Interview with Jennifer Grant: When God Told Us to Adopt

Earlier today, I ran a guest post from Jennifer Grant. I also had the opportunity to interview Jennifer after reading her new book, Love You More: The Divine Surprise of Adopting My Daughter.

How did you and your husband decide you wanted to adopt?

In Love You More, I wrote: “. . . the idea of adopting a child lingered in me like a song you cannot get out of your head. I felt like someone was missing. After the miscarriage, I could not shake the feeling that my kids were meant to have another sibling. As the fourth and youngest child in my own family, I sometimes felt like I was waiting for our fourth to come home and complete our family picture.”

And then I had an experience – a mystical one, really, that I describe in the book. It felt almost like God had sent me a certified letter announcing that we would adopt.

What were the greatest challenges you faced in adopting Mia?

Once we had accepted her referral and had a name, a picture – a specific daughter out there in the world – it was miserable to have to wait to bring her home. It was an emotionally draining time and one in which I learned – at least a little bit – to let go of control, live with uncertainty, and trust God in new ways.

In your book, you anticipate a question many people ask: Why did you decide to adopt internationally rather than domestically?

When my husband and I began the adoption process, I felt certain that God would nudge us toward the country, the agency, and the program that would lead us directly to our child, wherever she was. I believe if God had wanted us to adopt domestically – as several of my friends have done – we would have felt the pull to do so. But the daughter God had matched us with happens to have been born in another country.

You can read the full interview here.