Because we ALL deserve a FAMILY!

I keep watching the story unfold and the debate and outrage over the actions over Planned Parenthood, and my broken heart keeps looking for an answer. The truth is, there is no easy answer.

We are called to defend life; we stand as Christians upholding the sanctity of life, because life is worth protecting! Normally here, I write about just our family, our struggles, our journey, so I have debated for weeks about whether to join in this discussion.  In all the discussions I have seen flying around, there is a whole issue that seems to be being missed, and my Mama heart is dying, watching us totally miss it!

So I am going to step out and tell you what is heavy on my heart. I am going to talk to you, THE CHURCH, you who say you believe in Jesus, you who believe in the sanctity of life, you who are pro-life and willing to take a stand for that. 

Anytime the issue of abortion is debated, It is easy to point fingers and say "choose life". It’s not just women facing an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy’s, but US, THE CHURCH ... 

WE need to choose life too!

If we are going to look at women and ask that they take the bold, courageous step of choosing life, flipping their whole lives upside down, and making the selfless choice to give their baby life instead of death, then we better be willing to do the same! 

The thing is Church, we need to be willing to choose, but not only life, but choose FAMILY!

Did you know that today there are over 400,000 kids in the foster care system in the U.S. and over 100,000 are waiting to be adopted! 

PLEASE, read that again!

Over 100,000 sweet babies WAITING for someone to call Mom, to know that someone cares where they are, that anyone has their back.  

Over 100,000 kids hoping against all odds, that someone will choose them before they turn 18 and end up on the street alone, with nothing & no one. 

Over 100,000 little human beings, waiting for a day when they can lay their heads down at night and know that they are SAFE and LOVED. 

That kills me!  We are not perfect parents, but I do know this, that despite our bad days and the times we mess it all up, there has never been a day our kids have laid their heads down to sleep and wondered if someone LOVES them.  I know our world is broken and hurting and messed up, but if we who believe in Jesus, walk with His very spirit IN US, then Love should not ever be a privilege of childhood, it should be a guarantee!

Did you know that if ONE family out of every 3 churches in America would adopt, every child needing a family in the U.S. would have one!

Did you know that over 30% of Christian families consider adoption and only 1% actually ever do it?

You guys, I’m not trying to climb up on some huge soapbox. I have this sweet baby lying on my chest, spit up all over everything, oxygen tanks that need to be refilled, a medication log I need to fill out and our WHOLE life has flipped upside down.  It is hard and I'm exhausted, and it's messy, SO very, very messy ... and then yesterday she started smiling! One day this amazing, beautiful, miracle child,born to another woman, will call ME Mom! It is broken and beautiful, difficult and amazing all at the same time.

We can say we follow Jesus , and we can outrage over the atrocities of Planned Parenthood, because we SHOULD be outraged at the lack of respect for life! But then we need to take a deep breath and actually listen to what God tells us:

James 1:27

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Do you see it? If we fight for a child's right to life and they ARE born, then what logically follows is that they are born INTO a family. That SHOULD be a given, but it's NOT!  Sometimes family just isn't possible. And when it isn’t, then The Church, we the people who believe life is sacred, NEED to be the solution.

The sad reality, is that women go to Planned Parenthood, because they offer help and a solution, to broken, hurting, scared, hopeless women. But it should be US, The Church; the followers of Jesus, who are there to offer HOPE in the form of ACTUAL help. If we are going to look at broken, hopeless, scared women, and ask them to make a selfless choice, then we better be willing to make a selfless choice and stand WITH them! We better be READY with open arms, and open hearts, and open bedrooms,and open cribs, to welcome these babies and toddlers and kids and teenagers that not only deserve the right to live, but to be LOVED, to have a FAMILY!

Because this is about SO much more than which side of a political or religious issue we stand on. The reality of the world we live in, is that the broken, fallen, sinful, world is all around us. We are eager to point at the darkness and call it evil, because it IS EVIL! 

But pointing at the darkness, isn't the same as BEING the light, it's just NOT. I know by voicing this opinion I will make some people angry, because it's hard, and it's the narrow road, it's inconvenient, and not "what God has called your family to". But, if you take the population of the U.S. and divide it in half, that's how many orphans there are in the world today!

Before James penned that verse about pure religion, the verses before it say this:

James 1:22-26

²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

²⁶ Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

For a mom considering and abortion, choosing life, is about being self-less. Choosing to love a child not flesh of your flesh or bone of your bone, is about being self-less.

I know that not every Christian, or every family has been called to adoption!

 I do however know this: what God said in James is CLEAR, and if there are 153 MILLION orphans in the world today, God is certainly calling more that 1% of us to do something about it!

My desperate prayer as I fumble through this messy life we choose, is that the culture around adoption would change. That we would stop seeing adoption as a nice idea, or a wonderful option for people who can’t have biological children, or something we just "think" about doing, but rather both a privilege and responsibility for those who already know how to be a parent! My prayer is that the church would wake up, and more than 1% of Christians today would be as willing to choose life in their homes as they are in verbal outrage on social media.