Adoption: Changing Your Life Perspective
Written by Bethany Christian Services on Mon, 11/25/2013 - 13:12
November is National
Adoption Month, so throughout November we will seek to raise awareness
for adoption and the millions of vulnerable children around the world
waiting for forever families. As we celebrate the joy and wonder of
adoption, as we feel the pain and healing of the process, and as we seek
to live in a world where every child knows the love of a family, we
will share with you the intimately personal perspectives from a variety
of voices describing their adoption journey. We hope you enjoy and learn
from this series and encourage you to come back throughout the month to
read these inspiring and informational personal narratives.
I’ll never forget my first date with Laura. How could I? She was beautiful, smart, and fun to talk to. And one thing I certainly enjoyed discussing with her that night was adoption.
For some reason, the topic came up and we discovered that each of us wanted to adopt when it came to having a family. To both of us, it just made sense. There are a lot of children in the world and a lot of parents who want children, so I guess for us it was a question of why not adopt.
What guy wouldn’t want to marry a girl like that, which is exactly what I did. In looking back, that initial conversation about adoption must have come at God’s providential nudging because after we got married, we began to deal with infertility issues. I had heard about Bethany Christian Services from others, so we contacted Bethany’s Madison Heights office because at the time we were living in southeastern Michigan. After an orientation to the adoption process, we made the commitment to adopt.
We didn’t specifically ask for a child of any particular race, but we were pretty sure our first child would be African-American. I had done a lot of volunteer work in Detroit, tutoring and conducting vacation Bible schools, and became attached to the children—the majority of whom were African-American. And Laura had worked with children in Guatemala, which probably influenced her openness to transracial adoption.
After completing medical school, I accepted a job in diagnostic radiology in West Michigan. Laura and I had decided to live a simpler lifestyle regardless of income, so now on a doctor’s salary we purchased a modest home in diverse neighborhood. When Levi, a beautiful African-American baby, joined our family we suddenly realized what an amazing environment this was going to be for us.
Three years later Trevor, another African-American baby, joined us, and we love our forever family! Every adoption poses challenges, but the Bethany staff has been extremely supportive and helpful. We also belong to a transracial adoption group and attend a very supportive church where several members have also chosen transracial adoption.
A lot of people go into adoption with a rescue mentality, and certainly there’s a small element of that because adoption indeed gives a child a family he might not have had. But it’s the “full-circle blessing” that I like to emphasize because while you might start out with a desire to help a child, Laura and I have been far more blessed by our two boys than we ever could have imagined. We’ve understood better how God looks at His adopted children since that’s what we are to Him.
The blessing of our children has helped motivate me to bless others. A long-time mentor to high school and college students, I decided to combine my passions for teaching and service by writing a book: Healing Hereafter. It offers biblical, sensible, and helpful answers to many difficult questions that most of us have about the Christian faith, and all proceeds from the sale of the book are being donated to Bethany and women and children it endeavors to support. Learn more at www.jasondykstrawrites.com.
I would encourage every couple to at least consider adoption as part of their family plan. Adoption will not only change your life as parents, it will change your whole perspective about life.
-Jason, adoptive father
I’ll never forget my first date with Laura. How could I? She was beautiful, smart, and fun to talk to. And one thing I certainly enjoyed discussing with her that night was adoption.
For some reason, the topic came up and we discovered that each of us wanted to adopt when it came to having a family. To both of us, it just made sense. There are a lot of children in the world and a lot of parents who want children, so I guess for us it was a question of why not adopt.
What guy wouldn’t want to marry a girl like that, which is exactly what I did. In looking back, that initial conversation about adoption must have come at God’s providential nudging because after we got married, we began to deal with infertility issues. I had heard about Bethany Christian Services from others, so we contacted Bethany’s Madison Heights office because at the time we were living in southeastern Michigan. After an orientation to the adoption process, we made the commitment to adopt.
We didn’t specifically ask for a child of any particular race, but we were pretty sure our first child would be African-American. I had done a lot of volunteer work in Detroit, tutoring and conducting vacation Bible schools, and became attached to the children—the majority of whom were African-American. And Laura had worked with children in Guatemala, which probably influenced her openness to transracial adoption.
After completing medical school, I accepted a job in diagnostic radiology in West Michigan. Laura and I had decided to live a simpler lifestyle regardless of income, so now on a doctor’s salary we purchased a modest home in diverse neighborhood. When Levi, a beautiful African-American baby, joined our family we suddenly realized what an amazing environment this was going to be for us.
Three years later Trevor, another African-American baby, joined us, and we love our forever family! Every adoption poses challenges, but the Bethany staff has been extremely supportive and helpful. We also belong to a transracial adoption group and attend a very supportive church where several members have also chosen transracial adoption.
A lot of people go into adoption with a rescue mentality, and certainly there’s a small element of that because adoption indeed gives a child a family he might not have had. But it’s the “full-circle blessing” that I like to emphasize because while you might start out with a desire to help a child, Laura and I have been far more blessed by our two boys than we ever could have imagined. We’ve understood better how God looks at His adopted children since that’s what we are to Him.
The blessing of our children has helped motivate me to bless others. A long-time mentor to high school and college students, I decided to combine my passions for teaching and service by writing a book: Healing Hereafter. It offers biblical, sensible, and helpful answers to many difficult questions that most of us have about the Christian faith, and all proceeds from the sale of the book are being donated to Bethany and women and children it endeavors to support. Learn more at www.jasondykstrawrites.com.
I would encourage every couple to at least consider adoption as part of their family plan. Adoption will not only change your life as parents, it will change your whole perspective about life.
-Jason, adoptive father
The views expressed in this post are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bethany.
No comments:
Post a Comment