Defend the Poor and Fatherless: A Call to the Church to Adopt Special Needs Children

Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy. (Ps. 82:3)

Our lives changed dramatically in 1994. Our family had always been very supportive of various pro-life causes. We have been involved with picketing abortuaries, supporting our local crisis pregnancy center and working to elect pro-life candidates. In 1994, we made a family decision that would turn out to be the most wonderful, sorrowful decision of our lives. We became certified foster parents through NewStart Foundation, a Christian foster and adoption agency dedicated to saving the lives of children that the world would view as expendable.

We received our first child in March, 1995. He was a beautiful, healthy boy that we had the honor to love and nurture for about six weeks. During the night feeds we would ponder this little one's future. What would his new parents be like? Would he be raised in the fear of the Lord? We knew God had providentially placed this child in our home and strongly believed this little man, although only with us for a few short weeks, would receive the blessings of the covenant according to God's word.

Soon the day came when NewStart took this little man to his new home. We felt as though we lost our own child. Even though we knew he would be in good hands, the loss and separation from him was terrible. We loved that little boy as if he were our own flesh and blood. To this day when we say prayers with our little five year old daughter, Lana, she remembers to pray specifically for him.

The very next day, NewStart blessed us again by having another child placed in our home. However, this little boy was not perfect. In fact, this little guy had numerous disabilities that required hospitalizations and several surgeries. We currently feed him through a tube connected directly to his stomach. In the beginning we fed him every four hours around the clock. Our little guy (Bubba) has seven specialists that see him on a regular basis. His condition is very rare and his "prognosis" according to modern medicine is, at best, questionable.

We took Bubba into our home when he was ten days old and felt strongly from that day forward that the Lord had sovereignly delivered this child to us, not to care for on a temporary basis, but to adopt and raise in the fear and the admonition of the Lord.

Our lives have never been the same since. We are not as mobile as we once were. My wife is many times housebound caring for Bubba and Lana. If she is not at home, she is usually enroute to various doctor appointments, PT, OT, speech therapy and any other therapy you can imagine.

I say all of this to tell you that God has so richly blessed our lives with our little Bubba. Every morning around 6:45 AM when I go in to get him for his morning feed, I hear this happy child babbling away in his crib. As I pull the railing down I see this little boy whose eyes cannot focus on his papa, smiling in my direction. And now begins another day to love and nurture this helpless baby that, by the world's standards, should never have been born.

We have had so many people, particularly Christians, ask us why would we want to adopt a special needs child. They have a difficult time understanding why we would take on such a "burden." They tell us that this would be too difficult a challenge for them to handle. They appreciate "our sacrifice," but could never see themselves doing that. I think of the scripture that says, "My; Brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into various trials, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience" (Jam. 1:2). How sad that many Christians would act like the religious leaders in the parable of the Good Samaritan and walk right past the one who needs help. Our nation is sliding into the sewer of sin and for many Christians the only concern they have is for their own well-being.

As our nation continues on its wicked path toward destruction, it is the church and, specifically, the Christian that must rescue the weak and fatherless. It is the Christian, whose faith must be worked out while on this planet, who must stand in the gap to love and nurture those innocents that the world would call burdensome and unworthy to live. It is the Christian that must set the example for pagan man on how works of mercy must be performed. It is the Christian that must Biblically reconstruct the entire foster and adoptive system.

I thank God for the agency that gives us the opportunity to be foster and adoptive parents. As stated earlier, NewStart Foundation is a Christian, private, nonprofit organization which embraces the belief that each child, regardless of sex, race or special need deserves a family. They have gained the reputation as the agency that is able to place babies with profound physical and mental handicaps with foster and, eventually, adoptive families. Why is it that an agency like NewStart is able to place these precious babies in loving and nurturing homes and the state with all of its human and financial resources can't? As Christian foster parents, we take God's word seriously when it says to "Defend the poor and fatherless."

The clarion call in this hour is to stop playing church and become the church. As America continues its love affair with death, it is imperative that each Bible-believing christian examine his individual role in this battle. We will win this war. The church will continue to expand King Jesus' Crown Rights and from its influence, will rebuild the foster and adoptive systems. We will continue to rescue those helpless little ones that have no voice for themselves. Children, like my little Bubba, are counting on us.