Filling Out Adoption Forms

Last night my wife and I filled out some of the many forms necessary for our adoption from Haiti.  Along with all the family background data, the Christian group we are working with asked to questions we could answer with a paragraph or more.  The questions and the answers follow:

My relationship with God

All of us live every day by faith--we know nothing of the future but can only live in the present moment by the Grace of Our Lord.  In a faith relationship, exact history is difficult to pin down, but I believe my relationship with God began when I was four years old.  I watched "Davey and Goliath" puppets on TV.  It was 1957.  I was Jewish, but my parents did not attend synagogue or talk about God.  Davey and Goliath introduced me to the life of faith.

I was Bar Mitzvah at 13, but did not think very much about God again until I was 20 years old.  Then, in 1972 I joined the Air Force. By 1973 I was on a live-fire missile testing team.  I got a Christian roommate.  He took me to his Church.  I thought his Church inhabited by lunatics (it was Pentacostal) but he was a great guy.  

On November 9, 1973, I was blinded and had many other injuries in a missile explosion.  I did not make a confession of faith until the following February, but while blind, I could see that God was real.

Since then, I have by much Grace and effort been following the Lord Jesus.  Suffering has brought me closer to the Lord over the years.  I have been blessed with amazing brothers and sisters of faith and continue to be blessed by the Lord's presence and people every day of my life.

Why I am Adopting

The two words that best describe why I am adopting are Ability and Obedience.  

Ability:  I have had the delight of raising three brave, strong--sometimes overconfident--daughters.  I believe I can do the same with boys.  I am currently serving as a sergeant in the Army National Guard.  I have spent almost 15 years in the military, much of it as a tank commander.  The Lord has given me excellent training to be a father of boys who need homes.  I plan to do the best I can at this calling.

Obedience:  In the Church today, many people talk about taking the Bible literally by which they mean something far away from them--like Genesis or Revelation, not the tough stuff like giving away possessions.  Our Lord promises we will suffer if we obey Him.  To my wife and I, no command in Scripture is more clear and compelling than the command (both Old and New Testaments) to care for widows and orphans.  

For me, I can care for orphans and be sure I am obeying the Lord.  He cares particularly for widows and orphans in their need.  And as to suffering for the Faith, if adopting and caring for three teenage boys does not cause me suffering, then I will just have to adopt more.