As we walk through this time together, God has given us different Bible passages that have encouraged us in our journey toward adoption:
- Ephesians 4:15-16 NIV "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." This is our wedding text and speaks to the goal of our marriage and our family - that we will each grow up into Christ as we support each other. We pray that each child God blesses us with in our family will truly feel joined together within our family, that we will be a family that supports and loves one another as we grow in Christ.
- James 1:27 NIV "...to look after orphans and widows in their distress..." - indeed, we are called to care for the widows and orphans on this earth.
- Psalm 68:5-6a NIV "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families."
- Ephesians 1:4-6 NIV "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."
- Matthew 28:19-20 NIV "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." What better way to go and make disciples, than to bring children into our home and raise them up to know and serve the Lord, that they too may go out and spread the good news. As Russell Moore states in his book Adopted for Life (p.75): "What better way is there to bring the good news of Christ than to see his unwanted little brothers and sisters placed in families where they'll be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?"
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Psalm 139: 13-17 NIV "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!" What a beautiful assurance, that God already knows the little one that he will bring into our family and that he has a plan for their life!
- Deuteronomy 10:18 NIV "He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing."
