Our Adoption Learning Curve: Perspective

By Randee

Perspective is an interesting thing. Two people can look at an identical situation and see and interpret it in opposite ways. Perhaps not surprisingly this often happens in how people view adopted children.

Adoptive parents often hear comments like: “He is so lucky that you adopted him!” or “This child is so blessed to have you as her parents!” or “Wow- you saved him from such a terrible life!” While well meaning, and no doubt mostly heart-felt, these very statements do not recognize the reality that brought a precious child to an adoptive family. The child lost their birth family through circumstances they had no control over. I’ve heard it said that adoption is God’s redemptive response to tragedy and this definition resonates with my heart. While immensely beautiful, it is sobering at the same time because adoption itself exists because not all is as it should have been. In a perfect world, parents would love and nurture and be able to care for the children they were blessed with, but our fallen world contains sickness, poverty, death and sin that sometimes separates parent from child. Lovingly, our Heavenly Father redeemed the situation so that orphans could still have a family to call their own. That, is beautiful to me!

I am thankful for a different perspective today than when I started on this adoption journey.  As Trace and I raise our son if anyone comes up to us and proclaims that our child is lucky to be adopted, we will most likely answer, “WE are the lucky ones! Our son is a blessing to US, and we are thankful God trusted us to raise him.”


You can read the Introduction to this series here