Instant Adoption

Do you know how wonderful it is that our adoption by God is instantaneous?

 

I wish that the adoption laws of men worked like the salvation of God. You see, the adoption process can take what feels like an eternity for adoptive parents. On Aug  22, 2012 God brought a little boy to my husband’s attention. I was in a little bit of a panic when he told me about this eight month old boy in Korea that needed a family. After much prayer, God made it obvious that He was calling us to adopt this little boy.

We spent six months filling out paperwork for various US agencies and having our home study completed. On Feb. 2, 2013 we went to our agency and signed the papers that were going to Korea. Then we waited. Every few months our case worker in Korea would send us health updates and include three pictures. We waited some more. Our file was in Korea, but not moving anywhere. In fact it wasn’t even submitted to the department that deals with adoptions.

Every six months, representatives from our agency visited Korea and they would bring back a video of our son. Those were the most bitter sweet videos to watch. We saw him growing up before our eyes. It was precious to watch him, and hear him giggle, but pure torture too.

It took over a year from the time that we sent our file to Korea to the time that it was submitted to the right governmental department. Then more waiting as we held our breath for two months to find out we’d been approved.

Next our file was submitted to the family court system for review. That took a week. Then another two weeks to be issued a court date for three weeks later. We had to travel to Korea to appear in court and answer any questions that the judge had. Then we waited with baited breath to hear that we had initial approval of the adoption. That was quick to come at a mere six days later. We couldn’t take custody of our son until we had final approval, but once that was issued, eighteen days later, the adoption was final and he was our son. We chose to make travel plans three weeks from the initial approval so that we could take our daughter, who is also adopted from Korea, and spend some time showing her around Seoul. Thankfully, final approval was issued on Oct. 10, 2014 four days before we left for Korea. On the 20th we received the adoption decree and picked up our son, officially adding him to our family.

Why did I tell you all of this? Well, I’m so thankful that our adoption into God’s family is instantaneous. We don’t have to fill out any paper work because we were already bought with a price. (1 Cor. 6:20) We don’t have to wait for months on end, hoping to be approved by God. Our file isn’t sitting somewhere collecting dust until God gets around to it.

Just like we received the adoption decree, God tells us that we have been sealed for the day of redemption. (Eph. 4:30) Our adoption is final the moment we ask for forgiveness. I’m so glad that God doesn’t use red tape.

This is our first family photo, taken in the airport. If we look a little frazzled, I blame jet lag.

Unfortunately, this will be my last blog post, at least for a while. Our adopted son is our fifth child and it's important for me to spend my time bonding with him. I hope to rejoin the blog at some point. I will continue to write and perhaps when I have more time, I'll have plenty of thoughts to share. 

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