Adoption Revelation

Oh no, the prophet speaks! Many-a-time in our family’s life Micah has shared hard-to-hear words — you know, the kind that pierce you to the heart and that you know are true…and you know you have to do something about?

But never had I heard words from him that required this much change! “We need to adopt an orphan,” said 10-year-old Micah. We had just walked out of the November 2010 church service focused on the plight of orphans across the world and the Christian’s call to care for the orphans.

I assured Micah that if God shows us that adoption is the way he wants us to care for orphans, that we most definitely would (I was pretty sure God knew we already had our hands full with five children. Surely sending financial support would be enough.)

In the church service that day we accepted the challenge to pray every day for 30 days about what God would have us do about the orphan crisis. Micah held us to the 30 days…and then some.

It seemed the adoption subject starting coming up everywhere we turned. But even as we prayed, I continued to go down my list of why adoption might not be the best choice for our family. One day I felt God whispered to my heart, Brenna, it’s not about you; it’s about rescuing orphans.

Months later as Micah continued to prompt praying about orphans during bedtime prayers, he often asked if we thought God was leading us to adopt. I would tell him I wasn’t sure, but what moved me most was thinking of the one fearful orphan tonight who had no one at bedtime to scratch their back, pray for them, and tell them they were loved.

Let’s fast forward to the last week of school in May 2011. As Micah’s elementary school choir filed in to sing, they looked like the United Nations. A Title I school, these children didn’t look like children you would normally see in a North Dallas suburb.

With every word the choir sang, I heard an orphan speaking directly to me. He said he knows that I see and hear his fearful cries. He asked if I would be at his bedside until he falls asleep, comfort him when he weeps, and care for him forever.  He asked me to light his dark world with love so that he might live a life of hope, faith, and joy.

With every word the choir sang, I heard an orphan singing directly to me. Tears came like a flood as my heart filled with God’s compassion and love for his poor and needy orphans, and the song haunted me all afternoon.

That day Micah came in from school and I said, “Now I know. God is calling us to adopt.”

It wasn’t until a month later that I noticed the name of the song — “For Now, I Know.”