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Volume 57 / Number 2 / Winter 2007

Bethel Focus

A Magazine of Bethel University

Adoption—More Than a Name Change

 

by Donna Johnson, Pastor of Outreach Ministry
photos by Scott Streble

I met our son Treveon in church on July 12, 2003. He was a little more than three months old, staying with a foster family in our congregation. I'm rarely moved in a single moment, but I was smitten with this baby boy. That afternoon, my husband Herb and I decided we wanted this child to be ours.

Our adoption journey had actually begun in 2002, one year before we met Treveon, when the Lord started to work in our hearts as a couple. After a miscarriage, Herb and I began praying about being able to have another child. In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus says, "Ask and it will be given to you: search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks, receives, and everyone who searches, finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."

As two people in deep pain we called on God, and He answered in a way we did not expect.

Adoption had always been an option for us, but Herb was more open to the idea than I was at first. Then, in His timing, God brought us into contact with other couples who were preparing to adopt, and their love and excitement for a child not yet in their homes began to stir and soften my heart as well.

As I walked the adoption journey with my husband over the next 10 months, I learned how I can come to God and pray because He is not only approachable and available, but He also wants to meet our needs. And just as we have been chosen by God to be His children, I have been assured many times that Treveon was "picked special" to be our child.

I began looking into what the Bible says about adoption and found that, as children of God, we too have been adopted into His family. Romans 8:15-17 says, "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God, and if children, joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him."

In Roman culture, an adopted person relinquished any rights associated with the old family and gained all the rights of a member of the new household. An adopted child, I discovered, would gain all the privileges and benefits that would come from being part of our family. We would have the opportunity to provide for, protect, teach, and guide that child as he or she matured into a young person. An adopted person receives much more than just a name change. What a privilege to follow this biblical model!

After deciding that summer afternoon to pursue Treveon's adoption [through the African American Adoption Agency], God confirmed that He had been at work through numerous circumstances and "coincidences" that only He could orchestrate: Treveon was close in age to the child I had lost. He resembles my birth father, and even has one-and-ahalf dimples like I do! At the time, he was allergic to eggs like my husband. Treveon's birth mom and birth dad have birthdays in the same month as Herb's and mine. His birth mom lived in a group home for single mothers; I had worked in a maternity shelter for more than eight years in New York and have a heart for single moms.

But just as soon as we decided to adopt Treveon, the roadblocks came up to meet us. The enemy of our souls did not want this boy raised in our home. The cycle of dysfunction evident in his birth family would be broken, and so a spiritual battle was fully engaged. We began to pray for God's will to be done.

The rocky road through the adoption process led us through peaks and valleys that I will never forget. The mixed messages of county workers, delays in paperwork, lengthy home study—all of it tested our patience. Yet even through these obstacles, the Lord constantly gave us glimmers of hope that His hand was upon the journey. Our connection to the adoption agency grew stronger. We lived just 10 minutes from Treveon's foster family and could take care of him two to three times a week for several months. We were essentially "in training," learning how to be parents by taking care of our own child to-be.

With a court date scheduled for December 2003, Herb and I felt ready and excited about having Treveon home for Christmas. Then, to our dismay, our court date was postponed to February 10. After the proceedings seemed to go without a hitch, we were told about another unexpected hurdle: We had to wait 30 days for a possible appeal by any birth relatives.

Adopting our son was so close we could feel it—and yet we faced another wait! But even during this "final lap" God's loving care was evident. At last, Treveon came to live in our home on Monday, March 15, 2004 at 2 p.m. I'd feared I might feel like "just a baby sitter" and wondered if motherhood would kick in. It did. The moment he entered our home, I was his mom and he was my son.

Treveon is now nearly four. During moments of stress or worry, I try to remember it was God alone who brought this beautiful boy into our lives, and I'm comforted He will give us what we need to raise him. Our Father cares about the children He has put in our trust and will guide us every day. The prophet Isaiah (41:11) says, "He will feed His flock like a Shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young."

We cannot do it without the support of others as well. Treveon Josiah Johnson is being raised by a "village" of loving believers: the Christian foster family who cared for him and nurtured him back to health when he first arrived in their home; our extended family, who reach well beyond our front door; and our multicultural church, where more than 25 nations are represented.

It is this deep sense of belonging that we covet most for Treveon. We'll encourage him to connect with his biological parents if he chooses to; we also want him to connect and bond deeply with Herb and me, his earthly parents. But we most of all want Treveon to know the power of God as his heavenly Father and to receive the spirit of adoption with all the deep peace it brings.