One of my goals for this blog is to interview families who have adopted or are adopting. After all, who knows more about the needs of adopting families and orphans than people who have been so intimately involved in the process. For me, Jill Turner was the logical place to start. I met the Turners shortly after their daughter, Sova-Grace, came home from India. Mrs. Turner was kind enough to share the life book she had made for Sova with me. I cried through her account of their adoption. Since then the Turners have been a family I’ve looked up to. It has been a joy and privilege to follow along through their second adoption, twin tweens from Ethiopia this time. You can read about both adventures on the Turner Times. Enjoy the interview!

How did you become interested in adoption?
Right after our 2nd son was born our church started a bible study for anyone interested in adoption or has a heart for the orphaned. God tugged at my heart to go, and it was during this time of studying the scriptures on what God had to say about caring for the orphan that I started to seriously think about if this was something our family could do. We sent away for the informational packets and read a book on adoption. I vividly remember my 10 month old baby waking up in the middle of the night crying–as I rocked him in the chair, offering a bottle and trying to console him, I heard God speak to my heart, “wonder if Caleb was one of the millions of orphans out there…who would be rocking him to sleep?” I was ruined by that thought. For any parent to imagine for even a minute, their own child to be alone and suffering in this world–it was a wake up call for me. After sharing with Michael all that God had been impressing upon me he said, “let’s save as much money as possible to adopt as many kids as we can!”

What is something you wish more people knew about adoption?
Don’t say no because of the cost! That’s the first thing people think of when they hear the word adoption and that makes me so sad. Yes, adoption can be expensive yet by adopting through the foster care system the adoption is often free! There are many grants available for the more costly international adoptions–we received a substantial one! There are adoption tax-write offs and 0% interest loans.

I remember sitting in the living room of friends of ours who adopted 2 children–they knew we wanted to pursue an adoption so they had us over so we could ask them questions. The financial cost was our 1 and only thing holding us back from saying “Yes”. I will never forget this simple statement from our friend Steve, “Jill, adoption is God’s HEART….if you partner with His heart–don’t’ you think he will provide?” We left our friends home that night full of faith and ready to completely trust God to provide for us. He did…in ways that I would never have dreamed! When we started our 2nd adoption, we again wrestled with God over trusting him with the finances. Looking back I see that we acted like the Israelites–forgetting so soon the miracle of his provision–not believing that he would do it again! Once again he provided for us every step of the way–and again…beyond what I could have imagined!

What are your thoughts about these comments? How can we, as teens, help families overcome the fear about finances and pursue what God is calling them to do?

Stay tuned for part two.