RELUCTANT PURPOSE Part 2 REBECCA ROGERS NELSON: SCREENWRITER, PRODUCER, ACTRESS AT B E A U T I F U L F E E T P R O D U C T I O N S
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y heart was pounding! My husband said “yes” to fostering a little 18-month-old boy. I was excited! We had just sat through an eight-hour seminar on the pitfalls and challenges of adopting through the U.S. Foster Care system, but I didn’t care. There was a little boy who needed us! And we couldn’t wait to meet him. We explained to our two-year-old birth son, as best we could, that a little boy would be joining our family— for now, at least. Okay, I have to address the obvious question – How in the world could we put our precious little boy through the ordeal of falling in love with a younger sibling just to have that sibling potentially taken away by a family member who surfaces at the last minute? Honestly, it was hard. We asked that same question to another Christian adoptive parent. Their answer: “Don’t you think that God loves your son as much as He loves you? If you are in obedience, God will take care of your son’s heart no matter what happens.” James 1:27 states that pure religion is to look after the widow and the orphan. Doing so sounds like obedience to me. That said, each person must pray specifically and decide what that looks like for their own family. For ours, it seemed like God was nudging us to move forward. That is when we met our beautiful, brown-eyed boy. He was adorable, and the two boys became best buds fast!
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Soon after, we learned that birth mom was six months pregnant. Not only were we agreeing to foster the boy, we would also be blessed with a newborn baby in about four months. We were overwhelmed with joy — and fear. We prayed. Hard. Our beautifully perfect girl was born. We were overwhelmed with love for our quickly growing family. We were also overwhelmed with birth parents’ visitations, social worker visits, doctor’s appointments and court room appearances for the legal placement process for the children. We were quickly becoming well-versed in the government process of adoption. Honestly? It felt invasive and scary. We had to hold our children close, care for them — and absolutely without reservation, love them — but at the same time, we knew we might have to give them up. Side bar — most know that parenting is not easy. Adoptive parenting is no different. In fact, any time we obey God, we expect the enemy to double down. We have to fight! The way to do that is through prayer— lots of it. Transparency with family and friends while in the process is advised. The more prayer, the better! My husband and I proceeded through the almost twoyear process of court dates and multiple chances for the birth parents to get their act together and parent
