What an amazing testimony for adoption! So many people overlook that fact that as born-again believers, we are the adopted children of Christ! I so have to order this shirt for all of us!
At first, my blood began to boil - it was an automatic reaction. I immediately began to think about the people who are truly ignorant about adoption and the trials that it brings. If I've heard it once, I've heard it again and again - you're taking the easy way out by adopting. These ill-informed people look at adoption as easy because there are no labor pains or stretch marks or hospital bills, etc. These people have absolutely no idea what adoption is truly about or how hard it is. When I was pregnant with Ashton, I was in labor for 11 1/2 hours and my heart was damaged - all this occurred in just under 12 hours when I had had a great, healthy pregnancy up to that point. I did have to quit work slightly early because Ashton decided at one time that he wanted to come early but that only lasted 2 weeks and then my doctor said to resume normal activities...no big deal. Well, Jason and I have been officially in the adoption process for 2 years and 7 months and we will both quickly state that for us, adoption is much, much harder than actual childbirth! It flies all over me when people make remarks about adoption being the easy way out...let them spend the money to travel overseas, communicate with birth parents (or grandparents which can totally interfere in all types of adoptions), complete loads of paperwork, take a HUGE leap of faith that God will unite them with the right child, etc. Adoption is hard any way you look at it. Just the decision to adopt in and of itself is overwhelming. Jason and I knew before we were married that one day we would adopt so that part was easy but dealing with family and friends and making the decision as to which agency to use and whether to try international or domestic - those are the hard parts! For us, we've looked into both and experienced heartache with both.
For domestic, we really got our hopes up and learned all about the child only to have the rug pulled out when biological grandparents decided that they wanted to be so involved in the child's life that we were basically only going to be foster parents. Also, we were told by a very prominent agency that unless we were willing to share birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. with the birth family that we would never be matched with a child - how open are you willing to be in adoption is a HUGE decision that affects the entire family (both birth and adoptive).
As for international, we spent huge sums of money and even traveled for 2 weeks to Ukraine and have never felt so much heartache as we did in those weeks. Take a moment to read this post about the day we met two children at the Ukrainian orphanage...this was one of the hardest days of my life. The months that followed only got worse, and as of today, we haven't returned to Ukraine but are waiting for our Ethiopian referral and about to pay quite a sum of money again to redo our home study for the 4th time and our fingerprints for the 3rd. You know what, I would do it all over again without even a thought because we know that we are in God's will...even Ukraine wasn't a mistake - you will never know how that trip impacted our lives and those of the people around us. Each day, I get up and wonder if today will be the day when we will receive the phone call that we have been matched with a child....our day is coming!
Now, take another look at the t-shirt logo. Do you see what I see upon a closer glance? This shirt isn't about rude people at all, it depicts the hand of Christ and the heart is for the spikes that were nailed through His body so that we could be adopted into His family. We were not physically born of Christ's womb but His blood paid for our adoption - what a high price He paid so that we could join His family. Just this morning in my devotion time, I read that Jesus wants us to give Him complete control over our mind. My devotion stated that even when we learn to bridle our tongue, rarely do we learn to give Him complete control over our minds. My initial reaction to this t-shirt certainly brought back to me the scriptures that I read this morning. God knows the heartache and trials of adoption firsthand, so He can certainly mend our hearts, provide financial resources to pay for the adoption, and unite our family when the timing is right - His timing, that is. God can even help change people's hearts who think we are crazy for purposely creating an transracial family.
I still think the shirt is a little inaccurate, after all Christ certainly labored here on earth but thankfully it was a labor of love!
1 comments:
People have no clue unless they have walked in your shoes! I had natural child birth both times with the boys and consider that much easier than 3 years of "labor pains" waiting on Emma.
Hang in there! Your time is coming.
Mayme
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