Areas of concern

This one's gonna be tough. There are some underlying issues with this adoption that need to be addressed and some confessions that well, need to be confessed. My prayer is that God uses this post to reach into the far corners of the heart and sheds light on an area (or two) of discomfort. Two areas of concern here: finances and skin color.

"You have $20,000 worth of credit card debt and $250,000 worth of student loans. You need a new refrigerator, dishwasher, and your house is desperate for a paint job, what business do you have in adopting a child right now?" "You'll have plenty of money in the future, can't you just wait?" "Why do you have to be so impatient and impulsive?"

These are the words and thoughts of concerned family members. But do they worry because they don't trust our judgment? Or because they don't have faith that God will provide? Or because deep down they're afraid they will have to bail us out? Finances have always been tricky for us. I've explained the cost of the 13 residency interviews. I've mentioned the cost of moving across the country. There's also a price for me to stay at home with kiddos. Not to say we're smart with our money and haven't made mistakes, we certainly have. But we don't shop much or go on vacations often, or whatever else people spend money on. In fact, our biggest spending problem is food. Lots, and lots of food. I'm sure each of you have that same problem, eh? Now obviously, being that far behind isn't where anyone wants to stay long. Carey's working as many extra shifts as possible to play catch up and I babysit. Kind of. Well, not really. I keep our little friend 1 day a week and get paid entirely too much. Anyway, when God began putting adoption on our heart a year ago we were told to take care of debt. Several agencies recommended that we have a positive net worth before adopting. WHAT??? This was bitter sweet for us because it let us off the hook. We can't adopt right now anyway, might as well carry on with our comfortable life and avoid inconveince, sacrifice, and having to deny ourselves some of life's little pleasures.

But God wouldn't accept our excuses and made sure we saw it. Carey couldn't avoid adoption stories at work and they were in every magazine I picked up. God wouldn't accept our previous spending as an excuse. Even when the odds were against us, our adoption application was approved.

Now friends are fighting for our fundraising cause and money is coming in to cover the cost of this adoption. We can't help but to sit back and look at how God has been faithful in moving mountains so far. He's asked us to just show up and let Him work. When you have a God that does the impossible, are you really going to tell Him it's not the right time or I don't have enough saved for retirement? Show me where God mentions retirement in the Bible and I'll show you His commands to care for orphans. Prove to me that God prefers that we be debt-free before reaching out to others. Our transformation requires that we follow Jesus and try to live as he did. It's been clear to us that God isn't worried about our debt or how financially insecure we are. He's concerned for every single person that we're going to impact for His glory during this journey. He's concerned for those who are going to be called to give big and trust Him. For the Muslim on the plane next to us when we fly to Ethiopia. A non-believing facebook friend reading every status update. A social worker. A neighbor. He's concerned about growing our faith when the odds are stacked against us. And He's concerned with an orphan in Ethiopia. It boils down to this: God made it our business to adopt despite our financial situation. Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!