Learning About Adoption – How And Why?
Most people rely on the media (newspapers, TV shows, magazines, and movies) for their knowledge of adoption. Of course, these resources are in business to make money, and bad stories sell. Isolated tales of baby-selling, child abuse, and fraud prove more eye-catching, and thus more profitable, than the typical adoption case. So, prevailing conceptions of adoption are inaccurate and skewed.
But why should Christians care about how the public views adoption? The answer may surprise followers of Jesus because all of them are adopted. Romans 8:15 states they have been adopted to sonship. How mind-blowing to recognize Christians as members of God’s family and His heirs just like a legally adopted child from the American legal system.
Viewing adoption as “unbiblical” is troubling. The Bible, in fact, contains several adoption stories. Pharoah’s daughter adopted Moses. Mordecai adopted his orphaned cousin Esther, who later became Queen Esther. Mary’s husband Joseph raised Jesus as his own son. Attorneys, judges, and courtrooms played no part in these stories, but individuals treating a nonbiological child as their own own do.
Did God have a plan in each of these Bible stories of adoption? Leading His people out of slavery in Egypt? Preventing His people from slaughter by decree of the king Esther married? Saving men from their sins by sending Jesus to live on earth and die to provide for their salvation? These biblical accounts establish adoption served an intentional part of God’s goals for the future. Why wouldn’t that intentionality accompany earthly adoptions as well? The Bible offers stories showing how God’s long-term plans may be fulfilled by use of adoption. Rather than being unbiblical, earthly adoption is embraced in the Bible.
Connection Between Adoption And Faith
An inextricable connection exists between adoption and faith. God abundantly proved that conclusion to me during the thirty-five years I practiced as a Florida adoption attorney. Each of the hundreds, and likely into the thousands, of cases in which I was involved showed God’s hand and His presence. Further, these experiences taught me numerous important faith lessons, not just about adoption, but about God Himself.
Just as adoption may add to a better understanding of God and faith, a better understanding of adoption comes through faith too. This better grasp may come in several ways. For example, faith often provides a motivation for adoption. If God’s family can be expanded through a non-biological process, the same holds true for human families. And, since God is love as 1 John 4:8 says, believers may be prompted to care for children in need of a forever family—both earthly and heavenly. The Bible expressly encourages Christians to care for orphans in James 1:27. Thus, faith confirms adoption as an acceptable tool to expand a family.
Faith Helps Navigate The Adoptive Process
Riding a roller coaster aptly describes the adoption process. The individuals involved may not be physically whipped about, but their emotions take a wild ride. Having faith and trusting in God’s purposes no matter what the result helps people navigate an adoption. Christians know God never forsakes them and remains with them even during the ups and downs of this process. And, of course, that presence continues throughout all of life, not simply during the pendency of an adoption case.
The process continues after the judge signs a final decree of adoption. The “forever family” must grapple with the emotional issues an adoption raises. For example, an adoptee may feel abandoned by a birth parent or “less than” because not a biological child of the parents raising him. The Bible offers stories showing how God’s long-term plans may be fulfilled by use of adoption. Recognizing all believers are adopted helps bring perspective. Certainly emotional hurts are experienced, but knowing a true family is based on love sheds light on the legally- formed family.
Shedding Light On Adoption
Adoption is a highly confidential legal process often shrouded in secrecy. Privacy concerns inhibit the ability of non-participants to truly understand what happens during such a case. While each situation is unique, I can offer some general observations based on my experience. Adoption involves emotions, turmoil, and struggle. Genuine love typically prompts the decision to adopt a child or to place a child for adoption. Adoptions frequently arise from difficult, messy situations for both adoptive parents (infertility, miscarriages) and biological parents (addiction, mental health issues, assault). Despite negative experiences in the mix, God uses adoption to bring about some good.
To help the general public grasp the truth about adoption and how God is intimately wrapped up in it, I turned to my passion for writing. My time as an insider of the adoption process uniquely positioned me to convey information on and insight about it Much like John in Revelation 1:11, I felt God calling me to write what I saw. And what I saw handling adoptions included some heart-warming, miraculous, and heart-breaking things.
Writing What I Saw
As a result of my writing efforts, my “book baby,” God Adopted Us First: Faith Lessons From An Adoption Attorney’s Adventures, released October 7, 2025. The book recounts forty true tales of my firsthand experiences. Readers find out for themselves that no two cases are alike and are exposed to various situations and participant perspectives.
While the stories are entertaining (making a baby placement in a Pizza Hut parking lot, being trapped in the jail where the birth father was incarcerated during a power outage, etc.), they are educational. They inform not only about the adoption process but about how faith factors into it. A devotion follows each of these eye-opening tales emphasizing a faith lesson I learned as a result. To ensure the lesson extends beyond a quick read, a section called “Baby Steps To Growing Faith,” with prompts for the reader to use in their own life wraps up each adventure.
Celebrate Being Touched By Adoption
Handling adoption cases over three plus decades opened my eyes not only to the realities of adoption, but to God’s presence permeating these situations. Faith and adoption go hand in hand because God adopted us first. Pick up a hanky, pick up the book, and pick up on the connection between adoption and faith for everyone, not just those who have navigated the legal process in the US court system. And celebrate National Adoption Month because, as Christians, we are touched by adoption.
Adoptees Share Their Perspective of Adoption
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In