DAY 2: Adoption—A Calling?

Day 2

Adoption — A Calling?

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

—Proverbs 3:5–6

When I was a kid I played church league basketball.Before you make any assumptions about my skill level, you need to know that my eight-year-long career high was !ve points in one game. No, that is not a typo: !ve.

I did practice, though, bless my heart. Many Friday afternoons before the weekend game, I would shoot hoops in the backyard. Every now and then, I would stop and pray, “OK, God, if You’re going to help me to do really well in the game tomorrow, then let me make this next shot.” Sometimes I made it; more often than not, I didn’t. I never did extremely well in a game.

What was I looking for in those moments? A sign.

We all do it, don’t we? Maybe not with basketball, but like Gideon in Judges 6, we set out woolen &eeces, begging God to give us insight into what He’s going to do or what He wants us to do. We desperately want to know this mysterious will of His, and we exhaust all human resources to !nd it. We’re afraid that we’ll hear or interpret Him incorrectly, and either way our lives will be utterly ruined. My dad calls this the “paralysis of analysis,” a diagnosis he gave me when I was trying to choose a course of study in college. I was so terri!ed of making the wrong decision—of missing God’s will for my life—that I just couldn’t make any decision at all.

Adoption is a huge decision, one of the biggest decisions you could possibly make. No one can or should make this life-altering choice lightly. Yes, adoption is amazing and God-honoring, but not everyone is called to it. So how do you know you are?

Everyone’s story looks di%erent. Some people have always been passionate about orphan care, so it is a natural next step. For others, the desire comes out of the blue. For others still, God uses incredible circumstances to make the adoption path crystal clear, and they respond in obedience, even though they are terri!ed.

For my husband and me, our decision was made on a park bench after reading through a list of pros and cons. "ere was no fanfare; lightning did not fall from the sky. Over the previous months and years, as our burden for orphan care increased, we

examined means of grace such as God’s Word and the body of Christ. We also considered our own passions and gifting, as well as our circumstances. We knew from Scripture that God champions adoption, the body a$rmed our desire to adopt as a good thing, and God opened a door for us to adopt as Americans living in Australia, something we did not think was possible.

Even though all the evidence seemed to &ash go, we still weren’t 100 percent sure. What if we got it wrong? How could we know for sure that this was what we were supposed to do? We were talking about a human being’s life, for goodness’ sake, not to mention the potential to rock the stability of what was then our family.

In the end, all we could pray was, “God, we think this is what You’re calling us to do. We think this is where You’re leading us. So, we’re going to take the next step. If we’re wrong, please stand in the way. We’re stepping out in faith here, so we’re trusting that You’ll honor our desire to obey, no matter which way You lead us.”

And with that prayer, on a park bench in a quiet suburban neighborhood, we said yes.

How often do we miss out on incredible opportunities because we don’t want to act until we’re 100 percent sure? God’s will—His power and rule over our lives—is so much bigger and wider than the tightrope walk we like to think it is. We wobble fearfully, knees knocking, terri!ed to take a step lest we fall o% the rope entirely and wreck God’s entire cosmic scheme—as if we could do that—and we miss out on so much. "e paralysis of “What if I get it wrong?” leaves us stagnant, with dormant dreams as discolored and irrelevant as a yellowed keepsake in a cedar chest.

“Trust Me,” He says. “Trust Me.” If the desire of our hearts is to know and follow Him, we just can’t get it wrong. Trust Him to open doors. Trust Him to stand in your way. You may not be completely sure that you’re called to adopt, but start walking—listening the whole time, asking for guidance, asking for assurance, and trusting, trusting, trusting. Rarely do we have all the answers,