Jacob’s Story
I did not want to adopt. My wife, Kelly, mentioned adoption early in our marriage and my attitude was, maybe someday after having some of ‘our own’ kids. I wanted biological children to see what we would produce and, maybe later if we had some extra time, money and space, we could talk about adoption.
Around our two-year anniversary, we started thinking about having kids. We started praying about whether or not we should start having children and, surprisingly, God answered us. The answer was “no.” As soon as we started praying about it, we started getting a lot of random unsolicited advice like “wait as long as you can before having kids” or “kids change everything; make sure you’re ready for them.” I was surprised by this and I remember wondering if we would ever know why we were supposed to wait or if this was just going to be one of those mysterious “God things.”
Six months after that, I got involved with Courage To Be You by playing at the Courage Concerts which were raising awareness and money to build homes for girls rescued from sex trafficking. The first concert absolutely floored me. I was shocked. How could this be happening in our city, in our country? How could this be happening at all?
Over the next 6 months I played at approximately 15 – 20 shows and I kept hearing the same things over and over again. “These girls need homes”; “They didn’t have anyone to take care of them”; “They’ve been abused their whole life.” One of the things that stood out to me was the statistic that 95% of these girls were from the Foster Care System. It dawned on me that these girls, these foster children, were the church’s responsibility. God said to take care of the orphans and widows and these are our orphans. If we weren’t going to take care of them, then who would?
I would go to each show and get my heart broken. I got angry, frustrated, and disturbed. I would pray at each concert, “Lord, please disturb these people and move them to action.” Then one day I felt as if God was saying to me, “You are the one I’m disturbing. Why don’t you move?”
At that point, Kelly and I started searching out information on adoption and God very clearly led us down the path He wanted for us. We have now been the proud parents of two young boys for over a year. Michael was 2 when we got him and his brother Samuel, turned 2 within two weeks of placement. Yes, you read that right, as brand new parents we had two 2-year-olds in the house. It was quite the adjustment, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
I almost feel embarrassed and ashamed of the way I used to view adoption. I had a very self-centered mindset. If anything, as Christians, we should be more open to adoption than anyone. That’s what Christ did for us; He adopted us into His family. I urge everyone to not just assume that you know what God’s plan is for their life. It would have been the most natural thing in the world for Kelly and I to start getting pregnant and having babies two years into marriage, but we would have completely missed out on what God had in store for us.
Written by Jacob Ricketts, bass player of The Reel, a C2BU Artist Partner