Ethiopia & Adoption

We’re home… and they’re home. And after all the trials of adopting, we’re really excited about that.

It’s been difficult to summarize our adoption experience, and as a result, I’ve been fairly quiet on the matter. But, if anyone had told me 2 years ago that I’d be writing this post today, and be as excited as I am about doing it, I would thought they were crazy.

Our reason for adopting, as strange as it may sound, is sin. Adoption exists because of sin. In a sinless world, no child  would be left an orphan. There would be no disease, or famine, or war to take away their parents. There would be no poverty or destruction to force parents into the difficult decision of feeding their children, or taking care themselves. And there would be no abandonment, or abduction, or trafficking, to rob children of their future. Adoption only exists because sin does.

However, if there were no such thing as sin, it would also mean there would be no need for an even greater redemptive force in the world – and the contrast between the two is more beautiful than an absence of both. When sin is defeated, which is what Christ does, sin looks all the more sinful, and Grace looks all the more glorious. That’s what Jesus did by way of the cross (Col. 2:15), and that’s what adoption aims to do in terms of redemption; namely, adoption makes God and His grace look great.

While we were in Ethiopia, I had my video camera confiscated in customs because it was “too professional” – so we were only able to get a little footage using the video mode on a point-and-shot camera. Thankfully, our photographer, travel companion, and good friend, Rowan Gillson, (Whom many of you should hire for your next international adventure) was able to get past customs with his stills kit intact. Out of all the images we took throughout the week, this one stands out in my mind as the most representative of our view of adoption.

I love the contrast between shadow and light. I love the joy in my son’s step. I love to know that they’ll never be orphans again – and most of all, I love to be reminded that I too have been adopted by Christ and welcomed into His marvelous light.

Marvelous Light, Words and Music by Charlie Hall, Six Step Records

I once was fatherless,
a stranger with no hope;
Your kindness wakened me,
Awakened me, from my sleep

Your love it beckons deeply,
a call to come and die.
By grace now I will come
And take this life, take your life.

Sin has lost it’s power,
death has lost it’s sting.
From the grave you’ve risen
Victoriously!

Into marvelous light I’m running,
Out of darkness, out of shame.
By the cross you are the truth,
You are the life, you are the way

My dead heart now is beating,
My deepest stains now clean.
Your breath fills up my lungs.
Now I’m free. now I’m free!

Welcome home boys, you are truly loved. Forever.