Christians Still Have to Care About Adoption

by Michael Wear

I will never forget my first National Adoption Month at The White House. Federal government agencies are not typically known for emotionally compelling events, but this was different. In an auditorium at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, adoption advocates, adoptive families, policymakers and media watched in tears as Secretary Kathleen Sebelius presided over the adoption ceremonies of sixteen-year-old Dominique and Emma, an energetic two-year-old who had a chronic inflammatory condition of her esophagus. Out of the foster care system, Dominique and Emma now had their “forever families.”

Adoption typically carries great meaning for those it has touched directly, but for others adoption may not be something they think about often or deeply. But raising awareness about adoption is important. It’s important for the over 100,000 young people in the United States in foster care who are waiting for adoption. It’s important for the millions of orphans around the world in need of a family. For all people, adoption is a testimony to a familial love that can create new possibilities for family, and that has implications that extend far outside of adoption alone.

These are some of the reasons I am so appreciative of the fact that our federal government recognizes the month of November as National Adoption Month. Taken as a whole, the idea of federally recognized days, weeks and months is a generally ridiculed idiosyncrasy of our government. Yet, at least in this case, National Adoption Month is effective as a promise that for at least one month a year, we will be reminded of adoption, moved to consider what it means in our lives, our nation and our world, and what we can do to strengthen it.

Adoption is literally everywhere in November, largely due to this federal recognition. In a concrete way, National Adoption Month serves as an impetus for policy actions and awareness events in the public and private sector. Advocacy groups will host special receptions, or begin new campaigns. On National Adoption Day (which takes place every November), communities come together to raise awareness and support those in foster care waiting for a permanent family. The president, governors and mayors across the country (See President Obama’s 2012 Proclamation here) release proclamations that lift up the importance of adoption and report on policy actions they are pursuing to address the issue. Which means he better have something to say about how his administration has supported adoption issues.

When I served at The White House, November provided the opportunity to host awareness events where senior government officials, adoption advocates and adoptive families would gather to look back on the previous year’s successes and share our plans on how to move forward. On several occasions, such as that first National Adoption Month with Dominique and Emma in 2009, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services presided over the ceremonial adoption of several youth from the foster care system. These events and actions send a powerful cultural message that adoption is a positive and legitimate way to build a family.

Less concretely, but no less important, National Adoption Month also provides a regular opportunity to face several important truths. Adoption is an unavoidable testament to the power and centrality of family. Family is irreplaceable. It reaches down into the nooks and crannies of a person in a way no government or social service program can. Second, adoption is a reminder of our moral obligations to one another and the importance of community. While social Darwinism might excuse leaving orphans or those legally separated from their parents to fend for themselves, a moral person—and irrefutably a well-formed Christian worldview—cannot. National Adoption Month is not only a reminder of the value of adoption, but of the responsibility we have to care for and help provide opportunity to those without the ties of biological family in this country and around the world. These obligations are addressed when we mentor foster youth or support adoptive and foster families in our community by offering to carpool or babysit. They are met when our churches commit to making adoption information available to their members, and to supporting adoptive families in their congregation and their community. They are also met through government programs like the Adoption Tax Credit, AdoptUSKids, the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program, and the efforts of the State Department’s Office for Children’s Issues that works to make sure international adoption laws are followed so American families can pursue international adoptions (yes, each international adoption is essentially an act of diplomacy).

Finally, for Christians and for all people, adoption is a reflection of a supernatural reality. It’s a witness to the fact that we live in a fallen world, and an imperfect reflection of the perfecting kingdom work of restoration that is underway today, in the here and now. Paul writes in Ephesians that “Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ” (The Message). In Galatians, Paul advances the radical notion that “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (NIV). Adoption, and therefore National Adoption Month, points us toward a self-evident love that is not based in shared lineage or ethnicity or background.

As National Adoption Month comes to a close, my hope for the rest of the year is that when we are presented with reminders of adoption we are moved to have conversations about the importance of family and our obligations to one another, and to take concrete action to support adoption wherever and however we can. Most of all, my prayer is adoption will remind us all of this self-evident love of God, and that we love only because He loved us first. Then, let us find new ways to love as an overflow of that abundance.

If you or a family you know is considering adoption, visit AdoptionJourney.org to find resources and a community that can help as you walk down this path.

Editor's Note: Image by Keoni Cabral.

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