Welcome Home Marlee Joy!!

For this child I prayed... 1 Samuel 1:27

This is Marlee Joy.

She is the newest member of the cool baby club.  And these are her parents, Miss Shelly and Mr Eric.  Miss Shelly and Mr Eric have been praying for a long time for Marlee Joy and God has been preparing them to be the perfect parents for this little baby.  Marlee Joy was barely 2 pounds when she was born.  And I thought I was teeny!  She spent the next seven weeks in the hospital getting bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger, and just got to go home with her mommy and daddy on Wednesday.  Yaaaay!

You might think that her story is different than mine or than yours, because she is adopted.

But the truth is, everyone who has accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior is adopted, too.  They've been adopted by God!  God calls them his CHILDREN.  Not just his servants or his followers, (and certainly not his adopted children), but his children. Pretty special, huh?

So... adoption is not always what mommies and daddies do because they can't have their "own" children, adoption is what mommies and daddies do as a response to what God has done for them.  After all, the point in having cute kids like Marlee Joy and me is to be parents, not to be pregnant.

Daddy says that the love of God for us produces and love for others in us, and I can tell that's true for Miss Shelly and Mr Eric.  Marlee Joy is lucky to have them as parents, and we're lucky that God finds us when we are lost and calls us His own.

James 1:27 says that genuine religion in the sight of God means caring for orphans and widows in their distress!

Everyone doesn't have to adopt, but God loves us THIIIIIS much and people who have been changed by that love will simply want to reach out to those in need the way God does.  God's desires start to become their desires.  How is God using you to love on those in need?