Consider Adoption

My wife, Christine, and I recently adopted a beautiful baby girl from Kansas City, MO. She was born on July 27, 2019, and we named her Isabel June. As I am writing this at 6 AM, I just heard her first “coos” of the day...break for a diaper change!

The name Isabel was chosen based on her birth parents’ wish for her to have the nickname “Izzy,” which means “God is my Oath.” The name June is my wife’s grandmother’s name and is also based on a prophetic picture from Celebration Southeast 2019. While we were walking on a path, we found a single rose. When we googled the meaning of the word “June,” the first phrase that popped up was, ​”The roses flower in June.”

The story of this beautiful baby girl becoming a part of our lives started 28 years ago when my wife and I met in Memphis, Tennessee. We lived across the street from each other when we were 6 and 7 years old. In 1991, we dated as kids (as disturbing as this might sound), had our first kiss in 1996, reconnected in 2002, got married in 2006, and became Christians in 2007.

August 5, 2019, marked a journey of 13 years of unexplained infertility. We never expected that such a fairytale match (we’re talking to Nicholas Sparks right now about a book deal) would have led to such a long journey of anticipation, heartache, and disappointment. The Bible verse that best sums up this part of our lives is Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”

The redeeming part of this story is that we celebrated our thirteenth anniversary during a two-week stay in Kansas City as we prepared to take custody of our new daughter. I’ll never forget the surreal feeling of sitting on the rooftop of the Crossroads Hotel, realizing that we had just adopted a beautiful, healthy baby girl and that our lives would never be the same.

During our adoption process and over the last three months we’ve had Izzy with us, God has given me fresh revelation about his love for me. Galatians 4:6-7 says, “Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’​ ​​So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”

I learned recently that Georgia state law allows biological children to lose their inheritance at the discretion of their parents, but adopted children are guaranteed an inheritance. What a beautiful picture of God’s disposition towards us! By law, no matter how much Izzy decides to “act a fool,” she will never lose her inheritance!

Christine and I talk about how much we love Izzy and how we never understood what love like this felt like until we first held her in our arms. Our love for her is unending. We chose her just like we chose each other. If we ever have biological children, it would never occur to us to love Izzy differently from them. She is OUR DAUGHTER. She will ALWAYS have access to us and NOTHING can separate her from our love. And by Georgia state law, she is GUARANTEED an inheritance.

It is an amazing gift to experience the adopted love of the Father for us first hand. He truly is our Abba!