Adoption in Real Life

Scripture is clear that as believers we are to care for orphans.  This looks different for each of us.  For some it means adopting a child into your home, for others it may be foster care, or even a mission trip to serve and care for orphans across the world.  

Over the next year we would like to share what adoption looks like for 24 individuals and their families.  Each post in the "Adoption in Real Life" series will be written by individuals who have been obedient to God's call to care for orphans.  They are willing to share what God has taught them and as you will see each story is unique.  Isn't that part of the beauty of God’s lessons for His sons and daughters . . . so that we can learn and grow from one another.  

Our hope is that you will see "Adoption in Real Life" and not just something going on in the distance.  Our prayer is that God will reveal your role in adoption.  

Please welcome our first contributor,

Tera Melber 

Do you ever step back and take a look at where the Lord has had you journey? Reflection is an amazing reminder of our sanctification process. Sanctification….the word I view with both dread and anticipation. It is God’s plan of growing us into the likeness of Christ. Sounds lofty, but what does it require? Sanctification requires stretching. I am not a fan of being stretched, but the Lord has stretched me over the last several years in ways that I would never have asked, but in ways that I would never trade.

Recently I took a look at the blog I kept during our adoption processes. We have six children. Three children became Melbers biologically, three became Melbers through adoption. The three most recent additions to our family were older when they joined our family and all came home with memories of their life in their home countries.

During the adoption process my blogs consisted of all the typical thoughts and anxieties that a mother exhibits while waiting for her precious child to be in her arms. Nothing ever happened on my timetable. What was the Lord thinking? Didn’t He know that our child needed to be home? Didn’t He sense our pain in the waiting? Didn’t He part the Red Sea? Wasn’t He capable of blasting through the Red Tape? I feel anxious typing all of that right now! So, as I re-read my entries I ran across this note that typifies what I pray the Lord has taught me and continues to teach me in my walk with Him. We were on our way home with our newest son.

This week we have watched God's hand guide every aspect of our journey. Lots of travel troubles, UGH. Through it all, when I would feel anxiety welling up in my heart, I would hear Him asking me, Do you trust me? Do you really mean all the things you say to everyone else? Do you trust me to work out circumstances according to My plan, not yours? Do you recognize that you are not in control? Over and over, I know that He was and is telling me that in good or bad I must choose to trust that this journey is HIS. This journey of my life is the one that He has planned and intended. I still get very anxious, want to control situations and people, but honestly....deep within my soul, I do trust Him. I may not like the plan, but I trust that He has ALL worked out. I'm in a plane right now on our last leg home from bringing home our son. We are surprising the other kids with an early flight home. Soon we will be the eight of us. Our sweet boy is sleeping peacefully. He fully trusts us as his parents. We know where he is going. We know what is in store of the other end of this plane ride. We had a plan to bring him home. Everywhere we've led him, he has willingly gone with a smile on his face, hand held out to take ours. Fully trusting. May I be the same with my Heavenly Father who has the plan.

As your family journeys through the growth of your family and through parenting, I ask you to trust Him with the plan. Recognize that He sees the view from above the plane. The full view. You only see out of your little window. How we react will show the world that we trust HIM and love HIM more than we trust and love our plan. Ask yourself, which you desire more…the child you are longing for or a relationship with the ONE who made both you and your child? Growth is never easy. Cling to Him.

Isaiah 55:8-9 “The Lord says: ‘My thoughts and my ways are not like yours. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours.’ ”