Another reason I could not put the book Choosing to SEE by Mary Beth Chapman down is because it is a story of adoption.

Mary Beth and her husband, Steven Curtis Chapman, had three biological children within five years soon after they were married.

Their daughter, Emily, went on a mission trip to Haiti when she was around 11 years old and during that trip God opened her heart to love and take care of the orphans of the world.

From that time on, Emily was convinced that her parents needed to adopt an orphan. Mary Beth and Steven weren’t so sure about this.

But, God worked on their hearts and when Emily was in her last year of middle school, her family flew to China to adopt a little baby girl.

Mary Beth begins her book by writing about her childhood and teenage years. She shares that she lost her virginity as a teenager and from that time on, she walked around wounded.

Flying to China in 2002 to adopt the little Chinese baby she had only seen pictures of on the computer screen, Mary Beth had no idea that God was about to work two miracles in her life.

One was obviously the miracle of adoption that would bring their 4th child home and give a little girl a chance at life.

The second miracle was the healing that Mary Beth experienced as this little Chinese baby was placed in her arms for the very first time in the hallway of the hotel in China.

Mary Beth shares how apprehensive she was about this adoption. She wasn’t sure she would be able to love an adopted child like she loved her three biological children.

But then, that baby was placed in her arms and the words that Mary Beth shared in her book left me literally with tears in my eyes (I normally do not cry reading books or watching movies.). The picture that Mary Beth painted of how God has adopted us as His sons and daughters was just beautiful. I cannot adequately describe what reading that paragraph in her book was like so I will quote Mary Beth word for word:

In that moment, time stopped. It was like God was speaking to me directly. “Mary Beth, you thinkheaded woman, do you not understand now that this is the very way I see you? You are this orphan! I adopted you and you are Mine! I bought you for a price! Do you see how you love this baby? That’s just a faint reflection of how much I love you! You didn’t have a name, and I gave you a name. You did nothing to deserve my love, and I love you anyway. You had no hope, no future, and now you are the daughter of the King! (Page 86)

That, right there, is the beauty and miracle of adoption!

This reason and this reason alone is enough for me to be incredibly grateful to the Lord that adoption was in His plan for me, twice! Once when He adopted me into His family and again when I adopted Little Bug into my family.

Yes, every aspect of adoption isn’t beautiful all the time, but, adoption is beautiful!

The negative aspects of adoption are sometimes allowed to be on center-stage much too often. While we can never ever forget the negative aspects because the negative aspects are what make adoption necessary, we must choose to SEE the positive aspects more often.

And one positive aspect of adoption is that it paints a very vivid, beautiful, tangible picture of how God adopts us into His family. We were born unto sin, but through our adoption into God’s family we now have hope, a future and we are now called sons and daughters of the King!

Yes, adoption is beautiful and the negative aspects of adoption, such as a belief that an adopted child will grow up to resent or even hate their adoptive parents, are lies straight from Satan that he desires us to believe so that he can taint the beauty of adoption.

While certainly not forgetting the ugliness that made adoption possible for Little Bug, Tracy and me, as an adoptive parent, I have chosen to SEE the beauty in adoption.

- Elaine