Adoption

Adopting a traumatized child is not like a short-term missions trip to an orphanage where all the children are slightly unkempt but ever so sweet and want to be held and play games and tell stories. In fact, nothing is really like that in reality. (Not even the orphanage you might have visited.) This kind…

Marriage is hard. It’s also beautiful and life-giving—but that’s a subject for another day. For today, we’re going to address the fact that marriage can be hard and a healthy marriage takes a certain amount of cultivating. Relationships in general take a certain amount of cultivating. And nothing throws a relationship off course like trauma….

I still remember where I was sitting the first time another mom explained to me that my child wasn’t as difficult as I seemed to think. She wasn’t mean about it. Not at all. But the words still shocked me into silence. The truth? I had barely brushed the surface of the issues we were…

First, before we say anything else, let’s get this out on the table: children from hard places are really hard to love. One of the lies that the enemy beats us with is that there is something wrong with us if we’re struggling to love our children. They’re just little, we tell ourselves. Innocent. None…

I wrote some letters over the past few years. Letters that I’m going to share with you over the next few months. I know all of you who read this blog aren’t adoptive parents, but I know some of you are. I know more of you long to be. I know almost all of you…

Recently a pastor’s wife sat me down, explained that a couple in their congregation was pursuing adoption, and then looked intently at me and said, “You’ve adopted twice. In what ways can we show this couple the most support possible?”  I’m not sure if I patted her hand or not, but I’m sure I wanted…