From a fellow adoptive Dad

Most adoptive parents I have interacted with do not want to be viewed as heroes. We think of adoption as mostly about loving a child who needs to be loved, and not so much about heroically rescuing a child. Perhaps rescue motivates in the early stages of considering adoption, but, at least for me, it quickly faded to just love for my future daughter. But, because there is such a strong parallel between the adoption of a child and our adoption into the family of God, the element of rescue should not be ignored. This was brought back to mind very eloquently and modestly in the following post by an adoptive Dad in our travel group. He writes:

Last evening we were fortunate to meet up with the missionary friends who we had
corresponded with in Datong. As we rode in the taxi to find dinner, they asked
me if I really understood the kind of "rescue" we were providing for Silas. I
thought I did, but really had no idea. They shared with me that in China, the
orphans are considered the lowest of the low. Many times people would tell them,
"don't give those things to those children, they are orphans" or other comments
that these children were not deserving. They shared with me that orphans had no
one to "buy them a job", that orphans had to marry orphans and that many of
these children simply grew up on the street with nothing. As I thought about
this more, I kept hearing 1 John 3:1 echo through my head. "How great is the
love the Father has LAVISHED on us, that we should be called the sons and
daughters of God". We were all orphans, but out of the awesome love of our
heavenly Father, just like our adoption of Silas, we are adopted and rescued by
Christ. My love and joy is overflowing for my new son. It is hard for me to
embrace the fact that God loves us this much and more! What an awesome God we
serve and how great it is to experience RESCUE! (reprinted with permission, Jason Groth, www.seekingoursilas.blogspot.com)

Thanks, Jason, for this important reminder and great perspective.