Yahoo for Adoption!

Over the last 10 months I have read at minimum four books on the subject of adoption. From foster care stories to children raised in group homes (modern American version of orphanages), to families adopting internationally or from the state, to adoption manuals and handbooks, I am hungry to learn more and hear more stories.

I feel that I have learned a great deal from the books I have read, gained perspectives I did not previously possess, added some tools to my belt for the future, and stimulated my motivations and passions for adoption 100-fold. 

The one I turned the last page on last night is Handbook on Thriving as an Adoptive Family: Real-Life Solutions to Common Challenges, by David and Renee Sanford. It is an excellent compilation via Focus on the Family of writings on the process of adoption from infancy to adulthood as a guidebook. There were too many details to recount, but it was and will be quite useful. The first book on adoption I read last winter or spring to get this all rolling in my brain in literary form was by Jayne E. Schooler and Thomas C. Atwood called The Whole Life Adoption Book: Realistic Advice for Building a Healthy Adoptive Family. This book as well is a sort of handbook for adoptive families that is often an adoption agency requirement to read and could be utilized regularly throughout parenting an adopted child. I realized Focus on the Family is an incredible and invaluable resource after our church had a Wait No More conference (see icareaboutorphans.com) and the caliber of those involved as well as the community they pulled together, lists of resources and connections, and stack of free books they provided attendees.

I read a few others that were more personal stories of a man adopted and a woman who adopted four children from the state with her husband. I know that more books will come, but for now I am getting back into a little classic fiction reading Anne of Avonlea. Thank you, LM Montgomery for writing more of a fairytale version that is quite believable about an orphan girl who would be difficult to adopt in the US too, but is so beloved by many for decades.

Adoption is so beautiful to me. I understand more and more how caring for the orphaned is a deep cry of God's heart for us as His children. Afterall, He adopted us into His family. He is the ultimate adoptive parent to model the pattern of foster and adoptive care after. I feel deeply proud of God's example to care for those without a family or home or without an appropriate nurturing family or safe home. To say I look forward to being a part of this movement is an understatement. I love that, when the time comes, our church is so deeply supportive and thrilled to serve and support us. One of their main initiatives is orphan care and finding orphans homes, resources, and love from Kenya to Kent to Kirkland. 

Here's to another child finding a home in Kirkland someday! And to fantastic stories about a girl named Anne!