I am starting a series of blogs to bring the readers into an awareness of our current national need which is to foster and adopt children. To date, there are over 428,000 children in the foster system in America alone.

• Do you know the history of adoption

• What do you think about when you hear the word “adopt”

Adoption is a fairly new practice. There are ancient forms of it found throughout history, which was to either perpetuate a lineage by having sons to continue on as the family priest or as a form of indentured servitude. But the most common form that we are used to today did not actually begin until 1851 known as The Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act.

The word adoption as we know it has been around since biblical times, and it is actually a biblical practice.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, you become “adopted” into the family of God, and have “sonship” with Jesus. Romans 8:14-17 explains this further.

There are a few Bible stories that also deal with adoption as well as fostering of children.

Exodus 1:15-22 speaks about the baby Moses who was adopted as an infant by the Pharaoh’s daughter.

Moses’ mother had placed him in a wicker basket and set him on the Nile river in order to spare his life from Pharaoh’s soldiers who were ordered to destroy all the male Israelite babies.

The book of Esther is about the girl named Esther. She was adopted by her cousin Mordecai after her parent’s death. She later became the queen of Persia.

In the book of Samuel, we read about how his mother Hannah dedicated him to the LORD and took him to the temple to be fostered by the priest Eli.

Jesus was adopted by his mother Mary’s husband Joseph who raised him from infancy.

Adoption is God’s design and will for mankind. He organized it and he loves to see families taking in the orphans, and ministering to children who are displaced. James 1:27 speaks plainly about God’s heart on this matter.

Children who are adopted are the “chosen ones” they are the ones who are redeemed from the destitution that was placed on them be it by inadequate parents or from losing parents to death. Some children are selflessly placed into an adoption plan by loving parents who must pull on their own hearts strings to give their child a better opportunity in life. Those are very hard and precious situations for the birth mother and father (if he is involved) to make.

In earlier days when a girl became pregnant out of wedlock, she was sent away to a maternity home where she was then forced to leave her baby behind after birth. These situations hardly happen today or are very rare. But they do still happen and it is not an easy outcome for the mother. She grieves for her child the same way a mother who lost her baby to stillbirth or a miscarriage would.
When a woman makes the selfless act to place her baby for adoption and has the ability to remain in contact with her child she comes through the process better. There is still heartache, but it is not as deep or hopeless as the mother who is not given the choice. An adoption is a loving option and everyone involved should treat the situation with care and consideration.

The other option is fostering which is also a very delicate subject as many of the children in the American foster system are coming from broken families where one or both parents have a history of drug or physical abuse. The goal in fostering is reunification where the parents must meet certain criteria placed by the state in order to get their children back. We are actually experiencing a crisis because there is a shortage of foster families in the nation and many foster children must sleep at the local child placement offices before a suitable foster family is found.

I am going to be writing blogs of stories from families who are in the adoption process or have adopted already, as well as foster families, in order to bring about a larger awareness of this situation which is an epidemic of enormous proportions.

I invite all questions and comments.

Thank you for reading and please feel free to share.

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