Adoption Day-Not Just Any Other Day

For our son Sammy, tomorrow will seem like any other day. Sure, both sets of grandparents will be in town giving him almost nonstop, enthusiastic attention, he will have to wake up a bit earlier than normal and put on slightly fancier clothes than he is used to, but other than that, it will feel pretty normal. He will be excited and happy because everyone else is excited and happy but he will wake up, eat, play (at a courthouse), nap, play some more, eat dinner, take a bath and go to bed, just like he does on any other day.

The reality however, is that tomorrow is not just any other day. It is a day that has meaning and implications that will affect him the rest of his life. Tomorrow Sammy will legally become in the eyes of the state what he has been in our eyes since we brought him home from the hospital, our son. Sammy (Samuel) will become his new legal name, the same name as his great grandfather. Though he doesn’t remember a day when we weren’t “Mommy and Daddy” to him, tomorrow these titles will become secure.

This day of celebration has been prayed for and anticipated for a long time. There have been innumerable decisions made by his birth parents, social workers and judges over the last two and half years that have have brought us to this day and by God’s providence, tomorrow he will be finally and fully be a Lind. Once court is finished, Sammy will be adopted. This will be a one time, past tense event, that can’t be undone. He will be declared our child and legally everything that is true about our biological daughter, Finley, will be true about him. He will be exactly the same amount of a Lind as the rest of us.

This will be an amazing moment. We can hardly wait. Beyond this moment, our hope and prayer is that this leads to another moment–a moment when Sammy would put his trust in Jesus for salvation. More than anything else, we desire for our children to know and believe the Gospel. We want them to embrace the glorious truth that we are all alienated from God, sinners who stand opposed to him, yet, while we were still sinners Christ died for us. This act made a way for us who were once far from God to be adopted as his sons and daughters. If Sammy were to put his trust in Christ, the benefits of being adopted into the family of God would far outweigh the benefits of his earthly adoption into our family. Becoming a Lind has implications for him in this life only but when we are adopted by God, we receive an inheritance that is eternal and unfading, kept in heaven by God. This is a glorious thing!

Our prayer for Sammy tomorrow is that he will look back on this special day, see the balloons, the cake, the fancy clothes, the family and friends surrounding him and realize this day was not just any other day. Through it, we pray he would see how loved, wanted and cared for he is by us and by God. We pray that he would marvel at God’s grace in his life and that this day, his adoption into our family, would be used to bring him into the family of God. We pray too that those witnessing this day from near and afar who haven’t yet put their trust in Jesus would do so and experience the joy of being adopted into the family of God. May we together marvel at God’s grace in our lives and praise him for the special day we were adopted into his family through Jesus Christ.