Adopting a child of a different ethnicity than your own

My husband and I are interested in adoption. We don’t know when it will be or how but we do know that we see the gospel beautifully represented in adoption, and since we have been adopted into the family of God, we’d like to give that picture to our future family. We want to give that picture more specifically through transracial adoption. 

You may start to feel worried for either the child or for us. “Oh the complications!” you may think. Identity issues! Children teasing! etc., etc. We have our reasons for wanting to transracially adopt but are your reasons for NOT transracially adopting biblical? Below is a quote from Russell Moore’s book Adopted for Life. May his words stop our worldly hesitations about transracial adoption:

“…If you’re not sure you can love a child with a different skin color than yours, the first step for you has nothing to do with the adoption process. Repent, and open your heart to love.”

For most Christians, though, the issue of racial identity isn’t an obstacle. For many of you, instead, the concern is about family members and how they’ll react to a child of a different race. I’ve seen couples convulsing in tears on the couch in my office, asking how they can love their new child and honor their father and mother at the same time. I’ve seen family members of every race and every region of the country turn up their noses at the idea of a niece, nephew, or grandchild of another ethnicity, usually with some highly spiritual rhetoric about honoring father and mother or about ‘the best interest of the child’ or a thousand other reasons.

What I’m surprised by is how many of these extended family members are deacons or women’s ministry directors or ushers or Sunday school teachers in their churches. They’re blissfully unaware, it seems, that what’s resting on them is the spirit of the antichrist. They seem not to comprehend that their own devotion to their flesh would disqualify non-Semitic folks like them from the promises of God. If Jesus agreed with them on adoption and race, they’d be in hell.”

Don’t get me wrong. There are real fears and hesitiations about adopting a child from a different ethnicity. All I am saying is we must use the gospel with our own adoption into the family of God to see if those fears are real barriers.

In November, there was a link posted of Q & A’s with Thibiti Anyabwile. He uses the gospel to talk about those fears and hesitations people may have about transracial adoption. If you’d like to check it out go here or here. 

Also another good article on Transracial adoption can be found here at www.toomanyaborted.com