Today is day eight of #AskBetterQuestions. In just a few days Amanda and I will be at CAFO2015. As we prepare for this gathering, we want to engage families, churches, leaders and influencers who are passionate about adoption and orphan care to stop and ask better questions. We would love for you to join in the conversation! While most Christians focus on...
It's the fifth day of #AskBetterQuestions. As we prepare for CAFO2015, we want to engage the families, churches, leaders and influencers in a conversation about adoption and orphan care. Today on the In Defense of the Fatherless blog, we have a guest post from Mary Hoyt. Mary adopted a child from DRC in 2011. Today she is a passionate advocate for alternative care...
Today is the third day of #AskBetterQuestions. In the days leading up to CAFO2015, We want to engage the families, churches, leaders and influencers who are passionate about adoption and orphan care to stop and ask better questions. We would love for you to join in the conversation! One of the primary ways Christians are responding to the global orphan crisis...
What is the Biblical foundation for adoption and orphan care? Is it James 1:27, which calls orphan care “pure and faultless” religion? Is it the doctrine of adoption – that God has “predestined us for adoption” (Romans 8:15) and promised us a “glorious inheritance” (Ephesians 1:18) through Jesus Christ? Or does the Biblical foundation for orphan care and adoption run deeper? I am...
[caption id="attachment_881" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Our adopted daughter Gabrielle and her brother Zephaniah sharing a moment looking out at our garden.[/caption] What is the Biblical foundation for orphan care? Is it James 1:27, which calls orphan care "pure and faultless" religion? Is it the doctrine of adoption - that God has "predestined us for adoption" (Romans 8:15) and promised us a "glorious inheritance" (Ephesians 1:18)...
[caption id="attachment_872" align="alignleft" width="400"] This is my adopted daughter Ella, now 2.5 years old.[/caption] I want to start by saying I am thankful for Jen Hatmaker, a Christian adoptive mom and writer. She's the author of one of the most thought-provoking books I have read this year, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. She has a huge platform - and something...
Our children are not our own. This was the hard truth we learned over the last four years. Early in the process of praying, learning, discerning God's will. Were we called to adopt? We knew we could not have any more babies the old-fashioned way. My pregnancies were too high risk. Just one year earlier, our son Zephaniah was born more than...
This blog has been a little quiet lately. I know. It is hard to balance writing a book, parenting four little children, working full-time, living overseas, and sending my husband off to grad school. Does that list make you feel anxious? I have to breathe deeply when I consider everything on my plate right now to keep from feeling overwhelmed....
There are 163 million orphans in the world today. 163 million children who have experienced the death of their mother or father. Or both. Most of the world's orphans still live with their families and in their communities. But the loss of a parent makes a family vulnerable to poverty and injustice. This is why the Bible calls Christians to provide and...
Over the last six months, I've been writing my book, In Defense of the Fatherless. My book takes a hard look at corruption in international adoption - and how we as Christians should respond. The Bible is clear that we are called to protect and provide for orphans, widows and the least of these. I have been wrestling with the question:...
As a follow up to my post about Orphans and Adoption in Uganda yesterday, I wanted to share a few ways to get involved. I also wanted to clarify one thing. One person said she agreed with what I wrote until then end where I said "consider adopting older and special needs kids." In saying this, I do not want to...
One. As I was reading through Matthew 25 yesterday, a word jumped out at me. It is a word that has always been there, but that caught my attention in a new way. As I have been studying God's heart for the fatherless and the others whom Jesus calls "the least of these", I have been reading again through the hundreds of...