What I Shared On Orphan Sunday

I was an orphan.

I have never known the details of the circumstances surrounding my birth, but I do know that I was born with a need to be redeemed, taken in to a family, and given my best chance. There was nothing that I could do for myself to remedy it.

But God was working in the hearts of my soon-to-be-family. He led my father to start up a conversation with one of his clients that led him to find out about my birth mother's situation. He led my mother to be ready to open her life and heart to another child, and he was moving in my sister's heart. Every night she would pray, “Dear Jesus, please give me a sister just like me.”

Praise the Lord he chose to answer her prayer! On April 15, 1981, after years of waiting, I came home at 2 days old. I'm told that my sister raced to the door- she had to to beat my mother to it.

That day, I ceased being an orphan. I had a family. I was theirs and they were mine. I had a place to belong. I had a hope and a future. My past was erased, and I was given a new name, a new identity, and my best chance. I was fatherless no more. I was adopted.

I wish everything was rosy from that time on, but my family went through some very difficult times. My father chose to walk away from me, my sister, and my mother. He stepped out of our lives and left me with a broken and angry heart.

I went to church, and a private Christian school where I learned about Jesus and his love for me. I believed in Him, his death on the cross and his resurrection, but it wasn't until I was 9 years old that I saw how my sin was keeping me from knowing Christ as my friend. I saw that I was lost, without hope, and needed redeemed. Because of my horizontal adoption, I realized that I needed a vertical adoption because just as my earthly father had turned his back on me, so had I turned my back on my Heavenly Father- making me fatherless.

I was an orphan.

But God reached down and answered my prayer and forgave me. He washed me clean, gave me a new hope and a new future. He was my very best chance. God gave me a new identity in him. I was fatherless no more. I was adopted.

I was adopted- twice.

These two acts have been two of the most defining things of my life. Because of God's great love in providing a future for me through adoption, it was evident that I needed to do the same. This past year Casey and I had the honor of adopting our youngest daughter. It was costly. It required sacrifice, and love, and faith.

It has become another defining moment in my life pointing me back to my Heavenly Father and his great sacrifice and love that give me faith in Him, to make me his child.