There is nowhere to hide – we are a city on the hill when we adopt transracially

I'm pleased to announce that Dorothy Bode, the mother of a large multi-ethnic family, is now a guest writer for our adoption blog. She and her husband are members of Bethlehem Baptist Church of Minneapolis, a church that is passionate about adoption in general and transracial adoption in particular.

One of the things I asked Dorothy to do was to write about issues related to transracial adoption from a God-centered, gospel-centered perspective. My hope is that God will use her posts to help equip couples who are either thinking about adopting transracially or who already done so to be families that increasingly display the beauty and power of the gospel. Multi-ethnic families have the wonderful opportunity to visually and verbally testify to the glory of God's gospel. After all, it is the gospel that is God's power to create a family filled with brothers and sisters from "every tribe and language and people and nation" (Revelation 5:9).

Here's Dorothy Bode's first article:

Some days I can’t get through one aisle at the grocery store without a curious person stopping to ask about our family. I know we are intriguing. I shop with 9 kids, age 11 and under, with African-American, Caucasian and Cherokee all represented in their patient faces. To the world at large we are a blazing city on the hill or at least a passing carnival. There is no way to hide our calling when we are out in public and the human truth is that there are days when I really embrace the message of Matthew 5:14-16 and others that I just want to skip those verses altogether and go back into my homogenous, self-centered, two children, double-latte life. But God says in His word - “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill can not be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to the whole house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Every time we walk out our front doors people are watching. What does your life testimony say when you walk out? Is it pleasing to God? I hope so! I hope that you are reading this because you have felt the call on your life to accept the blessing of a child who God raises up from somewhere outside your womb. And if you are not called to adopt yourself, I urge you to support those who are. I pray as I’m writing that your ears will hear the call of the Lord on your life and be deaf to the clanging cries of the world. Adoption is hard, and transracial adoption is always out on public display so it is always hard. But that’s not bad. When we walk to the park, or the zoo or the museum, it is almost guaranteed that God has a ‘divine appointment’ waiting for us there. It’s taken a long time for me to embrace the moments I have been given to let my light shine so that God might be glorified, but I am learning. It’s living out of the call from 1 Peter 3:15 “…to always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” I admit I never thought about it before we adopted, but seven years and six blessings later I have a solid trust in he who placed us on the hill.

When you adopt children who look like you there is a lot of attention for a brief time and then people sort of forget and strangers don’t have a clue, so the public part of adoption is pretty much done (excepting medical issues and genealogy projects in school). But when you adopt transracially that phase is never over – the fact that God built your family though adoption is always right out front, always an opportunity to give Glory to our Father in heaven. So get your testimony ready, soften your heart and receive the questions from strangers with joy because YOU get to tell them about the God who made your family beautiful.