I LOVE adoption

“Why do you want to adopt?” This is one of the most common questions that Jen and I have gotten over the last 3-4 months. One of the things we have loved the most in the beginning stages of adoption has been the fact that no matter which way an adoption conversation goes, it’s impossible to not talk about God and His love for us in Him. So many Christians feel uncomfortable, scared or nervous to talk about their faith, and I can relate, but God has broken down those barriers and given us an avenue to talk about Him daily.

Back to the original question: why do you want to adopt? In the time that Schwoch Talk has existed and evolved into our adoption update blog, you’ve heard from Jen as she has poured out her heart for adoption and our family’s vision. I thought it would be a good time to share my heart for adoption and how I got to where I am today. Growing up I didn’t know anyone that had adopted or had been adopted. I didn’t have any adopted friends and never heard any of the churches I attended talk about adoption. Jen told me about her love for adoption at an early time in our dating relationship. I never thought much of it, just assumed we would have biological children because that was all I knew. I wasn’t against adoption in any way, just extremely uneducated.

Jen had been praying for my heart for years, I finally began to pray asking God to speak to me and show me how he wanted our family to grow. Over the course of many years, God slowly began shaping my heart to the point where now I cannot see our family without an adopted child. I began to learn the theology behind our adoption in Christ. The following verses began to speak to me very loudly about my identity and blew my mind thinking about the fact that Jesus not only died and forgave our sins, but God made us His children and we share in His inheritance with Christ: John 1:12 – “But to all who believe him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God & Galatians 4:4-6 “But when the right time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as His very own children. And because we are His children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”

A couple weeks ago I was sitting at our church, Austin Stone, listening to Jeff Mangum preach a sermon on prayer. I never expected Jeff to start talking about adoption during a sermon on prayer. I mean, what do adoption and prayer have to do with each other? Jeff went on about his experience watching families love on their adopted children in the exact same ways that they love on their biological children. If we are in Christ, we are His adopted child. We don’t let this soak in enough. Romans 8:14-17 says “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Jesus tells us how we should pray in Matthew 6, verses 9-13. He starts with “Our Father in heaven…” and continues through the rest of the Lord’s Prayer. How many of us begin our prayers with “Dear Father” and if we do, do we really understand what we are saying? This is the essence of adoption and it has everything to do with prayer. As I sat there and listened, I couldn’t hold in my excitement and the only thing I could think about was the fact that I LOVE adoption and cannot wait to bring our forever child home!

I look back at the past couple years and see how God has shaped my heart and I am so thankful. I am thankful that Jen and I get to display His love for us in a very real and apparent way. I am thankful for every one of you that reads our posts, prays for our child and its mother and supports us financially. I am thankful that each and every one of you will be tied to our family for the rest of our lives by helping us live out the gospel and bring our child home. But most of all I am thankful that God has revealed His love for us and given us a heart of love for the orphan.

Adoption Update:
I am going to start giving updates on where we are at in the process and how things are coming along. Jen and I recently sent in our Home study information packet and have been assigned a case worker. We will begin interviews with the case worker towards the end of October and hopefully finish up in November. We will then fill out more adoption paperwork with our agency, make the first of 3 agency payments, and then compile the paperwork along with the home study report into what is called the dossier and send it off for review.  Please pray for the process and that we can continue to be patient and continually be reminded that God is in control. We ask that you pray for our child (most likely unborn) and its mother wherever they may be and that God keeps His hand over her and protects her.

Our fundraising efforts have gotten off to a strong start. So far we have a raised $3,765 through our You Caring site. We are in the process of having some shirts printed that were designed by my amazingly talented sister-in-law Gretchen (stay tuned to Facebook and this blog for shirt updates) and we have our adoption fundraising garage sale coming up on Saturday October 19^th – Stop by for some breakfast, shopping and fun!

If you have not been to our You Caring fundraising website, I have included the link below.

http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/schwoch-a-bye-baby-adoption/79828