One of my dreams in life is to start some kind of a support system through the local church for couples who desire to adopt but don’t have the financial means to do so. I can only guess the desire comes from personal experience as a couple who experienced multiple infertility treatments and then adoption costs which can suck a purse dry. It was worth every penny and we didn’t feel we were poor stewards of our money (“poor” maybe, but not poor stewards). We were fortunate to have parents who loaned us the money, interest free, for each hefty expense. God always provided a way for us. I was working a full time job when we entered a $10K round of IVF. Each month we made a $500 payment to my parents until the debt was paid off. We did the same thing when we borrowed another 10K for adoption expenses. That time around I was not working full time so it took longer to pay it off but we did. We never took it lightly that we had a debt that large and we wanted it off of us badly. We were able to pay each adoption off in full in a reasonable amount of time. I give God complete praise that we are debt free. That’s not easy to say with years of infertility and two adopted children. I recognize that for every couple like us, who had gracious lenders, there are many that do not have that kind of support available to them. And sometimes that translates into those couples never having children because they simply don’t have the money up front. Adoption agencies do not loan money or offer price breaks for incomes below a certain level. There are very few grant options out there for potential adoptive couples. And most churches are swamped with their own budgets accomplishing good things. We were blessed to find two agencies that only charged $10K. That is an excellent price compared to many agencies out there. International adoption starts at $25K so you can see how this can really strap a person financially.
I’m not sure what the answer is to this financial issue but I often wonder if the church could ever help couples in this area. It’s sort of ironic that God adopts us into his family as we put our faith in him so I can’t help but think He is totally for adoption! Of course earthly adoption is different than spiritual adoption but what an interesting parallel for us…God takes us in knowing that we didn’t choose him but he chose us to be a part of his family. He bestows grace on us. He takes us out of the sinful pit we were born in and redeems us by his sacrificial and unconditional love. He even has an inheritance awaiting us. The ironic thing is that it took much more than money to adopt us. It literally cost him his life. Wow, he was serious about his love for us and he did what it took to carry out that adoption plan in full. If God was this serious about adoption I just wonder if there’s a place for the local church to be committed to helping those who desire to adopt.
I want to say that I recognize that this is close to me because it once effected me. I also don’t want to come across as saying it’s the churches responsibility or obligation to help couples with their financial needs in adopting. That is not at all what I’m saying. I just think it could be a really neat ministry opportunity for churches on a more regular basis. I know some churches already do this to a degree and I think that is so awesome.
So yeah, I’m a little biased towards adoption but so is God so I feel pretty good about that.
Leave a Reply