Why??

The most frequent question I hear lately is why? Why are you adopting? Why did you choose Ethiopia? Why not just have more biological children? Why are you homeschooling your children? Why not send them to public school? etc. I thought I would write a post to address the two main questions for those of you who are wondering the same things.

First of all why did we choose to adopt? In a word....Obedience.

Part of the reason we adopt is because we are adopted - adopted as children of God. We are sinful and undeserving, and yet by God's grace and through faith in His son, Jesus, we are forgiven. Not only are we forgiven but we are made co-heirs with Christ. In Romans 8: 15-17 it says: The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

We believe that every Christian is called to care for orphans.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.   - James 1:27

Do we believe every Christian is called to adopt? No. How the call to care for the orphans is accomplished is different in the life of every Christian. Some may pray for the orphans of the world; others may financially support those who are adopting, an orphanage, or other orphan care ministries; still others may choose to foster children or adopt. For us, we felt God leading us to adoption. Our decision to adopt was merely an act of obedience to God's leading in our lives.

Why are we homeschooling our children? To answer this question I would once again use the same word...Obedience.

First of all, let me say that I find nothing wrong with public school, particularly in Hartselle. We have excellent public schools with top-notch educators. Young adults graduating from our high schools are more than prepared to take on college.

With that being said, God tells us in His word that we are to bring up our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). He also tells us in Deuteronomy 6:5-7 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength. And these commandments I give to you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk about them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."

Once again, the way this is accomplished may look different for every family. However, the bottom line for Christians is clear - we are to train our children to know and serve God and to bring Him glory. For our family, we feel that God has laid homeschool on our hearts as a way of accomplishing this goal. Being my girls' teacher allows me to set the curriculum. As a result, we decide how and when our children receive Biblical instruction. (Two side notes: 1. We have found an amazing Bible curriculum that I would highly recommend and you don't have to be a homeschooler to use...here is the link: http://www.biblestudyguide.com.  2. We are part of a homeschool group that helps tremendously!  We meet once a week and then I reinforce what we learn there throughout the remainder of the week.  It is nationwide, here is the link: https://www.classicalconversations.com ) Not only do we have dedicated time for studying God's word, I am able to train and teach my girls all day.  Once again, I don't mean to say every Christian should homeschool. We don't even know how long we will homeschool.  Right now, our goal is to give our girls a firm foundation in faith through homeschooling, but we plan to constantly pray and seek God's guidance as to what the future holds. And so...Why do we homeschool? Obedience to God's calling for our lives.

I don't mean to sound as if we have it all figured out. We certainly do not!  Living in obedience to God's word is a huge and impossible struggle in this world.  Praise the Lord for his grace and forgiveness! Our goal is to continually strive to have our lives line up more and more with God's word.

I hope this helps to answer those who are curious. If you have any questions about adoption, orphan care, homeschool, etc. feel free to ask them. We don't claim to have all the answers, but we can tell you what we know from our personal experience.