Any child included in such a program (at least for the country of India) is a healthy child 7 + years old, sibling groups, or younger children with "special needs." The idea of special needs concerning international adoption can be very different than what we might typically consider special needs in the United States. Special needs encompasses a wide variety of issues from something as simple as a poorly placed birthmark, low birth weight to more severe needs that would require surgery like a cleft lip or palate, heart conditions, and club feet. Then there are permanent disabilities such as missing limbs, blood disorders, hearing and vision impairments...the list goes on and on.
So where exactly do we fall in all of this? Jon and I feel led very strongly to a child with some sort of special need. At this point in time we cannot say exactly what that will look like. We have already begun praying and asking the Lord to make his will clear. Along with prayer we have also started reading quite a bit of material to learn about the multitude of needs that are out there. We long to be obedient to the Lord no matter the call but right now we have no specifics. If you feel led please join us in praying for guidance in this area.
We had not originally planned to go this route, but God doesn't always work the way we think he will. Choosing to adopt a child who is "different" may not make sense to some, but as a Christan it stirs my heart. Were we not broken before Christ came and healed us? Our helplessness may not have been visible on the outside but we were a mess, yet God chose to love us despite our brokenness and sin. Through his Spirit working in us, God has given his Church a heart for the world and for our family, that looks like this. James states that, "religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." This isn't about a physical deformity or a category of care, it's about living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
