A Calling?

Adoption has been on my mind for a long, long time. I guess it started in high school when our youth group went on a mission trip to an orphanage in Guatemala. It was then my eyes and heart were open to the children all over the world who, through no fault of their own, were in need of a family to love them and to be loved by them.

I am so blessed to have a husband who also has a heart for adoption and we've talked about doing so since we first got married. So I've always hoped that it would be in our future at some point. But at the same time, I've always wondered if God was calling us to adopt...or if it was just something we wanted to do of our own accord. It wasn't until I read my devotional this morning that I realized without a doubt that it is a calling.

Isaiah 6:8 says, "I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?' Then Isaiah said, 'Here and I! Send me.' "

God didn't say to Isaiah, "I choose you, you're the one I want you to go." He doesn't call just a select few, He calls everyone! He doesn't force His will on us, He simply states what needs to be done and waits for us to answer His call.

So when He tells us to look after the orphans in James 1:27 (see the sidebar for the full verse), that is His calling to me. I know some of you are saying, "well, duh!", but I'd never really looked at it that way before! Does that mean that everyone should adopt? Absolutely not. I believe it does mean, as a Christian, you should answer that call in whatever way you can...whether it's by volunteering your time, giving to those less fortunate, making meals for a neighbor in need, etc. For us, it means adopting...simply because we want another child and there are kids all over the world without homes!

So, the burning question...where will we adopt from? Sorry, that will have to wait for another post! (I will say it's from somewhere we hadn't thought about before...)