
Eighteen years ago, Sherrie met fellow-adoptee, Jody Moreen. Soon, they discovered the incredible bond they have - in Jesus Christ, and as fellow adoptees. They yearned for other adoptees to experience the same healing that they had. Thus, they began a hard-copy newsletter, believing it would fill a need. Within one year, readership soared 500% and was incorporated as a 501C3 educational organization. We published hard copy for 10 years and then went online.
Today, we offer online friendship - the same that Jody and Sherrie still enjoy - in the form of this online group. The only requirement is that you are an adopted person. Come and join in the conversation, just listen, or whatever. It's a safe, non-judgmental place to make the wonderful discovery that you're not alone - we have many common threads even though our lives are unique.
1. God's heart was the place of our conceptions.
Our lives began, not at conception, not at birth, not on adoption day, but
in eternity past-in the very heart of God Himself. He is our Creator!
Jeremiah 1:5: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" Ephesians 1:4-6:
"For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons
through Jesus Christ, according to His pleasure and will-to the praise of
His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves."
2. God is the only One who gives life-not birth
mothers, as many believe. Birth mothers give the gift of birth and we
are very thankful for their gift, but God receives the glory for all life.
He is Life!
John 1:3-4: "Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made
that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men."
Psalm 139:13: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my
mother's womb."
Esther 9:6b: "You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven
worship You."
3. God originated adoption, but human adoption and
spiritual adoption are not the same. He wants to adopt us!
Ephesians 1: 4-5: "In love He predestined us to be adopted as sons through
Jesus Christ."
4. God says we are all orphans because of our sin
(not loving God with our whole heart and soul, every minute of every day).
We will be orphans for eternity without Him!
Isaiah 59:2: "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your
sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear."
I John 1:10: "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us."
5. God provided a Way when there was no way for us to
enter His family. He sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin by His
death!
John 3: 16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
6. God requires personal trust in Christ's finished
work on the cross to enter His family. He invites us!
Romans 10: 9-11: " if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with
your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, 'Everyone
who trusts in Him will never be put to shame."
7. God knocks on human hearts, wanting to
adopt us. He has a divine appointment with you.
It is not by chance that you are reading this!
Revelation 3:20: "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens
the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."
If God is knocking on your heart's door, you can pray this simple prayer:
"Jesus, I realize that my sin has separated me from You and that I will be
an orphan for eternity without You. Thank You that for paying the price for
my sin when You shed your blood and died on the cross for me. It's hard to
believe that if I were the only person in the world, You would have come for
me, but I take Your great love by faith. Please cleanse me from sin and fill
me with your Holy Spirit. I take Your gift of my adoption into your forever
family by faith. In Jesus' Name, Amen!"
8. God validates the emotional realities of
abandonment.
He doesn't tell us to bite the bullet and go on as if nothing happened. He
is compassionate!
Ezekiel 16: 4-7: "On the day you were born, you were dumped out into a field
and left to die, unwanted."
9. God comes to us in our abandonment.
He is our Helper!
Ezekiel 16: 4-7: "But I came by and saw you lying there, covered with your
own blood."
10. God calls us to Life and declares His
opinion of us. He values us!
Ezekiel 16: 7 " ...and I said, 'Live! Thrive, like a plant in the field!'
And you did! You grew up and became... a jewel among jewels."
11. God planned who our biological and
adoptive parents would be.
He is Lord!
Psalm 139:16: "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before
one of them came to be."
12. God's love is deeper than any life
rejection.
He engraved our names on His hands!
Isaiah 49: 15-16: "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no
compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will never
forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls
are ever before me."
13. God experienced rejection.
He will walk with us if we are rejected!
John 1:11: "He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive
Him."
14. God holds unanswered adoption questions in
His loving hands.
He is trust worthy!
Deuteronomy 29:29: "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the
things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow
all the words of this law."
15. God offers adoptees an awesome legacy.
He wants to be our Father!
Psalm 68:5: "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His
holy dwelling."
16. God promises to hear even the faintest cry
of the orphan. He is sensitive!
Exodus 22:22-24: "Do not take advantage of a widow or orphan. If you do, and
they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry."
17. God preserves the orphan's life.
He is our Protector!
Jeremiah 49:11: "Leave your orphans; I will protect their lives."
18. God has a unique plan for the orphan in
human history.
He is Sovereign!
Esther 2:15: "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for
such a time as this?"
19. God thinks highly of those who help
orphans.
He considers it worship!
James 1:27: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is
this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself
from being polluted by the world."
20. God gladdens the orphan's heart with the
bounty of Providence. He is our Provider!
Deuteronomy 24: 17a, 19: "Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of
justice..."When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf,
do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the
widow, so that the Lord may bless you in all the work of your hands."
21. God opposes unjust laws concerning the
fatherless. He is our Advocate!
Isaiah 10:1-2: "Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue
oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and rob my oppressed
people of justice, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless."
22. God cares tenderly for birth mothers.
He is close to the broken hearted!
Genesis 21: 16b-19: "And as she (Hagar) sat there nearby, she began to sob.
God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven
and said to her, 'What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard
the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand,
for I will make him into a great nation.' Then God opened her eyes and she
saw a well of water."
23. God wants us to offer our broken lives to
Him. He sings over us when we do!
II Chronicles 29:29: "And when the burnt offering began, the song of the
Lord began also, with trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by King
David of Israel."
24. God told Abraham to let go of contentious
birth relatives. He wants us to press on!
Genesis 21:11: "The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned
his son. But God said, 'Do not be so distressed about the boy and your
maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac
that that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maid
servant into a nation also, because he is your offspring."