Abraham – An Adoption Allegory

Most of us know him as Abraham, but before God dubbed him the “father of all nations”, he was plain old Abram, and his life story provides a parallel for adoption:

Now the LORD said to Abram,
“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you; (Genesis 12:1)

“The Lord said, ‘Go forth’”: I know in my own case, I wasn’t actively looking to adopt when the opportunity presented itself. It was always something in the back of my mind, but really was more like God working out something in my life. How do I know? I saw the post about these children on an unrelated internet discussion loop, clearly marked OT – Off Topic! Because the list generates so much mail, I don’t always read it … but that day I did, and the rest, as they say …

“From your relatives”: Sadly, adoption isn’t always supported by our friends and relatives. Our Adoptive Parenting, Parenting Special Kids, Open Adoption and LDS bloggers have written about this, with keen insight and sound advice.

Traveling Through Foreign Lands: Anyone who has adopted will tell you not only does adoption have its own language, but it really does take you through so many new terrains emotionally, and possibly in real life, if adopting internationally.

“To the land which I will show you” This indicates God does the leading and you do the trusting! It’s a clear mandate to trust in God’s providence.

In my own case, I clearly saw the hand of God at work in my life. I’ve never seen Him as clearly as I have in this process. I know that sounds like the crazy rambling of a fanatical woman, but consider this:

• The day I called to inquire about my children, I discovered the social worker handling our children’s case graduated from the same small Christian college that my first cousin did (over 20 years ago, at that!).

• At the time we began the adoption process, we were living in a two-bedroom townhome. We live in one of the most expensive areas of the country, and needed to move into a four-bedroom. Where could we find a four-bedroom that we could afford? Friends at church had just finished building their “dream house” yet wanted to keep the four-bedroom home they had just moved out of, but still owned. They wanted to rent it out. Did anyone know of a family who wanted to rent out a four-bedroom house? Hello!!! Getting goosebumps yet?

• Because we are adopting from another state, our homestudy needed to be completed by a local social worker. Through the homestudy process, wherein we talked about past jobs, etc., it was discovered that this social worker interned at the law clinic my husband supervised (though at a different time than when he worked there), and collaborated on a project carried out at the social services agency that I worked for (again at a different time). Did I mention that both of these agencies were in a different city from where we now live? Coincidence? I think not!

• Remember the plane ride? What are the odds that several hundred miles away from where my kids live, I would find a couple who not only had known my kids’ foster mother for twenty years or so, but had met my children as well? Are you seeing what I mean about the “hand of God” yet?

• All the social workers, lawyers and helping professionals were certain that our adoption would be a “done deal” by the end of last year. Clearly, that didn’t happen. Though it was obvious God was directing this whole thing, why was it taking so long? I think I discovered the answer a few weeks ago. A few years ago, my hubby’s whole department was pink-slipped with less than 24 hours notice. We went through the whole COBRA process. As faithful readers know, my son has genetic, autoimmune Type 1 diabetes. So, when COBRA was up, we went with a conversion plan to avoid the necessity of a medical evaluation for my son’s inclusion. Because one of the children we’re adopting has a fairly rare medical condition, we wanted to switch insurance plans so that she could go to a specific hospital. Now that my husband has been re-employed for some time now, I checked into his employer’s plan. In the process, I discovered that had the adoption gone through earlier, we would not have been able to add the children to our conversion plan, since only people on the plan at the time it was converted are eligible. Additionally, because it was a private (individual) plan, it is not under the Federal mandate to cover children with pre-existing conditions. My theory is that because we were months away from open enrollment, God created these temporary “diversions” until open enrollment season began a few weeks ago. Now my kids are not only hooked into the specialized hospital I wanted, but are under an employer-sponsored plan that is under Federal mandate to treat adopted children as natural children in addition to covering pre-existing conditions! Pretty much the day we became covered, all of the “temporary obstacles” began disappearing, and we are weeks away from finalization!

God is taking me on a journey that He has called me to. The road has been scary at times, fraught with the unknown that my finite mind freaks out about from time to time. But ultimately, I know this “new country” is one filled with promise and blessing in this life, as well as in the one to come!

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