Our Adoption Journey - 143 Million - Part 1

Part 1 - 143 Million
Part 2 - 2AM Conversation
Part 3 - I thought this would be easier

I was one of those people who believed adoption was for couples with fertility problems. Christa and I could smile at one another and find ourselves in the delivery room 9 months later. We didn't have any trouble making babies (wink).

About 4 months ago God broke my heart for orphan children while at Catalyst Conference. I learned for the first time that there are 143,000,000 orphans in the world. I could barely focus on what the speaker had after hearing that number. How could a worldwide problem be so huge without me knowing about it? Without me becoming consumed with helping any way that I can. I preached many times on the Bible verse that says that true and faultless religion is caring for the needs of orphans and widows but was woefully ignorant of the size of this task. 

I listened as Mac Powell, lead singer for Third Day, told the story of how he and his wife had adopted a baby from the foster care system and others told their story of how they had adopted from foreign countries.



I knew that my pastor friend, Erick, who was sitting next to me at the conference, had adopted, so I asked a few questions about his adoption- being careful not to reveal how crushed I was over the orphan crisis.

On the way home from conferences, a little known fact is that pastors act like middle school boy. Perhaps we act this way more often than this. So in between claiming wafting smells and Pastor Erick lifting his shirt for a truck driver who had a "flash me baby" sign taped to his truck, I learned that
Robert, Erick's worship guy had adopted two children also. As I asked stealthy questions, it began to seem like everyone around me was in some way connected with adoption.

My heart grew heavier for orphaned children with every mile of the ride home from Atlanta. As we traveled late into the night I began to wonder what Christa was going to think of all this!

To be continued.

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