to my move to Seattle was quite unique. I spent several nights in my basement playing my keyboard and spending time with the Lord. When I had nothing to pray, I would play and let the cries of my heart come forth. I was downstairs playing one time, and I had a similar, vivid picture. It was a large house in a beautiful place and the words restore, redeem, renew, and rejoice were written in the house. That was what the house was for- restoration, redemption, renewal, rejoicing, and ultimately releasing. And I could see children, teenagers, and young adults all around the house. I longed, once again, to bring them in.

As I've been on this journey with my boyfriend, and we continue to get more and more serious, the issue of adoption has come up a few times. The first time, I just casually mentioned that I wanted to adopt, and that I wanted a big family. The second time, I mentioned that I would love for my adopted kids to outnumber the kids I birthed. Then I finally just said that I would be okay with not personally birthing any children, but adopting all my kids. [yes, I know this could change.] Boyfriend has been able to track with me up until the last doozie. He wants a big family, has no objections to adoption (though he has no idea how those adoptions will be funded), and is totally cool with the idea of adopting several children. The last one...we may or may not argue about that later.

Adam, boyfriend, is a defender and protector by nature. He hates injustice on any scale. When Delta messed up my flight, whoa buddy! He went to work making sure that situation was made right. He literally didn't sit down until the problem was fixed. That would be a minor example. He longs to defend the rights and innocence of children suffering from injustice. This desire runs just as deep in him as does my desire to love unwanted and forgotten children. There is a very real anger that rises up in him when he thinks about human trafficking.

We can't help but wonder if God is going to wed these two things together. And obviously we would be included in that wedding process.

I publicly declare, I want to adopt or at least position myself to open my home and my heart to love unwanted children. I do not know what this will look like. I do not know if this will happen in the States. I do not know much. I do know that God has been cultivating and growing this within me for years.

Isaiah 58:6-11

"Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
⁷Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
⁸ Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
⁹Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
¹⁰ if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
¹¹And the LORD will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall belike a watered garden,
like a spring of water,

whose waters do not fail.