There is a need for Gospel centered content about adoption that is created by and for adult adoptees.
Few resources are broadly available that express adoptees’ stories and perspectives. Of the resources that are available, even fewer reflect a Christian worldview.
It is important for adoptees to have a voice when it comes to adoption. Many stakeholders speak about adoption, but adoptees have historically been notably absent. Adoptees have experiences and insights that others, including adoptive parents and birth parents, do not have. Content created by and for adult adoptees can address topics that most non-adoptees do not face and that are often neglected in other adoption spaces.
Additionally, adoptive parents are eager to hear from adoptees, hoping that learning from adoptees will help them better navigate parenting their adopted children. Adult adoptees can provide helpful information and encouragement to adoptive parents that other groups, which often focus on the experiences of younger adoptees, do not provide.
The Gospel speaks to the issues raised by adoption that adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive families encounter throughout their lives.
The church has a long history of presenting an oversimplified view of adoption that largely ignores the challenges adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive families face.
Adoptees often seem to either ignore, bury, or become angry about issues relating to their adoption. It is common for adoptees to wait until adulthood to begin processing the impact adoption has had on them. Even for adoptees who wrestle with their adoption before reaching adulthood, adulthood inevitably raises new questions about what adoption means in their lives. When these questions and issues surface later in life, it can be difficult to reconcile the Christian messages about adoption that they heard throughout childhood with the more complicated realities of life. Anecdotally, the church’s messages surrounding adoption have even contributed to some adoptees’ decisions to leave the church.
We know that the truth about adoption is far more intricate and nuanced than the way the church often portrays it. A robust theology of adoption does not ignore the pain, confusion, and complexity that adoption can bring－it faces it head-on and speaks into those spaces with profound hope. The Gospel is wide and deep enough to address both the hurt and the hope without faltering, and that is what this community strives to explore and embrace. Together, we are working to build a community that embodies Christ’s love as we explore the meaning of adoption and the impact that it has on our lives.