International Adoption

The Spirit of Adoption
A Letter from Tony Brewer

Love initiates, animates and completes adoption. Adoption love is the type of love that compels one to move out of comfort zones, that causes one to sacrifice, that causes one to give. It is the type of love that is most starkly obvious in the face of the direst need. Love is the spirit of adoption.

The greatest historical example of love initiating, animating and completing adoption in the face of need is that of God adopting us into His family through Jesus Christ. Indeed, the concept of adoption is closely related to the concept of family. The word adoption means to "set one in place as a son or daughter – with all the rights and privileges of a son or daughter." Without Christ, we are separated from God surely in dire need. In Christ, we are in union with God and His love. We are part of His family. We are "set in the place of a son or daughter – with all the rights and privileges of a son or daughter."

From my work at A Helping Hand, I conclude that our agency's greatest asset is its adoptive parents. Why this conclusion you might ask? It is because I have observed in adoptive parents a measure and reflection of the love that God has demonstrated in Christ. I have seen in them that redemptive love that moves out of comfort zones, that sacrifices and that gives. You see, in the adoption of a foreign born child, there are unknowns. The birth parents' medical histories are unknown. The type and degree of prenatal care provided the child is unknown. Foreign languages, cultures, and food are unfamiliar. And there are financial costs too, and paperwork to be done. Time and time again by the score, however, I have seen adoptive parents, compelled by love, look beyond the unfamiliar and see beyond the difficulties. Because of their love, the unfamiliar is less unnerving, the difficulties manageable and the financial costs bearable. They see only the child – their child – and who that child is and will become. They see all his or her potential, all his or her gifts, and all his or her value. They see it all at once. By their love expressed in adoption they, "set the child in the place of a son or daughter – with all the rights and privileges of a son or daughter."

Would you like to open your heart and home to a foreign-born child and make that child your own? Is it right for you? If so, allow us to inform you and lend you A Helping Hand.

Sincerely in Christ,

Tony Brewer
A Helping Hand Adoption Agency