Adopted by Diana DePriest

Below is a link to a blog written by a fellow friend and adoptive parent Diana DePriest.

http://dianalovestowrite.blogspot.com/2011/09/adopted.html

Two Waters that Led One Girl to an Earthly Family and a Heavenly Father

My prayers go out to the people of Japan as they face ongoing difficulties stemming from the recent earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Events like these have the ability to bring out the best and worst from people. Occasionally, these types of events are followed by a well-known Christian saying something that is rather ill-timed and really embarrassing about God’s judgment on a particular people. It is not that I don’t believe in the sovereignty of God or His ability to use both good and bad events to speak to us. I believe these things with all my heart. But, what if these events have nothing to do with God's wrath? What if God chooses to work within a fallen world to change and transform the hearts of His people?

My family’s story is of how God used two waters to forever change us. Our story moves from the waters of the 2004 Asian Tsunami to the 2011waters of baptism. Why did this destructive tsunami that left thousands dead and countless children as orphans happen? In the grand scheme of things I don’t have a good answer. These are geological and theological questions beyond my understanding. What I do know is that God has revealed His will in His Word. In Psalms 146:8-10 we are told that “The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; The LORD raises up those who are bowed down; The LORD loves the righteous; The LORD protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, But He thwarts the way of the wicked. The LORD will reign forever.” As my wife and I viewed the horrific destruction, God began a work in us. We would soon find out that we were the blind whose eyes needed opening as God fostered His love for orphans into our hearts.

The 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda tells a story of one man’s struggle to save his people from the horrific atrocities that left millions dead in a month’s time. There is a particularly haunting point in the movie when an American news videographer films the events that were taking place. The main character believed if people saw what was going on they would be saved. The videographer’s response was, “If people see this footage, they'll say, 'Oh my God, that's terrible,' and they'll go on eating their dinners.” These words are haunting because for many they hit close to home. As Barb and I watched footage of the Asian Tsunami we could no longer see with our eyes and not be moved in our hearts--for God Himself began to open the eyes of our hearts.

These waters of destruction led my wife and I on a journey. This journey led us to a little girl that needed an earthly family. Three years ago on Easter Sunday morning our daughter Melinda met with us in a hotel lobby in a foreign country. This meeting would be different than the other four times over a two year period when we met with her there. This time we had return airplane tickets for three and legal papers declaring that Melinda was no longer an orphan but our beloved daughter.

Of course we loved Melinda long before she legally became our daughter in much the same way God loved us long before we become His children. The Bible tells us, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Ephesians 1:4-5). One of the great joys of being a parent is experiencing the joy of seeing our children adopted into God’s family. Nine months after Melinda came home she woke my wife and I on New Year’s Day with the words, “Daddy, I want to believe of Jesus.” With tears of joy in our eyes we talked and prayed with her.

Last Sunday I had the privilege of baptizing Melinda. As I prepared for the baptism I could not help but think about the journey God has taken us on. I thought it was ironic how God, who had used the crashing waters of a tsunami to speak to us, was using water to speak to us again. The waters of a tsunami and baptism could not be more different. The waters of a tsunami leave death and destruction. The waters of baptism speak of healing and life. The first leaves people divided, separated and abandoned. The second unites us and tells us we belong to each other and God.

Does God speak in the midst of catastrophes? I don’t question if He is speaking to us. I question if we hear Him. My prayer is that God will grant us eyes to see and ears to hear. I praise God that He used two waters to lead one girl to an earthly family and a Heavenly Father.

How Can the Church Help? Part 3: Willing to Change.

This is a continuation of a post I started in September entitled "How Can the Church Help?"

I believe that Michael Monroe is correct in his assertion that the church must do five things in order to become safe places for adoptive families: Become Missional, Become Open and Willing to Learn, Become Honest and Prepared to Get Messy, Become Willing to Change, Become Committed for the Long Haul.*


In this post I want to look at "Become Willing to Change." For those that celebrate Advent, we know this is a time of preparation, hope, and expectation. A prominent figure in the first Advent was John the Baptist. John was "a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'" (Matt. 3:3) It was his job to help the people prepare themselves for the coming of Christ. How were they to prepare? John's answer was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." (Matt. 3:2) Repent is not a word we use often today. In Greek this word is "metanoeo" which means to change one's mind or purpose.

The Kingdom was near because the King was near. With Christ coming into the world things were changing. God's people needed to change in light of the coming kingdom. Repentance is God's way of creating a favorable environment for His Spirit to work in our lives. Those that were committed to this type of change received John's baptism of repentance and prepared to live in the Light of the Kingdom of God.


What changes do our churches need to make to fulfill God's plan to look after orphans and widows in their distress? Remember this isn't some add-on. James says that if our religion (worship of God) is to be pure and undefiled we will do this. This may call some of us to radically realign our thinking, plans, purposes, and practices. Churches that are willing to change "will serve as an integral part of the visible Gospel being lived out in the lives of countless adoptive and foster families, all for the glory of God."**



* Monroe, Michael http://tapestry.irvingbible.org/index.php?id=1558 accessed February 6, 2010

** Ibid

Adoption Month Guest Blogger: Beth Jones

November is Adoption Month. To honor those who have followed God’s leading to adopt, our post features part of our friends’ story. Darin Jones is a medical device sales representative with Neomend, Inc. He enjoys running, music, and working around the small farm they live on in central Illinois. Elizabeth (Beth) Jones is currently a teacher at Crossroads High School in Tiskilwa, IL. She enjoys teaching, running, music, and playing board games. Together they compete in road races and triathlons. They have 3 teenage daughters and 2 adopted sons.

Another Kind of Marathon

IT'S A BOY...or to be more accurate...IT'S TWO BOYS!!!!

In early December of 2007 my husband, Darin, and I were each in our own vehicles driving to separate commitments. It was a Saturday morning. As is my habit when I'm driving I turned on the Christian radio station and the weekend top 20 countdown was on. After a few minutes they featured an interview with Steven Curtis Chapman. He was talking about a song titled "Crazy" on his new album. When the interviewer asked what inspired that song, Chapman replied that his house was a little crazy right now because he had 3 older boys and they had recently adopted 3 younger girls. I thought, "He must be crazy!" Then I felt a tug on my heart for orphaned children. I passed this off as early symptoms of "Empty Nest Syndrome" and thought nothing else about it for the rest of the day.

Later that evening my husband says to me, "I heard an interesting interview on the radio this morning..." I instantly knew what he was referring to even though he VERY RARELY turns on Christian radio preferring to listen to his own cd's or talk radio. We talked about adoption in general for a few minutes, mentioned that our stage in life with 3 teen age daughters was kind of nice because we had so much more time for ourselves, and didn't speak about it again for a couple of months.

During those couple of months which were very busy with Christmas, New Year's, etc the subject of adoption kept coming up from random places. We'd drive by a billboard on the highway, hear an ad on the radio, see an article in a magazine, read a passage in the Bible, even notice the "adopt-a-highway" signs along the road.

Then in February 2008 we received an email from Darin's aunt who lives in South Dakota. It told the story of how she had received a wrong number call on her cell phone a few days before. Being Norwegian, she struck up a conversation with this perfect stranger in Arizona. She asked the woman who she was trying to reach and why. The woman said that she was trying to contact a friend of hers to ask for prayer for a 10-year-old boy named Michael. This little boy had been adopted at the age of 3 and had formed no significant bonds with his adopted family and was up for adoption again. Darin's aunt promised to pray for Michael and spread the word to others that she knew would pray for him as well. As Darin and I read this our hearts were stirred. We weren't sure what we should do. We prayed about it and felt that we should get some more information. Maybe God planned to bring this boy into our family. So with shaky hands and a quivering voice I called the adoption agency just to inquire, no commitments. I spoke with a woman named Leslie who told me that there was already a family committed to adopting Michael, but they had other waiting children if we were interested. Were we interested? I wasn't sure. I told her that we might be, but that at this point we were only gathering information. She asked what country we would like to adopt from. I said that we had been on several missions trips to Central America and were captivated by the big brown eyes of those beautiful children. She told me that they had a program in Colombia and asked for other particulars. I told her that IF we adopted we would want brothers over the age of five. She took down all of our information and promised to call me back.

The next day I was on the train to downtown Chicago to spend the weekend with Darin at a trade convention he was working. She gave me the names and brief information of two brothers, ages 5 and 11 from Colombia. Tears came to my eyes as I started thinking about the possibility of adding these two little boys to our family. Tears are streaming down my face even now as I remember that conversation and how it started our adoption journey.

Beth

Darin, Beth, and their three daughters, Alexandra, Miranda, and Sydney, traveled to Colombia in May 2009
to bring home Mauricio and Miguel. To read the rest of their story, visit their blog at http://anotherkindofmarathon.blogspot.com/.

She's the One

Last month I wrote a blog post entitled “Puzzling.” In that post, I explained that our adoption agency denied our application after we had sunk over $4500 and five months of our life into the process. Emotionally, I was a wreck. I walked away.

After a few days of reprieve, the logical side of my brain kicked in. (Poor Don. I really don’t know how he handled this news or his whacko wife.) I wasn’t ready to move forward, but I needed to know how long our paperwork would be good and what our alternatives were (since adopting from Russia was out of the question).

Making the decision to adopt is the easiest part of the process. Once our options opened up, it became more confusing. Domestic vs. International. Asia, Africa, Europe or Latin America. I expended several weeks talking with friends who had adopted and researching different countries on the internet. Each had its own pros and cons. I considered cost, wait time, travel time, whether the children were in orphanages or foster care, what medical conditions each country dealt with, which countries had girls, which countries had toddlers, etc. I spent my days investigating and my evenings describing my findings to Don.

Late one evening, Don and I hovered over the desktop computer in our basement. Several hours into that evening’s quest, we were still debating which country to pursue. We typed in a search for Guatemalan orphans. A picture of the cutest girl, about three years old with pigtails, drinking out of a straw at a McDonald’s popped up. She was an absolute doll. I flatly stated, “That’s it - she’s the one,” promptly shut down the computer, and went to bed.

Don and I didn’t talk about adopting for a few days, but when I broached the subject again, we learned we had each been praying for that little girl. So I took a deep breath and called the adoption agency listed next to her picture. I was still a bit wary, but the Director helped me feel comfortable with her services. She read our home study and found nothing to prohibit us from adopting. I guess I finally asked about that little girl enough. She said to me on a Wednesday, “It sounds as if you are serious about her. Let me verify she is available for you to meet.” She called back Thursday and asked how quickly we could fly to Guatemala. We left Sunday. I didn’t sleep for three days.

Through all this, I blindly followed God. I put one cautious step in front of the other not knowing the final destination. Can you describe a time in your life in which you blindly followed God?

For His Glory,
Barb :-)

How Can the Church Help? Part 2: The Missional Church

For the church to help those who answer God's call to adoption, she must be missional. A missional church has been defined as "an authentic community of faith that primarily directs its ministry focus outward toward the context in which it is located and to the broader world beyond."*  Michael Monroe suggests "the term also clearly emphasizes a need to become intentional and focused in communicating and living out a message of hope and love."** Furthermore he adds, "Churches that are missional as it relates to adoption and foster care reach out to adoptive and foster families. They must determine to become intentional and focused about living out the heart of God for the orphan and loving and serving families who faithfully respond by adopting or fostering."** Adoption reflects God‘s heart and missional purposes in the world.  In James 1:27 we are told, "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." With this being central to God's heart, adoption and orphan care is in the very DNA of the church.

As an expression of our DNA, the church must move from thinking of adoption and orphan care in terms of private callings of individuals to becoming an integral part of  the local church's mission, vision, and purposes. When we think of adoption as Christians we must not only think about individuals or individual families. This is sometimes an overall fault within the evangelical church. God has called the church as individuals and collectively to "Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow"(Isaiah 1:17).  Jason Kovacs suggests, "All our orphan care and adoption efforts ought to be done as God's community (the church) on mission in this world by the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot care for the fatherless as effectively alone as we can in community. We can do more for God's glory and the good of the fatherless as the body of Christ, with all its parts working and serving in the power of the Spirit, together".*** The church's attitude is reflected in the church's education, budget, and practices.  We are not all called to adopt, but we are all called to fulfill God's purposes.

If the church is going to fulfill its missional purpose in the world, it has to be a learning church. The church that is willing to learn is going to be more effective in reaching out to all types of families. Additionally, the church will better enable its own people to express their desires to be missional through adoption. Churches need to become educated on issues that face foster and adoptive parents. This begins by understanding our own adoption into the family of God.

What is your church doing to care for orphans?  What has been helpful to you?  What can we do differently or better?

By God's Grace,
Don




*Ronald Carlson http://www.nationalministries.org/missional_church/docs/MCT_Definition_Missional_Church.pdf.cfm
**http://tapestry.irvingbible.org/index.php?id=1558
***Jason Kovacs, Glorifying the Father of the Fatherless: How Families Can Change the World for the Glory of God and the Good of Orphans. Together For adoption e-book. 18

One Less

I was planning on posting part two of my last blog today until I came across this video. Thank you Kirsten and Diana.

Because of Christ,
Don

One Less by Matthew West (The Story Behind The Song) from emicmg on Vimeo.

Below is a video of West's song. Someone added pictures to tell his/her story.