“He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will ... ” – Ephesians 1:5
 
If someone asked you to fill in the blank: Adoption is _________, what might you say? Adoption is beautiful? Heartwarming? If you’d asked me the same question a few years ago, I probably would have honestly, but naively, responded with one of the same gratifying adjectives. 
 
Then God turned our world upside down with a beautiful, premature baby girl with a lot of health needs about a year into our foster care journey.
 
We were a “foster only” family – knowing each placement we received, we would love them as our own for as long as they needed, but also knowing they would eventually leave.
 
Until one didn’t. And God made it clear time after time, that his plan for this precious baby girl was a forever family with us. 
 
Suddenly, “Adoption is ________” became reality for our family. As we began to walk this journey, new adjectives filled that blank for us. Adoption is … scary, heartbreaking, hard, exhausting, emotional, uncertain … and even as I loved this amazing girl with my whole heart, I found myself wondering if we could do this?
 
How would we do this? How would this even work with two teenagers and now a toddler? Why did God choose us?
 
I cried out to God, “This is going to change our lives!” 
 
And God spoke to my heart, “Yes, my daughter. That’s the point. Because in so much as I have asked you to adopt this little girl, I have already adopted you. And it has changed your life. And I’m continuing to change your life as I draw you closer and more reliant on me through this journey. And in turn, you will also change her life.”
 
You see, he wasn’t asking me to do anything he hadn’t already done. He adopted me into his family in the most beautiful, heartwarming and yet scary, emotional way. And my life was forever changed. Now he was asking me to do the same. 
 
Today, my answer to the question above would be: Adoption is all of the above!
 
Adoption is breathtakingly beautiful, heartbreakingly sad, excruciatingly exhausting and absolutely amazing. It’s obedience. It’s life in Christ. It’s forever. And it’s for you, it’s for me and it’s for my new daughter!
 
“A father to fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families ... ” – Psalm 68:5-6a

Written by Holly Briscoe, who lives in Longview, Texas, with her husband of 23 years, Patrick, and their three daughters, Addison (16), Landrie (13) and Dezi (3). She enjoys watching her kids' sporting events, spending time making memories as a family, reading and serving children through foster care

Learn more about National Adoption Month.