A Mother's Heart

By contributing writer Dee Burdick

November is National Adoption Awareness month. Our family was greatly blessed by adoption. We have five (2 sibling groups) beautiful, healthy, loving children that came to us through adoption. While life is never dull, we are completely blown away by God's work in our lives and the lives of our children.

In 1992, my husband and I first felt a desire to be foster parents. We took a leap of faith. I quit my job and we waited for a call. It came, and with it, a brother and sister ages 2 and 3. They were precious, but a handful. After raising two daughters, then teenagers, I wondered what I was getting into. Amanda & Nathan had been in several foster homes and had health and emotional issues.

We grew to love them so much that we couldn't imagine them leaving our home. In 1995 we adopted them. It is not always easy, but we know we are doing exactly what God called us to do.

When Amanda and Nathan were 13 and 14, we felt the call again. We went through the state, but we all felt we would not foster this time, just adopt. There is a long and wonderful story that followed, but I'll just say that God has a sense of humor. Exactly nine months after starting the adoption process, our precious David, Derek and Jasmyn came home. Our family and friends thought we were out of our minds, and so did we. Our family proves that God is bigger than we can hope or imagine.

Many people tell me they could never adopt or have seven children. It was never in my plan either, but it was in God's. I'm so glad I listened when he called. My five younger kids did not grow in my womb, but they grew in my heart. I am so blessed!

Could God be calling you to adopt? Someone you know?

There are over 3,000 children just in the state of Texas waiting for their forever family.
http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Adoption_and_Foster_Care/Child_Search/default.asp

Our kids where adopted here in the US, but there are over 60 million orphans in the world.
http://www.precious.org/results.php?from=waiting
http://www.howtoadopt.org/

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11


International adoptions can be expensive and so if you are not being called to adopt, could you help someone else on their journey?
http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer

Could you help children who are living in orphanages, that may never be adopted? http://www.precious.org/help.php
http://heartlineministries.org/heartlinestore.aspx

I would love to talk to anyone who has questions or wants more info. Contact me at ddto4@yahoo.com.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

Blessings,
Dee Burdick