I asked a few adoptive families this and have loved reading over their responses. Some of these families are Christian Adoption Consultants families of mine, some are Foster families and some are domestic adoptions.
Meet Christina Vance, I had the honor of working with her family through their adoption journey.
I want to tell you a story about how I’m here tonight rocking a little baby boy. Almost a year ago, a woman in Florida found herself pregnant. It wasn’t expected, it wasn’t planned. But oh how he was wanted. And oh how he was loved. She carried him courageously through every day of her pregnancy. She felt his first kicks, and knew his hiccups. And she was proud and in love on the hot July day when he was born. She was the first to hold him, the first to change him, the first to feed him. She knew the way his tiny hands fit around her finger, and the way he liked to be swaddled just so to sleep. Because of her great love for him, Frankie’s birth mom chose life. Because of her great love for him, I’m rocking him to sleep tonight. Because of her, my boys have another brother. Because of her, we are holding the baby we’ve been longing and praying for. Because of her, we’ve seen smiles and heard the coos of a healthy baby boy. Because of her, we are a family of 5. She chose life, and chose to give our family the most sacrificial gift of love there is. Because of her, there is Frankie. Because of her, I will always #shoutyouradoption -Christina Follow her family on IG @Christinamvance
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Now Meet Mary Fredrich, She is one of those people you feel like you could talk with for hours over coffee even though you have only ever been social media friends. But she has a heart of Gold for God and adoption so I knew we would be friends! Her two sons came to her through the Foster care system and now they have a forever family!
?When I think about what adoption means to me I am brought back to the place where we began. My husband and I got married very young and immediately decided to start the process of building our family. We had always wanted a large family and so we figured why not start while we were young. Fast forward 5 years and no sign of our family growing any time soon. Those 5 years were the hardest in our life but also the most valuable experiences we went through; because through them the Lord moved our hearts and opened our eyes toward adoption. The Lord started preparing our hearts to adopt a year prior to us even pursuing adoption. We began to notice that wherever we went, every message we heard, every scripture we read, every prayer we prayed always brought us back to the place of seeing Jesus as our Father who adopted us. In Ephesians 1:5-8 it says,God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.[a] 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. This passage was what the Lord used to begin the mighty work in our selfish hearts. My husband and I had to be brought to a place of seeing our need for the Lord more than anything in life and through that process He showed us the needs of others. Through adoption we have been made a family, not by blood or by birth but by sacrificial love and every day commitment to each other. When we view adoption through the eyes and perspective of what Jesus did on the cross, how can our hearts not be moved to do the very thing He did for us?? Mary Follow her family on IG at? @Mfred08
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Now meet Rachel Eade and her sweet family! I had the pleasure of working with them to bring their TWINS home through Christian Adoption Consultants
I know that just like the word LOVE or FAMILY mean so many different things to each of us. For some people it is a means to a family. For some people it is a calling. For many it is both. We were blessed with two children I gave birth to. Both unique, completely opposite pregnancies. I knew after the second that I just never wanted to carry another child and our hearts were settled on that. What kept gnawing at us (and when I say us I’m talking about my husband Mike and me) and that was the idea of children being born that were meant to be in our home. Adoption was not something we needed to have a family, it was something we needed to complete our family. Somewhere there was someone who was carrying the babies our hearts were dreaming about.
Adoption means your heart is growing outside your body and outside the walls of your home. Adoption for us was a whole package, we wanted to soak in the story of our children and their birth family. We want to share with everyone the choices and the beauty that lives among the adoption community. The good the tough. Adoption is far gone from the taboo word it used to be, it is as common as you and me. Adoption is a celebration of life. For that, to my adopted children, adoption means? NOTHING. It means they have all the love and all the life that God planned for them when he created them. It means they will grow up to be talented, genuine, happy and healthy individuals and difference makers in society. Adoption means I have four children now, but in my heart and in my head, I always had four children. Rachel Eade, If you would like to follow Rachel’s family on IG check her out here @eade and also check out @adoptinghands
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Now meet Nikki Clowers and her people! She adopted Ria through Domestic adoption at around 13 months of age. Nikki and I met 2 years ago and have added 3 kids (a 4th in 5 days) in that time and a whole lot of memories!
?For our family, adoption was never about rescuing a child from the life they were born into. It was not about convincing, bribing, or bartering with an expectant mother for a child she was capable of parenting. It most definitely was not about seeking a healthy white child to pretend was all ours and only ours. I have said it a countless number of times so let’s just call it our anthem. Adoption for our family was and continues to be about the gospel. It’s our family actively seeking to be a contributing part of God’s ultimate redemption, giving our lives to help blur the lines that divide us with love. Adoption is hard. It is full of broken, lonely, and heavy. But with, and only with, the love and grace of our Father adoption is soul renewing. It’s a new beginning for an old story. It’s beauty from ashes. Our God is in the miracle business and our heartgrown daughter is truly that, our miracle. She alone brought 2 families together. 2 families that never would have been had she not been born into it, had she not been placed in our arms from the strong arms of her birth mother. She is the missing piece that both of our hearts needed. Because of her, because of adoption our lives are whole. Follow along Nikki and her family on IG here @heartgrownbabylove
Adoption Story: Justin + Stephanie
Adoption Story: Jason and Crystal