As most of you probably know, Toria is the main contributor to our blog. Every now and then, however, I (Kyle) decide to say something or other. Those of you who know me well might find this odd, since I consider the overwhelming majority of blogs completely pointless. They are conduits for self-absorbed, narcissistic idiots to communicate their every passing thought for other narcissistic idiots, who then link such thoughts to their blogs. That might be a little harsh, but there's only so much nonsense about Jesus being a vegan, or postmodernism (which doesn't exist) fixing everything evangelicals have messed up, or whatever, that I can handle.
Tangent aside, we hope our blog does serve some useful purpose to keep everyone up to speed on the process of adopting our child(ren). Most of you have been very enthusiastic about our decision to adopt, and many of you have financially contributed to the adoption. You don't know how good that makes us feel.
In this post I wanted to address the way we came to the decision to adopt. Many people assume, without any ill will, that for us adopting was Plan B. Plan A, having our "own" kids, hasn't yet worked out, so we settled for second best. Consequently, if we were to get pregnant before the adoption was finalized, we would abandon the adoption process since our deeper desire would be satisfied.
I completely understand why people might think this. They're partly right; we always wanted to adopt, but we actually decided to begin the process after our longterm inability to get pregnant. And we still hope to have biological children one day. But I want to be absolutely clear on this point: we have totally abandoned any idea of adoption as Plan B. Rather, we now see our inability to get pregnant--an extraordinarily painful experience as many of you know--as a wonderful blessing. We understand a little bit more what Scripture means when it speaks of suffering leading to joy (e.g., Ps. 42).
The Westminster Catechism (a wonderful synopsis of the Bible) describes three earthly benefits which accompany our salvation in Jesus Christ: justification, sanctification, and adoption. By grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone God declares us justified. He declares us--because of the transfer of our guilt to Christ and his righteousness to us--to be righteous even though we're actually miserable sinners. It's also by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that God sanctifies us. He makes us actually righteous, makes us look more and more like Jesus, a process not to be completed in this life. Finally, it's by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that he adopts us.
Consider this from Romans 8:15-17: "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, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."
Here's what I'm getting at: if our adopted child isn't really our child, then God, our adopted Father, isn't really our Father. I suspect that a person who just cannot accept this doesn't understand the glorious grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Fortunately, most of you do get it. You not only have gotten it but you're excited about it and excited for us. For that we sincerely thank you.
