Sons and Daughters

Chapter 1: The Spirit of Adoption

Cheryti had dreams of Cecilia before she had seen her in pictures or in person. In them, Cheryti saw a young girl set between the eras of childhood and young adulthood. God had given Cheryti faint portraits, like small glances, of her next child in beautiful night encounters, and she hung on to those silhouetted visions with care. When looking through potential children’s profiles, she had those images with her, quietly tucked in her heart and mind. One unforgettable feature of the girl in her dreams was a full head of curly hair. When Cheryti and Shawn were looking at Cecilia’s profile a lot of things looked wonderful, but one thing kept bothering Cheryti. Cecilia had straight hair. Cheryti had doubts even though they seemed to be moving in Cecilia’s direction. At times, she asked her husband if they were doing the right thing. She wondered if this was the right child, but as though God were leading them, they pressed forward anyways.
It took a year and a half from the time Cheryti decided she wanted to adopt her fifth child to the time adoption was finalized and the child was completely hers. As soon as she resolved in her heart and with her husband, Shawn, to have one more, she began her pursuit. Their research began online as they looked through endless profiles of children from the foster care system weekly and daily.
Shawn and Cheryti had already experienced the process when they had previously adopted four children of the same family. The sibling group was split up one from another at one point while in the foster care system. When the couple adopted them, they not only gave their children the wonderful security of a forever family, they also united the siblings in one loving home. It is a gift that not all foster sibling groups are afforded, but it is a powerful blessing to those who receive it. This time however, Cheryti was looking to adopt just one child, and it was going to be different from her past experiences. She and Shawn were looking for a teenager. Educated in foster care and adoption, she knew that the age group of foster children who are least likely to be adopted are adolescents. They are usually considered an undesirable choice and often become the forgotten faces in a land of piled government files. Cheryti, however, was determined to find the one that God had for her.
Taking into account everything that she desired for her fifth adoption, Cheryti began classes and new licensing with the adoption agency of her and her husband’s choice. Trainings, paperwork, and a home study were required before she could consider making any legal steps. In the meantime, the searching process lasted a complete year. Over the course of the first nine months, she and her husband looked at countless children’s profiles and had considered ninety. A more refined search led them to submit paperwork for just nine children, but after reconsideration and diligent seeking after the Lord’s guidance, they didn’t have clear certainty about any of those children. So she turned down those opportunities before beginning any course of relationship with them. Finally, at the very end of those nine months, like a woman who carried a child in the womb and then at delivery saw the child’s face for the first time, Cheryti saw the profile of a young seventh grade girl named Cecilia. This time after submitting her work, Cheryti got a phone call back from the adoption agency asking if she was still considering adopting Cecilia, and she said yes.
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Bearing the Spirit of Adoption goes further than wanting a child in your home for your fulfillment; it is loving them for theirs. Hundreds of thousands of little hearts are left wanting in our nation every day. There are millions across the earth. The further we go into the Father’s heart, the more we absorb His heart for them in us. If we are to be like Him, then we will no less carry the Spirit of Adoption in us than we carry Christ in us. His heart desire is not that we would only enjoy the blessings of his gift but that we would extend that gift to others. All works of selfless love are God’s command to us, but adoption is the ultimate expression of the Father’s love. It says everything that is mine is yours. You are worth all my time, all my energy, all my money, and all my love. The Spirit of Adoption lacks nothing. It is a fulfilling endeavor. The work of adoption releases an inexpressible joy in parents the way it pleased Him to adopt us. I can almost imagine the twinkle in His eye when it says our adoption into His family gave Him great pleasure.
There are nearly 74 million American children living in the United States today, and according to the Child Trend’s Data Bank and the National Survey of Adoptive Parents, approximately 2 percent or 1.8 million are adopted whether international, domestic, or from foster care. Cecilia’s story is an amazing one, but it is not an isolated case. She represents a mass of children who didn’t have a family or the promise of unconditional love but never-the-less was found by one. While a child is born in the U.S. every 7 seconds (U.S. Census Bureau), about 5,000 U.S. adoptions are taking place every day. Those adoptions are like new births to the parents and a new start in life to the child. Families all across our nation with open arms and compassionate hearts, like Cheryti and Shawn, are finding children they desire to bring into their homes. They are determining to love them as if they were always their own sons and daughters.