How to Face Your Fears As You Answer the Call to Adopt

Many hopeful adoptive parents feel anxious at various points throughout the adoption process and after bringing their child home. After learning more about infant adoption, you might be worried about the unknown.
 
Some hopeful adoptive parents fear that an open adoption relationship will become like co-parenting and that the birth parents can eventually regain custody. Others worry that their adopted child will reject them. At some point, your fears might even stop you from obeying what God has called you to do.
 
The best way to conquer a fear of the unknown is by following those ancient paths that lead to the Lord! If you’re facing fears about adopting, remember what Jeremiah 6:16 has told us: “Ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” Bring your fears to the Lord, who will replace them with peace and direction.
 
When the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, they crossed the wilderness. After making a short trek through the desert, God was ready to bring them into the Promised Land. However, the Israelite spies were paralyzed with fear once they saw the people they would have to battle in Canaan. They reported that:
 
…the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there…But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them, we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!
(Numbers 13:28-33, NIV)
 
Even though you were born in the 20th century, you could become one of those fainthearted spies. But God isn’t finished talking to you. Remember Caleb? He was an Israelite who saw the giants but had a different perspective:
 
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” (Numbers 13:30)
 
Do not fear the people of the land…The Lord is with us; do not fear them. (Numbers 14:9)
 
God wanted this kind of trust and obedience from His children. As He told the Israelites:
 
Not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. (Numbers 14:22-24, NIV)
 
Here’s what God is saying to your trembling spirit through this Old Testament story: Yes, adoption can be scary. Adopting is like meeting the giants in the Promised Land. But trust in Me; I can handle the giants. I need you to follow Me wholeheartedly as Caleb did.