A Call to Adopt this Mother's Day!

It has been almost 3 months since we first held our beautiful, mischievous, curious, amazing little boy in our arms at a Civil Affairs Office in the Henan Province of China.  And they have been some of the most exhausting months of my life!  There have been days and minutes and months that I felt so overwhelmed by this beautiful call God has given me to mother my 3 young children, one who has endured more than he is able to understand, that I could hardly believe God actually entrusted me with this task!  I still find it hard to believe sometimes! 

With that being said, this Mother's Day, I want to encourage you to seek God and ask if there is indeed 'room at your table' for a waiting orphan.  I know many are not in a position to adopt and I encourage you to seek other ways to fulfill the command of James 1:27 to 'look after widows and orphans in their distress.'  But, those who ARE in a position to adopt, please ask God to help you lay down your life for the child or children who are to become yours.  I know it is overwhelming and it seems impossible!  On one particularly difficult day last month (well, it's even hard to know which are 'particularly' difficult sometimes!), Josiah walked up to me and handed me a card with a Bible verse on it that he had found on the floor.  It said 'With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible' (Matthew 19:26).  Looking at the context of this verse, Jesus is telling His disciples how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  He had just told a self-righteous rich person to sell all he had and come follow Him, but when the rich man heard this 'he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.'  Friends, don't go away sorrowful, weighed down by your great possessions that will fade away and eventually disappear.  Give your life for the life of a waiting child!  Because when he or she officially enters your family, that child instantly becomes yours!  Josiah is no longer an orphan.  He is a Simpson.  Tomorrow we will have his Child Dedication Service at church in which Ricky and I formally dedicate our lives to pointing Josiah to his Creator and our beautiful Savior Jesus Christ!  He is our son and we love him with all of ourselves.

Please take time tomorrow to pray for the millions and millions of orphans around the world.  Sometimes I grow weary of hearing arguments about 'just how many orphans there are.'  The UNICEF number of over 150,000 million are 'vulnerable' children in the world.  True orphans, trafficked children, and those on the streets are often not even counted in 'official totals.'  Let's lay down useless arguments and welcome our children into our homes!  Tomorrow, Josiah will celebrate his first Mother's Day with his mom.  And in the midst of my weariness and self-doubt and inadequacies, I could not be more thankful and humbled to carry that beautiful title.