Adoptees: Life Changing Joy/Overwhelming Emotions/God's Surprises in Birth Sibling Reunions- Identifying with Moses

"The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he met Moses at the mountain¹ of God and kissed² him.

References for Exodus 4:27

• Cross References

• 38 4:27 - S Ex 3:1
• 39 4:27 - ver 14; S Ge 27:27 ; S 29:13

28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say,³ and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform." Exodus 24:27-28. 

My beautiful birth sister Judy went home to be with the Lord 18 years ago. I will never forget our life changing reunion three years before when I was but 36 years old. We met on a reunion weekend with all my Johnson birth sisters- 3 in all. ( My birth name before being adopted was Carol Ann Johnson ) I did not know of my birth family until I did a search for them in mid-life. After a 2 and 1/2 year emotional search I found them. Sadly my birth parents were already deceased. My birth sisters were told I died at birth when I, the baby, did not come home from the hospital with my birth mother. I remember my first meeting with Judy like it happened yesterday. It was truly overwhelming and amazing to look into Judy's face for the first time- and see mirror images of my physical traits for the first time in my life due to being adopted. Even though Judy and I only spent a few brief years getting to know one another- I thank her for lighting up my life with JOY with her tender love, her special gifts of caring and sharing of herself with me and my family.  I will never be the same because of the priceless gift God allowed in our reuniting as sisters. I know God's heart rejoiced when He witnessed Judy and I and my sisters reuniting, for that is the kind of compassionate God we serve.

   I find comfort in the pages of scripture when reading about the life of Moses, the most notable adoptee in the Bible. He too was separated at birth from his two birth siblings Aaron and Miriam due to the edict sent out by a cruel Egyptian ruler that targeted killing all Hebrew babies, hoping to extinguish the life of the foretold child who would be the coming Hebrew messiah. Moses mother Jachobed kept Moses hidden for as long as she could but as he grew his cries became too loud to silence him from the searching soliders who were on a terrible mission of slaughter. By God's leading, Jachobed obediently weaved an ark- a basket of reeds and sealed it with pitch to allow Moses a safe journey in his travels down the dangerous alligator infested Nile River where she prayerfully released him to his future destiny. 

   God did not forget Aaron, Miriam and Moses who in their painful separation as siblings faced trauma and deep loss. Their suffering surely must have birthed in them an inner angst- a longing to reunite someday. The scripture verse from Exodus tell us that God nudged Aaron to go out and meet Moses in the desert. They were now adults and so many difficult and challenging years had passed them by and they likely felt God had forgotten them and abandoned their dream to be together again. But God surprised them, and overwhelmed them with His compassion, love and grace. Moses and Aaron met in middle of that parched desert and embraced and kissed. In God's perfect timing and creative ways He brought healing, reconciliation and inexpressable joy. What a mighty God we serve!

PRAYER:

Lord Jesus, our compassionate Father, We thank you for being with us through the losses, separations, and painful challenges of our lives. You comfort and sustain us through those wilderness experiences when our hearts are pierced. And then in your compassion and wisdom you overwhelm us with surprises and joy, often when we least expect them We thank you precious Father for loving us and providing for all our needs. You know us more intimately than we know ourselves. And we praise you!  Amen.

( Copyright 2015 by Jody Moreen. Permission is needed by the author to reprint a portion or the complete text in any media form- in print or online )

Adoptees are Created, Chosen, Cherished and Celebrated by a Loving God-( Part 1 )

   

God's love letter, the Bible, shares with us God's love for us in creating us for fellowship with Himself and others. In Genesis we read of the beauty of Gods creation in a world that was formless, empty and void. In the scriptures we read that we were Created by the triune God and made in His image. We were Chosen in Him before the foundations of the world. He has Celebrated His love for us each and everyday with the rising and setting of the sun. He has made provisions for all our needs. We are Cherished by our first and forever Father and He longs for intimate fellowship with us now and for eternity. What wonderful truths are found in God's Holy Word! 

   But the scriptures also tell us that we were born into a fallen world- a world where God gave man free-will and choice and clear instructions, commandments and warnings to follow. But sadly man did not listen or obey God but chose to be his own god and followed his own selfish will. Man forgot God's laws and commandments as He was enticed by sin. Adam and Eve rebelled and did not follow the clear instructions God gave them in His perfect garden. They willfully disobeyed and sin entered the world. Adam and Eve listened to their adversary Satan who tempted, seduced and cast doubt in their minds over the truths God had told them. They tried to hide and cover for their sins but no one is able to hide from the eyes of an all-seeing Almighty God. And there is nothing within man that can blot out the ugly stain of our sins. But God so loved man. He foreknew that man would sin and He lovingly provided Jesus the only perfect sinless sacrifice to die in man's place. God freely offered man salvation if man chose to believe Him and make Jesus Lord of his life.

Our adversary Satan is still about the business of lying and casting doubt on God's Truth for He is the Father of Lies. And we are given the freedom and responsibility to discern and respond to God's truth or fall into the trap and enticement of sin that our adversary sets for us. We have that choice. 

As adoptees we are fully aware that our birth parents could not keep us or parent us due to choices they made and/or unfortunate circumstances they found themselves in. They had to relinquish their parental rights which opened the door for us to be adopted or fostered or placed in homes of other caregivers. For some of us this separation and loss created a vulnerability in our lives, a kind of wound or trauma that opened the door for us to believe Satan's lies and doubt the love of God for us.  Regardless of whether we were placed in loving adoptive families or not, many of us were impacted by the pain of our first significant loss. And our adversary Satan lost no time and seized the opportunity, just as he did with Adam and Eve to lie to us by telling us falsehoods about our birth parents and their feelings for us and casting doubt in our minds about God's love for us. But we were born as innocent children made in the image of God and He sees us as beautiful and precious and priceless. The circumstances of our birth and our birth parents actions or choices do not dictate our value or worth. Only God, our Creator has the right to that assignment, and He looked at all He created and said that it was good. Sadly some of us have been snared by Satan's trap and believed those devastating lies of our adversary and lived in light of their falsehood. Some of us have forgotten who made us, who we are and whose we are - God's precious, priceless children. We have an amazing heritage and a perfect heavenly Father!(Copyright 2015- Jody Moreen) Permission  is needed to reprint this piece in part or full in any media form- in print or online, 

Adoptees- Before You Were Born, God Chose You- Galatians 1:15

While facilitating adoption triad support groups the past 20 years, I have listened to many fellow adoptee's share their innermost thoughts and feelings. Sadly, a good number of them struggle with their earliest life narrative and their interpretation of being relinquished by their birth parents. At one time, I also wrestled with the confusion of not knowing why I had been placed for adoption until I learned the truth. Regardless of whether or not adoptees felt loved and cherished by their adoptive parents or not, the sting of not being kept resonates within some adoptees and may negatively impact their identity and feelings of worth. The beauty of adoptees being in face to face connection with birth parents in support group meetings is the opportunity they have to hear birth mothers and birth fathers share about the challenges and insurmountable circumstances that blocked their ability to parent. And hearing many birth parents express their feelings of love and remorse and longing for their child often helps adoptees rewrite their emotional scripts. Error is replaced with truth that can bring resolution and closure to their missing life history.
What I have discovered in my own adoptee journey is the precious truth that God chose me before the foundations of the world and had a plan and special purpose for my life. Just like the adoptees Moses and Esther in the scriptures, adoption became a detour God allowed in my life to mold me and make me into the unique person that I am today. He designed my features to mirror the image of my birth parents who gave me birth and brought me to life. And he provided a specific family to raise me and equip me to adulthood. And I have the privilege, by faith to embrace all the gifts bestowed on me by my birth and adoptive parents and mature into everything God created me for and wants me to be. And that is all because of God's Marvelous Grace.   ( Copyright 2015. Jody Moreen )
Permission needed to reprint this piece in part or full in any media in print or online format. Contact Jody Moreen.  Jody Moreen ( the at sign ) gmail,com