Loved by Choice

"Loved by Choice is a ministry of Blacksburg Christian Fellowship that was created to educate, encourage, and enable the body of Believers to love children through adoption, foster care and orphan care."

I know I have shared several times that the Lord used Proverbs 24:12 to really change Tim and my's life and perspective when we returned home from China, in 2007, with Lindsey.

"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know and holds us responsible to act."

Once the fog lifted a bit from returning home and caring for our "virtual twins", we really began to search out how we could take what we were feeling and use it for the Lord. As time passed and we really began to process it all, I thought of the reality of our daughter.

Lindsey was one orphan in a room of several orphans, the room was just one out of dozens of rooms in an orphanage, and her orphanage was just one in a country of many, many orphanages.

Did we know this before we decided to adopt? Yes, we had heard the statistics and even seen some pictures. But now we had a picture of a specific orphan. We held a statistic-no-more in our arms and called her our daughter. We brought what used to be a vague number into our home to be loved, trained, cherished....to be an Apisa for better or for worse. And we rejoiced to have all of our children under one roof, finally. But my heart would and continues to ache for the millions left behind. The "numbers" still living in their room in an orphanage or even worse circumstances.

There is such power in our testimonies. No one can argue with you on your life's story. It is true, undebatable and holds so much encouragement. How could we take God's written story for our family and share it in a way to glorify Him. It came as the idea to start an orphan ministry in our church. God's plan was already woven as we quickly mended with two other adoptive families who shared our same desire. And from that Loved by Choice began in 2009.

We started by ordering the "Launching an Orphan Ministry in Your Church" by Family Life, Hope for Orphans. It was extremely helpful and detailed. I would recommend it as a starting point for anyone thinking of starting this kind of ministry.

I have been asked before, "Do you think every Christian couple should adopt?" And here is my answer, in a nutshell, "No, but I do think it is the responsibility, like in all of life, to be willing to say yes if He is calling you to adopt."

I was so encouraged by a couple from our church that showed up for Loved by Choice's information seminar. As they walked in and we greeted them, they said, "We don't really know why we are here. I guess to just learn more about adoption and foster care so we can decide whether or not God can use our family in this way." WOW... can you imagine if we all spent our Saturday mornings searching out ways to learn more about different ministries so we could better hear the call of the Almighty on our lives?

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and the vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

James 4:13-15