Adoption is the act of taking a child born to another woman and claiming that child as family. It is an act, born out of the complicated and broken nature of our world, that can make God’s love and redemption manifest in lives. Through adoption, brokenness and pain can tell another story. God’s story Adoption is ultimately the story of God’s people. God “adopts” the people of Israel to be God’s people, and covenants to be their God. God becomes a birth parent, relinquishing the divine son to be raised by other parents. Jesus knows what it is to be an adopted child. The triad of adoption is complete in the story of God’s own self and God’s people. An early function of adoption was to secure someone to inherit a family farm, a family name. Abram, before his name change and before his heirs were born, planned for Eliezer of Damascus to be his heir (Genesis 15). Biological children still had priority in inheritance. It was an unequal if still beneficial process. The transactional … [Read more...]

Before my daughter arrived at toddler-hood, I read a lot about healthy toddler interactions. I read how to talk about sharing. (One key is don’t talk about it. Talk about taking turns instead). I absorbed wisdom on what not to do when one kid takes a toy from another. (Don’t jump in right away. Narrate what’s happening as you try to let the kids work it out on their own.) But until my family interacted with other like-minded families, all this information was just theoretical. To really understand it, my husband and I had to witness our daughter cry because she wanted the coveted ice cream truck toy that her friend was enjoying. Then we urged her to ask for a turn and accept her friend’s answer whether it was “yes” or “no.” I observed carefully when a friend pulled a ball out of her hands. I realized she didn’t get upset about it, and she was able to move on to another toy as long as I stayed calm. I watched as my friends used these strategies with their own children. I learned from … [Read more...]