So, You Want A Child
A worthy desire indeed! You want to adopt a child! If the desire could indeed be the fulfillment many now consigned to a life of institutional regimentation could be free!
The objective is to get the child and/or children that which they do not have, viz, parents and the parents (prospective) that which they cannot have, viz, children.
An illustration: A couple were married who could not have children. They were physically healthy, financially stable and spiritually reliable. They drove over fourteen hundred miles, and of five families waiting they were selected to receive the children. Quote: "We do not eat as expensive cuts of meat as we used to but we eat better. We have vegetables out of the garden which are fresh and plenty of fresh milk. And every night when the children go to bed we hear them pray, 'Thank Thee for our Mommy and Daddy'." The children are so mannerly in worship and are developing in knowledge, grace, and ability to lead in singing and prayer.
God requires us to obey the laws of the land, Rom. 13:1f, and the "powers that be" have their own ideas as to what one must conform in adopting a child. A lawyer who is a Christian gave me these statutes five or six years ago. They may have changed by now:
Title 3, Article 46a, Section 8: "No white child can be adopted by Negro parents. No Negro child can be adopted by white parents. (The same is true with regards to some Indians. I have gone as far as Manuelito, New Mexico, to try to adopt Navajo children for white couples who wanted but could not have children. Adoption would have marred their inheritance.)
Penal Code, Vol. 1, Art. 493: "The term 'Negro' includes also a person of mixed blood descended from Negro ancestry from the third generation inclusive, though one ancestor of each generation may have been a white person. Any person not included in the foregoing definition is defined a white person within meaning of this law."
Remember, the righteousness or wisdom of such laws is not the subject of this article.
Here are some suggestions and thoughts gleaned from personal experiences and friends which might help you if you REALLY WANT TO ADOPT A CHILD. (Please settle this beforehand in your own hearts and be agreed. Do not waste the time of another and take a chance on hurting rather than helping the child and its prospects of a happy home.)
1. Be prepared to pay! No, this is not advocating the black market buying of a child, but if you were having your own child you would expect to pay the hospital bill and fee of the doctors. In addition to this there will be a legal fee for the lawyer.
2. Let it be known that you WANT a child or children. None of us have finished our course in mind reading and it hurts us to hear one say "Why didn't you help us to get that child."
3. Let the family doctor, nurses and Evangelists as well as every Christian be the means of contact in getting the ones in need with the ones who want to supply the needs.
4. Preachers generally are not licensed adoptive agents but they can and often do do the "leg work" necessary in this matter.
5. Don't be selfish! If you wish to adopt a child and it must be blond, brunette, redhead, blue-eyed etc., etc., just for your own satisfaction or for exploitation then forget it! These motives are both impure and defiled.
6. Be patient! In nature there is anxiety and waiting and sometime heartache but most often there is bliss.
7. Be prepared! Get ready to enter into every opportunity presented to reach your objective and fulfill God's will.
8. Remember the "golden rule" and act in such a way that there will be no recourse to the courts and no reproach upon the church for which Christ died.
9. The Lord be with and bless you. As one Christian who adopted a child well said "We (conservative brethren) of all people should practice what we preach, "pure and undefiled religion."
— Blytheville, Arkansas