The Lost Sheep

When the decision to adopt from Ethiopia was made, we accepted all the challenges, or the cost, it would bring.

I remember watching a sermon about how only MANLY men, superman-type men, adopt. One of the points made during the sermon was that most men would not hesitate to run into a burning building to save a child. It's that same super-hero testosterone needed to go the ends of the earth to the metaphoric burning building to give a child a family.

If you would like to hear this sermon and read more yourself, click here.

We have known from the start that leaving our children here in the US to go across the ocean would be hard. As our trip gets closer, today only 39 days away, I am preparing my to-do lists to ensure all will be well with the girls we'll leave here in others' care.

I am also preparing my heart.

The focus of my morning reading today was Luke 15:1-10. As I read verse 4-7, images of Jude flash in my mind. This parable is about salvation through Jesus, not adoption. Don't get the wrong message here. I just want to share with you the redemptive power behind the picture of adoption. We want more than anything to be instruments of God's sovereign plan, and to bring Him glory through this process.

We believe adoption is a great metaphor to salvation. Imagine with me for a moment:

~the anxiety and the tears as we leave our girls in the KC airport, bound for Ethiopia

~the anticipation and expectation of seeing and holding Jude for the first time

~sitting him on our lap and holding him close to our chest

~our first family picture after we hear the judge say "He's all your's!"

~the walk off the plan into an airport full of family and friends who've loved Jude unconditionally since the beginning

Now, read Luke 15:4-7. Then pray and consider who we can reach today for the kingdom and God's glory.

Luke 15:4-7 (emphasis mine) "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing,

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'

I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine upright persons who need no repentance."