Love Before Sight

As we celebrate the "Things We Do for Love" in February, I want you to hear from my Scripture Dig sister Sandra Peoples. When the Scripture Dig Team comes to our women's retreat April 8 & 9, Sandra will co-lead a special breakout session focusing on adoption. This is the story of what Sandra's family is doing for love.

Do you believe in love at first sight? Locking eyes with "the one" and knowing instantly? What about love before sight? Can you love someone without ever laying eyes on him? I believe you can, because it's happening in my family right now!

Before Lee and I were married, we talked about wanting a big family. After having two boys biologically, we felt it was time to obey God's call to care for the orphans. Christian families obey this command in many different ways, and for us, that call was to add to our family through adoption. We prayed about which agency to use, which country we had a burden for, and even the gender and age range of the child we wanted to adopt. With each decision, we fell more deeply in love with our child, who we have never met!

So how do you love a child you've never met? We've had plenty of opportunities to find out! Right now our love is marked by opportunities to sacrifice. Because we love our little boy, we organized yard sales with all the proceeds going toward the adoption. We didn't have birthday parities or celebrate Christmas with too many gifts. We eat at home instead of eating out, clip coupons, and rotate toys instead of buying new ones. I've even started working a part-time job with all the money going to the adoption fund. We are so thankful for family members and friends who have also sacrificed to add to our adoption fund. The sacrifices are small compared to the love we have for our son, but the faster we can raise the $30,000 it takes to get him home to his forever family, the faster we can show him and tell him how much we love him in person!


God is truly a Father to the fatherless, and we are excited to be able to care for one of His children in our forever family (Psalm 68:5). We pray for our son in Ethiopia. We pray for his health, care, and development. We pray for the lessons of faith and trust we continue to learn through this process. And we pray for love--love before sight is possible, and it is truly a gift.

Sandra is a pastor's wife and mom to three boys, two she gets to spend every day with and one she hopes will come home to his forever family through adoption this year. You can keep up with her adoption family at her family blog, and also find her blogging at Heart for Him, Today's Housewife, and Scripture Dig.  

Do you understand what it means to be adopted by God as His child? Next Tuesday I'll be blogging at Scripture Dig about what spiritual adoption looks like.


What do you know about physical adoption from personal experience?