My Soap Box about Adoption, Children & Infertility

Everyone knows that adoption is an important thing in our lives.

 We love children.  Jay teaches over 100 of them every week during the school year.  But what if you can't have any children of your own? What to do about this nasty word that people like to avoid talking about…infertility.  Nowadays many people will even spend tens of thousands of dollars to try to "fix" this problem of infertility.  I got to thinking about it, lately, because of a recent conversation.  I don't like to discuss politics much, because I hate conflict.  But, lately, I keep getting countless  numbers of people trying to  get me to sign petitions of various sorts, especially to add a ballot to vote for whether or not we should require GMO labeling on our food.

 I don't want to even get into that discussion.  Obviously, many people feel very passionately about the issue.  I do not.  However, it brought up an interesting conversation.  A mom who did feel quite strongly that it's a good thing gave her main reason of why she's for the labeling.  She said it's because she's afraid that the genetically altered food could cause infertility for her children or her

children's children.  Somehow the conversation almost struck me with a note of humor.  I tend to look at issues with a sense of humor, especially issues that can hit a chord with me, personally.  Perhaps it's my own method of coping with my own pain.  I just laughed and said, "Well, I guess I don't need to worry about it, because I'm already infertile."  But, the more I've thought about it, I wonder, why do people fear and dread the horrible word, "infertility"?  I suppose it's because it's a painful loss.  And humans have this tendency to hate anything associated with pain and loss.

 But, how does God look at it?  Many people in the Old Testament times seemed to associate many children as a blessing from God.  (See Psa. 127:3-5).  On the contrary, they often felt that God must be holding back his blessing if He had not granted them children in their wombs.  Look at how it caused Rachel and Leah to feud and it caused Hannah to weep bitterly, asking God to please give her at least one child.  But, along comes Jesus and He seems to just turn everything around.  Does he marry and have many children?  No.  He says that He came to have children, not born of human decision, but born of God for those who believed in His name.  He teaches that sacrificing everything, including our family members, even children, is the way to receive true blessing and eternal life. (See Mt. 19:29).  And, Job, who has lost everything, including all of his children falls on his face in worship of the living God and proclaims:  "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I will depart.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;  may the name of the Lord be praised."  So, should fertility be such a scary thing that we all want to avoid like the plague?  Are we all meant to have children?  Are we all even meant to be married?  The answer is , "NO!"  We don't always know and understand God's plan.  I guess I get a little mad when people, even well-meaning Christians, start to sound like the world in their fear of things that sound bad.  Maybe infertility is actually a total blessing, instead of a curse.  Maybe it's just the gift that God might want to give to certain people for a very special reason.  Without that gift in my life, I might never have been united with my precious daughter, who was not born from my body, but is no less my daughter.  That's why I get passionate about adoption.  It's the very heart of God, to adopt us as his children and make us part of His family.  How awesome it is to get to experience that in micro-size in our own little family?!  I don't want to send the message to my daughter that she should be afraid of her future if the gift of infertility might be a part of that future.  And what about those 137 million orphans that God commanded for us to care for?  Many of them not only hunger for food,  (regardless of what kind of labeling it may or may not have on it), but also hunger  just for the love of a family.  I know I'm on my soap box, now, but why waste our time on demanding better food labeling when there are more important issues out there…like kids who need just their basic needs met?!