I am going to climb on a soapbox right now. If you think that you know what I’m going to say, you might want to stick around…because you might be surprised.
Adoption is really the best option.
As a teen, I was encouraged to join “silent, peaceful protests” against abortion. There were hundreds of people lining a major thoroughfare in a local town. As I have been going through the foster/adoption process, I wonder how many of those people who were “fighting for the lives of unborn babies” are willing to give those children a home???
Are you? How many times have you said that there should be a law banning abortion? And how many times have you volunteered to provide respite care or babysit foster/adoptive children? Do you volunteer at a pregnancy shelter for those brave young women who decide to keep the baby, but need support? Do you help in any way other than to say that we should make abortion illegal?
Now, please understand that I personally believe that abortion should be illegal. I think that we are harming our future by aborting the unborn. I also feel that no one shares with these young ladies all the emotional and physical trauma that will occur within their bodies, souls, and minds for years to come.
However, I am not just “protesting abortion”. I’m actively doing something to help those young women who have made another choice. Some of them just don’t have the skill set to be parents yet. So, as foster parents, we can give them a much-needed break while they learn the skills needed to be parents. The goal of foster care is to reunite the child with his/her biological family. In foster care, we call that reunification. It is our job as foster parents to love, protect, and help the child grow so that the reunification is successful and happy.
We also are very open to adoption. We believe that God will grow our family through adoption. I know that many Christian families take to heart the verse about “happy is the man whose quiver is full”, the preceding verse talks about the arrows being the children of man’s youth (Ps. 127:4,5). The families I know are more than willing to conceive and bear several children…yet there are THOUSANDS of children already in the world who are in desperate need of a home. These youngsters are waiting for a forever family. Have we forgotten the verses that speak about whenever we do something for the “least of these” we’ve done it unto Jesus??? Have we forgotten the charge to care for the widows and orphans??? Why is it more blessed to bear children than it is to adopt children in need of a home?? I’m so very glad that God chose to adopt me, rather than just creating more people. What better picture of God’s love to the world, than to adopt a child (or two, or three, or five) and love them into the Kingdom?
Nerd loves to read books and articles by upstanding Christian men. One of his favorite role models is Tony Dungy. Tony and his wife have adopted children. They believe that adoption is a vital part of the pro-life movement. You can hear him talk about it in his own words here.
Christians, we need to wake up! Unless we are willing to help these young, unwed mothers to become successful, or we’re willing to give these babies homes, we have no business fighting against abortion!!! In essence, when we fight to make abortion illegal and then don’t support the mothers or provide homes for these babies…we’re legalizing and moralizing neglect. We feel all comfy and happy because we’ve saved the life of that unborn baby…but have we?
Will you answer the call? Will you open your home to children in need of a safe place to stay? Will you become the forever family to a child or a group of children who long for a mother’s embrace, a father’s smile, a warm place to sleep, and food to eat??
Will you dare to be Jesus to these little beings that bear His image? Will you answer the call? If you can’t, will you help others to do so?
I believe that Rick Warren has been challenging his church with this concept recently (I could be wrong as to the pastor), and I think it is vitally needed. We have been called to care for the widows and orphans, but what are we really doing about it? As a single woman, I pray that I will meet a strong Christian man to share my life with. If I do, I would prefer to have natural children with him. However, no matter whether that happens, God has placed adoption on my heart. I admit that the thought of raising a child as a single mom scares me, but it is something I’ve felt God leading me toward for a while.
One other aspect that God has been dealing with me recently is praying for those working in the abortion industry. I feel specifically called to pray for Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. But there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other men and women working within the industry–if their hearts and minds were turned toward Christ how different would this debate look in our country!
I agree with a lot of what you said here. Afew years back, when I was majorly stressed over the difficulties with my 2 adopted ones (and an ex-husband who refused to pay child support) I slammed on my brakes at one of those lines in Denton and asked some of those people the same questions you brought up. It got a bit heated! Not a one who was willing to talk to me had ever done anything to help a single child who needed fostering or adopting, or a family who was needing or in the midst of those services. I think everyone who is against abortion needs to think about these things—if you want someone who is obviously ill-prepared to be a mother (like those of my 2, who have fetal alcohol syndrome and were severely abused) to have a child, then you should help in some way with the results when those children are born. It is very easy to say abortion is wrong, but do nothing about the consequences.