Spiritual Adoption, Human Adoption, and Russia's Anti-Adoption Policy

As a Foster Parent, who is hoping to adopt four foster children, God has taught me a lot about spritual adoption.  It is truly amazing that God would choose to adopt me, especially when I was an enemy of God.  He did not choose to adopt me because of any merit that I had.  He simply chose to love me and make me a part of His family.  He loves me unconditionally.  By making me a part of His family, I have all of the rights and benefits of being a child of the King.  i have an incredible inheritance, heaven, ahead of us.  I can call the Supreme Being, "Daddy".

Adoption by human parents is a similar way to show God's love.  The children I hope to adopt were not chosen, because of merit.  Often, they misbehave and are not very lovely.  One has even been called "rotten"; I was not even offended because too often the child merits that description.  Yet, I love them anyway, unconditionally.  They get all of the rights and benefits of being a part of my family.  They even get to call me "Daddy".

As I have learned the significance of spiritual adoption, I have gained a greater passion for human adoption.  I love it when people share God's love through adoption.

With this background, my heart is broken to hear that Russia has stopped all Americans from adopting Russian children.  From a human perspective, it is terrible that these children will now remain in orphanages, with very poor care.  Some are disabled and will get very little care in a society that has limited resources for orphans and little interest in disabled children.  My heart breaks for adoptive parents, especially those who were in the the process of adopting.  Many had already visited Russia, met their future child(ren), exchanged pictures, and would finalize the adoption after a waiting period.  Now, these adoptions will not happen.

More importantly, many of these children would have been adopted into Christian homes, heard the gospel in these homes, and accepted Christ as Savior.  Now, many of these children will not get this chance.  I know God is sovereign and He can reach these souls in other ways, but my heart breaks knowing that these children will not be in Christian homes.

I am praying, and urging you to pray, that Russia will change its plans.  I know there are many different causes to pray for; it is impossible to be interested in every cause.  I know my passion should not necessarily become your passion.  But, part of me thinks that God has a special interest in human adoption because the Bible talks so much about spiritual adoption.  In addition, Jesus paid special attention to the little children and the Bible speaks often of caring for orphans.  For these reasons, I hope you will at least pray for these orphans and adopting parents.

For those unfamilar with the adoption situation in Russia, Russia recently stopped all Americans from adopting Russian children.  As I understand it, they claim to have taken this action because some Russian born children have suffered after being adopted by Americans.  I do not know any details, but have read claims that a couple of children died and one child was returned to Russia, alone, on an airplane.  If such things happened, these are tragedies and efforts should be made to proect these children.  In reality, it appears that this is only an excuse for Russia's actions.   Russia's anti-american adoption policy is really political.  I understand the US is going to label Russia a violator human rights.  Russia is responding with this policy.  Meanwhile,  thousands of children are being harmed as Russia uses them as pawns.

I pray that soon the orphans will stop being pawns, can be adopted by Americans who can provide for their physical needs, and share the gospel with them.