A New Name

And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken. Isaiah 62:2b-4a

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Revelation 2:17b

Imagine it. God gives us a new name when He adopts us. Most will not hear that new name until Christ calls them by it in heaven but what joy it will be to hear and even recognize it as ours. During their earthly journey, Abraham, Israel, Peter, and Paul are examples of some who received new names upon their encounter with the Lord. It was a calling out of these men to greater work then they had ever done before. Even the Son of God upon His earthly birth received a new name revealed by an angel to his mother and adoptive father. It was not 'I AM' as it had always been, but "thou shalt call his name Jesus" was God's command.

When we gave a new name to our adopted child it created, and immediately enhanced, the bond and identification of being a part of our family. This new name was the beginning of teaching them that they were a "new creation" in Christ, even before they were saved. It taught them to "lay up for themselves treasure in heaven," not treasures of this world. It declared to them that they have a future not incumbent upon their past.

A name gives value and blessing. How much you value something determines how or if you will name it. When our four children came from Russia, we gave them teddy bears. We asked them what the bear's name was and they looked totally perplexed. Name a toy! Why? It had no value. This was something they had to learn to do. We taught them to add 'value' to their belongings and claim them as their own just as we had given them names to claim them as our own.

When we adopted our two sister beagles, we chose names for them to reflect our family's old fashion names. So they went from being Lucky and Clover to being our dogs named Gertie and Betsy. Also, many people will name their cars. Our fifteen passenger van is called Mike and our 6x8 travel trailer is named Charlie.

When a parent names a child it gives them identity, a sense of purpose and worth. It is a form of blessing them as only a true parent can. We do not know why our children were given their birth-names though we think they are beautiful. But we can always emphatically state to them why they have their given-names from us. A powerful tool when calling a child out to be a godly man or woman!

The feelings of abandonment and isolation from the natural order of life (a mother caring for her child) are present in every adopted child from the new born infant to the married adult with their own children. It is real and foreboding. But it is not who they are! Nor is it who they will be. It is only who they were. The question is not whether they would like to be called by the only names they have ever known (birth-name). The question is what does their heart need?

They need to know in their heart that they belong to their adoptive parents as surely as if they had been born to them and that they are Christ's child. This is the Dad and Mom who had prayed for them, who opened their hearts and home to them though they were strangers, who teaches them of the providential love of God which placed them in their family and of His Kingdom purposes for their lives.

As every Believer knows, adoption by God does not negate our past but defines it. It was ordained before time began. We are all merely living out God's plan which ultimately is to glorify Jesus. The child's new name will always remind them and testify to them of their future every time they hear it or write it.

Copyright © 2007 Robert Sanford. All rights reserved

Our Reward

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and fruit of the womb is his reward....Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. Psalm 127:3&5

How can children be a reward? Whether they are birth or adopted, children come into the world extremely selfish and demanding. And as they grow they seek harder to fulfill those selfish desires. Left to himself a child will be consumed with his selfishness and the desired fulfillment of his demands which make him anything but a reward and blessing. So what really is the blessing of having children?

It goes back to the first argument of why children are not such a blessing. The problem is that in many ways, though with more restraint (hopefully), parents are also selfish and demanding of their own way. We discovered the presence of this the day after our wedding! But it was not until children came that we begin to see the depths of it. For with the child comes a battle of wills. Now spouses will have skirmishes of will but because of their love and devotion to each other and the ability to communicate intelligently (for the most part) with each other, they can usually arrive at a decision that will be satisfactory to both of them. The child comes with no such love or propensity to work things out for the benefit of all parties. He wants, what he wants, when he wants it! We may call this willful. God calls it sin.

Children force us each day to look at the depths of our hearts and actions. As children grow older and take on our characteristics, good and bad, we are faced with a mirror of our self, and our image-bearers may not be pleasing to us. This is one way and a very major way as to why they bless us...we get to see ourselves for who we truly ar!. So if we do not want our offspring to take the same path we are on, we must change.

Since God's greatest desire is for us to love and serve Him with total abandon, for our sin to be real to us (not hidden) and confessed, that we live out daily the fruits of the Spirit, that we stand firm in our faith and work out our salvation, that we obey even unto death, and that the truth of the Scriptures be passed on to future generations, we are blessed with children to teach and train in the Lord. And since we always learn best when we have to teach and set an example we are truly blessed when children are given by the Lord as a reward.

Copyright 2006 Robert Sanford, revised 2010

The Father's Heart

He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Deuteronomy 10:18

In reading through the Bible a theme begins to emerge as to the character and heart of God toward man. Not only is his great love and grace, judgment and mercy revealed, but also the kinds of people to whom he is most compassionate and to whom he commands us to do likewise, meaning widows, orphans, and strangers.

Jesus displayed this truth perfectly. His compassion to strangers (non-Jews) was specifically detailed in scriptures including the Roman soldier's servant, the Gadaranes man, the Syrophonician woman's daughter, and the tenth leper. From Peter's mother-in-law to the widow of Nain to his own mother at the cross, Jesus cared for widows. He even spoke to the greatness of one widow before God in that she gave everything out of her nothing where others gave to the treasury very little compared to their great wealth. A very familiar verse, "suffer the little children to come unto me," is typically applied to mothers bringing their children to be blessed by Jesus. But as we look at the totality of scripture we understand Jesus to mean bring all children to him, i.e.: grandchildren, nieces/nephews, church children, orphans in America or overseas. Believers are to follow Jesus' example. Though we move among equals most of the time, compassion for the stranger, widows, and orphans should be a representative part of our time and interest.

Know ye not that I must be about my Father's business? Even at the tender age of twelve Jesus knew what he was to be about. As Believer's our call is absolutely the same. We must be about our Father's business. To pursue the will of the Father in one's life does not take years of prayer and Bible reading, it only takes obedience to do what the Lord has set your hand to do (duty) and to do it for His glory alone.

What does take years of practice is to die to self and live unto Christ! Yet God does not leave us without ways of working this out to the maximum. He says in James 1:27, Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. If you want to really show God your heart is for him then you will do what is his heart.

Do not be fooled, it is by grace that we do anything, but the question is, "How much grace do you want?!" If a little grace is OK with you then just do what fits in your comfort zone. BUT if you want to have grace poured out in heaps, full to overflowing, then step out in faith and do the work of the Father. Go into prisons, and nursing homes. Host a foreign college student. Adopt a child who is fatherless, or generously finance a family who is willing to open their home to an orphan, a stranger, a child! Go into the mission field of another country or state and as you share the Gospel with these strangers, the Lord will bring to you widows and orphans for you to touch in Jesus' name. It is all about the Father's heart.

Where is your heart? God did not prosper this great Nation so that we, as Believers, could lavish 'stuff' on ourselves. He commands us in James 1:27 to keep from being polluted by that mindset. That is why in the same sentence of learning what is pure for a Christian (to take care of widows and orphans) we are told not to do as the world does. John Bunyan rebelled against man to obey God and was locked in prison. William Tyndale rebelled against man to obey God and was burned at the stake. This kind of martyrdom may never be our calling or fate in Christ, but we are to restrain our desires (imprison them) and to die to self, living for Christ's will only. Being a martyr to self must be an every moment decision whereby the Believer is then able to embrace God's ability through grace to do mighty deeds for his kingdom. We need to do as Isaiah and say to the Lord, "Here am I send me."

"I could never do what you do!" How many times have missionaries, pastors, adoptive parents, prison chaplains/volunteers, nursing home workers/volunteers, homeschooling families, and college student hosting families had to listen to those words, and from believers no less! And all that echoes in the heart and mind of the afore mentioned persons is, "But by the grace of God I am what I am." No one does anything for the Kingdom of God except that they stepped out in faith, trusting God's Word, and the Lord pouring out in torrents his grace upon their obedience. And where does that obedience come. It comes from a desire to do the Father's will and to live the Father's heart as revealed plainly in Scripture.

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40

Copyright 2006 Robert Sanford, revised 2010

The Tie That Binds

Adoption is the embracing of another parent's child as your own with all due rights and privileges as if they were born to you. Yet this child has a life that proceeded you whether it was the nine months in utero or years in the care of birth-family. There are invisible ties to those voices, those faces, those inner impressions that can never be removed. And when taken from their birth-mother the ties may be stretched but they never break. The issue is how will the child and their subsequent adoptive family handle these wounds, memories, and feelings.

Children respond to all stimuli externally or internally from a sinful selfish perspective. They may even make vows in their hearts to do or not to do a thing though they know no words or formal language yet. Impressions and selfishness will drive their motives and state of being even when they are in utero.

Younger children or infants may seem perfectly content with their life in the adoptive family until around age 10-12. Then as the hormones begin to intensify and the child becomes more aware of who they are in the world questions arise such as, "Where did I came from?" and, "Why did my birth-mom give me up?" This especially intensifies if they are rebelling in their hearts against the Lord's command to 'honor thy father and mother'.

Older children, however, come with deep wounds, questions, and/or strong emotions towards birth-mother already in place. They have more than likely been cared for by birth-mom to an age of understanding but due to neglect, disease, or death are placed in an orphanage or foster care home by well meaning officials. Due to this, the child will often times personify contempt towards self and others. "If only I were different I would not have been 'taken' away from my mom." Or "You people are terrible and I will never like you because I will love only my 'real' mom."

Anger, confusion, betrayal flood the child's heart. Vows will be made. Walls will be build. Doors will be bolted shut. Their heart will become an impregnable fortress and their actions will declare their feelings loud and clear. You cannot get in here!! This invisible tie to the birth-family binds the child's capacity to receive and give love. It binds their ability to trust and be trustworthy. The motivating factor for all of these reactions is just good old-fashion sin. It develops from the child's desire to preserve self and exalt their desires over what is best for them. The matter is never truly resolved in the children's heart until they get to the point where they want to face truth.

Truth alone is what loosens the ties that bind and creates ribbons of strength that will stay unfurl in the calm or storms of life with the adoptive family. And that truth which will set them free is only found in Jesus. He is "the Way and the Truth and the Life." It is all about Christ. He is the key to unlocking the doors, taking down the bricks one by one, and confessed vows breaking their hold. His truth will rush in like a flood releasing the captives to love and be loved, to trust and be trusted. For "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8:36

Copyright 2006 Robert Sanford, revised 2010

Adoption Matters

A father of the fatherless...is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary in families. Psalm 68:5-6a

There has been and will always be orphans, children devoid of parents either by abandonment, death, or disease. That is why the Bible speaks over 60 times about visiting the fatherless in their oppression and reaching out to the fatherless.

That is why Adoption Matters.

God declares He is the "father of the fatherless" and true religion unadulterated is to "visit the fatherless...in their affliction" yet for centuries the average Christian in the world has overlooked the plight of the orphan. The Church had not risen up to do what God has set forth as a standard and avenue to receive great blessing through caring for orphans. However, it is just "such as time as this" that hearts toward orphans are beginning to change.

In the first century church Christians looked after the orphans of their cities. It was an outgrowth of their understanding of the scriptures as well as following the example set by their Jewish predecessors. The custom of their faith was to take orphans and give them to childless couples. Children were also placed with widows for the mutual benefit of each looking after the other. R.J. Rushdoony wrote in his book "The Atheism of the Early Church":

.... when the unwanted babies were born, they were promptly taken and abandoned under the bridges of the river Tiber in Rome. In other cities there were places which were routinely used for abandoning babies.

The Christians made it their habit immediately to go to the places where these babies were abandoned — to be devoured, as Tertullian said, by wild dogs — to collect these infants and parcel them out from family to family. This tells us something about the life of faith among these believers. How many members of congregations today would welcome an officer of the church coming by with an abandoned baby or two, and feel it was their duty to rear them in faith!1

This tradition can be seen today in part with Crisis Pregnancy Centers, foster care systems, orphanages/children’s homes, and adoption agencies. But instead of "an officer of the church" placing the orphans in homes it is the Lord moving the hearts of his people to pursue adoption.

In fact, adoption is becoming a rampant norm in America. You may be seeing it played out in micro-version within your home and/or community but it is actually becoming a national phenomena. More precise Christians are being called by the Lord to adopt or to participate in facilitating adoptions like never before seen in this country. Part of that explosion can possibly be explained in the fact that adoption does not carry with it the stigma that it did 50 years ago or even 20 years ago. At that time adoption was considered what to do when you could not have a birth-child, not what to do in spite of birth-children. (This is still the case in countries such as Russia and the Philippines where adoption is seen as a stigma. Therefore even Christians do not step out in faith to take in their own orphans and countrymen.) Also the mind change that is apparently occurring in Christians asserts "It is not about having children. But it is about reaching out to children who need a family, who need to know Christ, who need discipleship to follow Christ."

The Lord is doing this marvelous work! It is reminiscent of the early church. And that too is why Adoption Matters are on the rise. Bringing strangers into your established home and expectations, especially if they are older children, is often akin to combining fire and gasoline in your kitchen. Not a practice conducive to peace and joy! Yet if God has placed this call on a family, then they are to trust him as well as be obedient to this work. Adoption issues are as diverse and involved as the children and families they affect. Yet there are common threads of grace. Our desire is to be a ‘voice crying in the wilderness’ to lead the way for adoptive homes to be full of peace and joy and not regret and misery. Our hope and prayer is that Christian families who risk all to bring an orphan into their home may bear witness to the Lord’s glory through the calling on their lives to adopt.

Adoption Matters because God’s heart is for the fatherless and He calls Christians to the work of caring for them.

Adoption Matters are as varied and distinct as the families who open their hearts and homes to orphans.

That is why Adoption Matters.

1. R.J. Rushdoony, The Atheism of the Early Church (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1983, 2000), 10.

Copyright 2006 Robert Sanford, revised 2010

Fourteen From Him

Sanford Family 2006

The Lord was pleased to give us 14 children. The irony is my husband only wanted 2 children when we were married. And it would have stuck if the Lord had not given us two sons first. Therefore my husband modified his decision to 3 children because I wanted a daughter!

Since 3 was to be the sum and total of our progeny and not wanting to 'risk' a third boy, we sought to adopt that little girl. Nervously, I called the first agency but had to leave a message. With the second agency, a kind lady answered. After briefly sharing my story of having two sons and wanting a daughter she told me in no uncertain terms, "You have two healthy young boys, all you can hope to adopt is a black child, older child, special needs child, or a sibling group. The wait for a healthy white baby girl would be years."

I was totally frightened out of my wits by this news of the only adoptable children!! We are southerners, dark skinned people did not live with whites, I did not want to change our birth order, how could I ever help a special needs child, and a sibling group meant way to many children! So we took a leap of faith for another birth-child and in August of 1990 the Lord gave us a beautiful red-headed baby girl. Eight weeks later my tubes were tied. Oh, but God was moving!

September of the next year, Melinda and I had dropped off Joshua and Garrison for their first day of preschool. On our way home, we stopped by the mailbox to get the mail. It was the normal stuff of mail including the monthly magazine published by our electric company. On the cover of this issue was a mom with her two children sitting in a swing on their front porch reading a book. The bold letters printed across their legs stated 'Home Schooling' page 12.

We had already heard of home schooling. Our neighbors across the street had four children, two of which were school age, and they were home all day! I had watched her for three years and thought she was crazy. Why would she not want to enjoy time to herself and self-pursuits with her children safely tucked away in public school? And anyway she just seemed weird.

So there I am in my quiet little living room, my heart torn because I had just left my two very precious boys at a place of 'higher learning'. Joshua, as a social 4 year old, was all for it but Garrison, a shy 2 1/2 year old, was clingy. I had to make him stay. It is what you are supposed to do, right? I hated it but I wanted to be a good mom and prepare my boys for school. Obviously I could not prepare them. My college degree was not in teaching. Oh, but God was moving!

After reading the magazine article, I was intrigued. My husband was guarded but fine with me finding out more. So I gather the children up the next day and we went to the library to find some books about this allusive subject. The three-foot self which held all the home school books was empty except for two. I took them home after requesting from the library several of the other books to be held for me once they were returned. These books changed our life. I was convicted of huge sins and saw God for the first time from, what we would call today, a 'Christian worldview'. We had never been taught that God wants all of us and every day, not just our Sunday. And that the Bible is not hard to understand but is the guidebook for all of life. Oh, the grief, oh, the joy, but God was moving!

We pulled our boys out of preschool after only two days. Then I introduced myself to my neighbor. She became my friend and mentor. Beth McDowell is the wife of Stephen McDowell who is a historian, author, and world conference speaker. He is co-laborer with Paul Jehle, John Eidsmoe, Gary Demar, David Barton, and William Potter as well as others. We did not understand any of this at the time. All we knew was they were our kind neighbors who counseled us, and our children were friends.

This was also when God moved in our hearts to understand that children are a blessing and the fruit of the womb is his reward. We wanted more blessing and reward, so we sought to undo what we had done years before. The doctor was firm and specific, he could untie my tubes. However there would be a 50/50 chance of each pregnancy being a tubal due to scar tissue and my life would always be in danger. For my husband the decision was easy, no surgery. He wanted his wife. For me the news was more devastating, I wanted more children. Oh, but God was moving!

And so were we. In 1997, State Farm moved my husband from Virginia to the corporate office in Bloomington, IL. We settled into a newly built home and new community. We found a evangelical church were folks actually brought their Bibles and opened them! The desire for more children was my constant prayer since 1991 and in 1998 it became a burning fire in my heart. One day in the spring of that year, I opened the local paper to find a full page ad for some 2,000 children in the Illinois foster care system who were available for adoption. Up to this point we had only considered international adoptions which cost loads of money we did not have. The Lord used our 'poverty' to turn our hearts closer to home to find our children.

To make an already long story short, we pursued a DCFS adoption. On September 30, 1999 the Lord was pleased to give us a baby girl of black and white race. On October 20, 1999 the Lord gave us a sibling group of three girls changing our birth-order. In November of 2003 God took us international for an adoption. We traveled to Russia to bring home a sibling group of four, two of which were special needs children. And lastly in May of 2005 we brought home another sibling group of three with very dark skin from the Philippines. (Both international adoptions were completely financed by the Lord through family and friends meeting a matching grant through Lifesong for Orphans and adoption grants with State Farm.)

So what was spoken by the lady from the adoption agency back in the spring of 1989 was actually a prophecy, 'all you can hope to adopt is a black child, older child, special needs child, or a sibling group', for by this God moved to fulfill our hope and joy of more children.

Fourteen from Him: seven boys and seven girls. Our blessing and reward.

~Katherine

Welcome

Welcome to Bob and Katherine Sanford's blog. Obviously God has brought you here for a reason but for the time being this blog is under construction. Please check back regularly as we plan to have this up and running in the near future, Lord willing.

God bless you all!