Why Adopt?
John and I felt called to adopt from the very beginning of our relationship. Like many who are interested, we put it on the backburner while we adjusted to marriage and then parenting and let it remain a “when we have the money” affair. After having two biological sons, God made it clear that it was time to step out in faith and begin the process. So in the fall of 2015, that’s exactly what we did, trust God for his provision and his timing.
The process broke my heart because pregnancy was always a joyful time for me, but for many women facing unplanned pregnancy it is fraught with fear and anxiety. We strongly believe in choosing life, but choosing life is so much more than a slogan. We wanted to provide a loving family to a child that needed it— to the child whose mother’s love would strengthen her to choose life and the best adoption plan for her and her baby. That’s exactly what God helped us do, and we are forever grateful to the woman who carried and loved her and our daughter for those 9 months.
James 1:27 says “ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
So many times in our nation we see religion become something political or something you do to check off a bunch of boxes. Yes, we go to church, but our Christianity comes from being Christ followers, not seat fillers. We are not perfect, but we are attempting to live a life of obedience, and we are humbled that God would call us to walk this journey as adoptive parents, when there are so many other ways to fulfill the call of James 1:27.
As we learned during our process, there are many avenues to adoption, and through research and prayer we determined that domestic infant adoption was the direction God was leading. It did require a huge financial commitment, one that was quite frankly scary. But the message seared into our hearts was, what is money when you have a God who moves mountains? And what good is money if it causes disobedience? When we stepped out in faith, unsure of where the finances would come from, God answered prayers, strengthened our faith, and provided the money for this adoption in a mighty way!
Adoption was an emotional journey full of excitement, anxiety, anticipation, impatience, and fear, to name a few. But God repeatedly calmed my heart with his reminder that adoption was His plan and we were getting a front seat to watch Him work. In the end, not only did He call us to adoption, but to special needs adoption, an idea we had never considered. In his goodness, God brought us to the child that He had perfectly created and she is the child that belongs in our family. Of course the experience hasn’t been without it’s bumps along the road. Learning how to navigate the medical needs of our daughter has been its own emotional journey, and becoming a family of 5 and then 6 has been a wild ride. But the same God that started the process with us is the same God that is seeing us through day to day, and He is faithful.
We are incredibly thankful that God chose to grow our family through adoption. We are thankful to all of the friends and family who have supported us and everyone who reads this blog and who is now on this journey with us. We hope that our story will encourage people to value life, even when science and the medical field don’t. We hope that our story will encourage others to consider adoption, whether as an expectant parent or an adoptive parent, and that the fear of the unknown or the financial cost won’t deter them from something so beautiful. We hope that our story of faith and action, even in the face of fear, will encourage you to step out in obedience in God’s plan for your life. 
Feel free to contact me at LRobertson731@gmail.com if you have any questions about adoption, special needs adoption, or our journey along the way.