I'm adopted...

I am adopted...yes...it's true. No...probably not in the way you're thinking, but I am adopted. My parents certainly are my biological parents, I have no doubt about that! However, over the past few weeks I've been thinking more and more about adoption and saw first hand some of the most precious children who don't have families, yet know they are loved by a Heavenly Father! I realized that we all have the opportunity to be adopted!! Not legally adopted, but spiritually adopted! We all have the blessing and honor of being welcomed into our Heavenly Father's family as his Adopted Sons and Daughters!! What an amazing privilege it is to be Sons and Daughters of the One True Father!! 

"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!'  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" Romans 8:14-16

 

None of us deserve this adoption, but He chooses to love us and welcome us into his family when we accept Him and choose to follow him!

 

"Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12

 

When I went to Uganda I thought I was going to serve the children there, and bless them, but what actually happened is they blessed me!  They served me!   These children who have nothing, many of them not even a family, are filled with joy!  They know their Father in Heaven in a way I may never know, but pray I will someday.  They cling to Him in a way that is almost tangible or visible!  They may not know where their next meal comes from, or if they will ever know the love of a family, but they know the love of their Savior and their Heavenly Father!  These children taught me what it really means to be adopted, and what it really means to have faith like a child!  I went with an open heart to pour out love on those children, and came back with a heart full of the kind of love only a child can give!  I went to pour my heart out to them, and they poured their hearts out to me!!  I thought they needed to be shown the love of God, and they showed me the love of God!!  They showed me what it really is to be called the Children of God!

 

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" 1 John 3:1

 

So now what?  What do I do with all this love God has poured out on me?  What do I do with this new understanding of what it means to be adopted and to be a child of God?  I do the only thing I know to do...I fall flat on my face in humility and give over my life to Him!!  I share their stories and become more of an advocate for those precious children who taught me so much!!  Here is one such story:

 

I will never forget the morning we were at Ekisa and a little boy named Zeke, who has Down Syndrome, blessed me in a way I will never forget!  It was into our second week when we went to Ekisa, which is a home specifically for special needs and disabled children.  I was feeling a little numb by that time, not really knowing what emotions to feel if any because of everything I had seen and experienced.  I think as an ICU nurse my body has put in place extra coping mechanisms to protect myself because of the things I see in my everyday life.  Those coping mechanisms are great when I'm in a stressful situation at work, or even in the sad situation of losing a patient.  They help me stay professional, and able to do what I need to do without being an emotional basket case (which those who know me well know I can be a bit emotional at times).  However, in the situation of this trip, those coping mechanisms started to keep me from fully being able to experience this trip because of the way my brain blocked those emotions.  Anyway, the morning we were at Ekisa we were all sitting in a circle talking when Zeke walked into the room.  He went to the middle of the circle and looked around the room at a few of the other members of my team.  He didn't show much emotion, other than maybe being a little perplexed by all these "Muzungus" in the room, and then he did something I can only say was completely a Divine Appointment!  Suddenly out of nowhere he lunged himself at me and wrapped his arms around me in one of the biggest bear hugs I have ever experienced!!  Immediately my eyes welled with tears, and I was overcome with emotion!  It's like that little boy knew I needed that very thing in that very moment!  Zeke showed ME, someone he had never met in his life, an amazing kind of love through that bear hug.  A kind of love I have never in my life experienced, and I have experienced some great love thanks to my amazing family and friends!  It was a kind of love that was completely uninhibited, completely pure, and completely undeserved.  For that brief time it felt like God himself was wrapping me in His arms giving me that bear hug!  Exactly what I needed in that moment!  God showed Himself to me that morning through Zeke in a way I will never be able to fully put into words, but I do know that since that moment I have felt closer to God than I ever have!  So thank you Zeke!  And thank you God for that precious little boy!  I now understand much more clearly the love of my Heavenly Father, and what it feels like to be adopted as His daughter!