When you begin to look into adoption one of the first questions you will be asked and will ask yourself is what are you willing to consider as far as age and special needs. Age is considered a category of special needs as well. You have to honestly evaluate yourself, your home, your family and decide. And that can be hard, really hard. How do you look at the faces of children and turn around and say, “Not that one. She is beyond my capabilities?” How do you even know what you are capable of handling? How do you even know what a specific special need would entail?
This is the first in a series of posts you will see weekly to help in some of those choices. I am connecting with parents that have adopted children with specific special needs and interviewing them so you can have a bird’s eye view of what parenting a similar child would look like. We’re going to talk daily life changes, insurance, medical payments to expect and the joys that come with loving these children.
Adoption is not for everyone. It simply isn’t. Orphan care is most definitely for everyone who calls on the name of Christ, but not adoption. Adoption of children with special needs is not for everyone either. Pray long and hard before making that choice, but know this. You are not capable of this journey. You never will be. God gives you the strength for the journey He has for you. He will strengthen your heart. Adoption is a journey of learning to trust the Father and this is the first step of many. Trust Him. Follow His calling on your heart.
Instead of asking yourself if you can handle this I challenge you. Ask yourself rather this. As you turn your head away, as you change your browser back to Facebook are you willing to tell that child to stay there in that orphanage? Can you live with the fact that your “no” condemns them to one more day without love and for some of them a lifetime of horror, some of them death? Is your comfort worth the cost? Our collective “no’s” have condemned them. May our collective yes be the start of their redemption, their rescue. May we rise up and love as Christ loves us.
Prepare yourself for the next few weeks. I am hoping that many of you will find yourself falling in love with some of these pictures and realizing that you really could handle this. I am desperately praying that God will use this series to shed some light on the feared unknowns and that at least one person reading this finds themself on the road of adoption because of it. God moves strongly in orphan care, so if you are reading and wondering, know this; I am praying for you. I am praying that you will no longer be able to close your eyes. I am praying that your life is turned upside down and that you give up your worries, concerns, and reasons and go bring one of these sweet kids home. Go! They are waiting for you to say yes. Say yes! Go!
Say yes to this one!
Special Need: Blind
Year of birth 1999
And This One
Special Need: Thalassemia
Year of birth:2007
(There is a massive blood shortage in China and
these children are dying if not adopted. Go, go, go!)
This one
Special Need: Albinism
Year of Birth: 2011
Have mercy ya’ll. If you don’t I will!
Look at that adorableness.
--Katie
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