A Guide to Adoption and Orphan Care

Great, short read with multiple perspectives on adoption. Your idea of adoption will change.

We were given this book (not from the publisher or author) and are about to purchase 12 of them to give away to our family to help explain our heart in pursuing our next adoption!The book is composed of several topical chapters that deal with a variety of issues related to adoption and orphan care and the role the Church should have. It is a primer on topics with just enough detail to inspire and inform without being overly technical or detailed. My wife and I read it out loud to each other over the course of a six hour car ride.The biggest reason you should consider buying it is that that Church desperately needs to reevaluate how we spend our time and resources, and if you are a Christian you need to be a part of this change. This book is an empowering tool for starting conversations about how your local body can meet our great calling.There are a lot of theological differences between different churches but one thing I think we all agree on is that we are called to care for orphans and widows! Sadly this has become yet another area of ministry for most churches. This book makes a powerful case that a proper perspective on adoption and orphan care should affect the culture of a local body. Local bodies tend to either ignore or sanctify adoptive parents but fail to offer the practical help that facilitates adoption. Theologically, we forget that we (Christians) are adopted into God's family. Adoption was never God's plan B for us and it isn't plan B for adoptive parents either. Just like earthly marriage, earthly adoption is a picture of our heavenly adoption. When we realize that, we appreciate that the guys and gals next to us on the pew really and truly are our brothers and sisters and further, God's family is colorful and diverse. Most importantly we grow in appreciation of the power of the Gospel when we see that it reaches across every cultural difference, language and everything else that we humans have set up to separate us from one another and God builds a family out of the most unlikely of members!If you are anywhere in the process of adoption or know someone who is:This book will provide you with some great ways to verbalize the reasons for adoption and help dispel the "you're such a good person" comments you receive from other.If you are a leader in a local church body:Consider passing this book around to begin discussions on how your local body can practically meet our calling for caring for widows and orphans.If you aren't interested in adoption, Christianity, or church ministries:Well, the book is only 5 bucks. Consider buying it just so you know why Christians focus on orphan care and what it means to us. Keep an open mind and it will be a cheap way to learn something. Then leave it at a coffee shop or something and maybe it will bless somebody else.

This book rightly places the gospel at the center of adoption. A sobering book written for all prospective adoptive parents.