I know how difficult it is to want children and not have them. God, in His amazing great wisdom, has made many provisions for us all — including, as you know, good works prepared in advance. And you know that James tells us that we are to look after orphans and widows in their distress. I believe that childless couples are God’s answer to the inevitable orphans in the world. Those of us who long for children can be so blessed by those children who long for parents, and the children are likewise blessed by parents who love them so.

My husband and I adopted three children from Asia. It has been the best thing we’ve ever done. Our daughter would have grown up in a Chinese orphanage, with no family name, and would have likely become either a prostitute or a laborer (she’s very pretty, so probably the former). Our sons watched their mother die in the tent they lived in in Vietnam, and went begging at the ages of 5 and 3. They also would have grown up in poverty in a country that oppresses Christians.

I will forever be grateful to God for giving us these precious children, and to my husband for giving to me what I wished so much I could have given to him — children.

May God bless you in all your doings, and may all your doings bless God.

Pam

God has obviously created us infertile. Is there a wisdom in it we can’t et see, and so should we not circumvent that through adoption?

Would we ultimately be ‘using’ the child to fulfill our own needs / desires to parent and be loved as a parent. I think I would also be asking myself if my actions we entirely altruistic.

But you excerpt has stimulated my thinking more than the book I am currently reading, thanks

Thanks for posting the excerpt! I looking forward to reading the book, and I pray that it both encourages many brothers and sisters in the gospel and spurs many families into gospel action through adoption.

Mike

I’ve never been to Russia, but did visit Ukraine in January of 1995 on a short term missions trip. The poverty and general “grayness” of the people was astounding. We were there to visit a bible college — and I still remember one young man who only had one set of clothes to his name, and a young family who had spent nearly a week on a train from Siberia to come to the school. And the church we went to on Sunday morning - a 3-hour long service and the place was filled beyond capacity. When the chairs ran out, they stood along the walls and out into the entry. No one complained about the length, not even the little ones who sat quietly playing near the Christmas tree that still stood to the side (this was January).

What a marvelous picture of our poverty, relative to our adopted wealth and our good Father you have shown us. Thank you.

Kamilla

P.S. I think you’re wrong about Russian food - but I make the best Stroganoff this side of the Dneiper, so I’m a bit prejudiced.

Jeff