Hi everyone:
Since this is my first post I thought I’d take this opportunity to tell you a little about myself and why I’m excited to be a part of this ministry. I am a biological and adoptive mom, as well as a wife, daughter, sister, grandmother and most recently a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. My experience with infertility and adoption changed my life dramatically. So much so that it inspired me to go back to school at age 47 to get my master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and become a therapist in order to help others who might be going through infertility and adoption as well. I chose that population for the topic of my research, and learned so much that I’d like to share with you over the course of my next few posts.
“He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ” Ephesians 1:5
In the course of my psychology program I also learned a lot of things that I didn’t expect. About myself, about the world, and even about the Bible and God. I had expected to find opposing viewpoints everywhere I looked, but instead I became reassured again and again of the wisdom and truth of the Bible and God’s Word. For example, what psychology calls the “multigenerational transmission process” the Bible calls “The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’ Ezekiel 18:2……and while the world considers adoption an “alternate or deviant family form” the Bible says he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ” Eph. 1:5.
In the world the idea of “family” is largely defined by blood or biological bonds. But in church we consider each other brothers and sisters in Christ, not by our own or our parent’s blood, but by the blood through which we were all saved. “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” Rev. 1:5 What the church has known for so many years, as in so many things, our society is slow to acknowledge.
The idea of “family” is largely defined by blood or biological bonds
Next time I will share more of my research findings about infertility and adoption, and why we struggle to feel accepted by the world when we choose an “alternate” definition of family. For today, I’d like to leave you with this good word: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Rom. 8:22-24
– Jan
Three Strands Ministries 