Letter to Adoption Agency

Adoption - Realizing the Plan God Has for Us

We give praise to God for strengthening us and for making our paths straight. A favorite passage for us both is found in Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Five years into our marriage we opened our hearts to God’s plan for our life. For Him to make our paths straight and for Christ to grow us and guide us in all that we do. We began to give up control and through prayer, studying His word, Christian counseling and a heart to go where He wanted us, we made the decision to move from Florida to Utah. It was an act of obedience, and a belief that God would provide. Unsure of what was in store for us in Utah we gave up control over our lives and trusted Him. We now live in a mission field and have been adopted into a wonderful family of believers. We are for the first time extremely active at our church. Our lives and our marriage are centered with Christ. We are growing and learning more than ever, and have a heart for the many lost souls in the greater Salt Lake valley.

Looking back we now realize that making this move was the beginning of a much larger work of God, not only in our lives, but also the lives of others. Moving us to Utah was the spring board for His plan for us, and His way of preparing us for what was to come. This move has grown us both individually and as a couple. Growth that God knew we would soon need. Three years ago, after moving to Salt Lake City, we decided to start our family and were in prayer that God would give us a child. Since then we discovered that having a child on our own would be difficult. Though anything is possible in Christ our challenges with infertility have brought us both to tears and to our knees. As we laid our desires for a child at His feet God began a work in our hearts and has opened our eyes to a world of children that are in great need of parents and in greater need of the opportunity to know their LORD and Savior. Though it is not impossible for us to conceive we feel that God is calling us to shift our focus from conception to adoption. We both feel called to parent a child, and are trusting God to fill this great desire. We are both feeling so much joy and excitement as we begin the process of adoption. We still have hope that He will provide us with a child through conception someday, but are at peace with the plan that He has for our family. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:7

Through trust and obedience we are now taking a step of faith on a new path to parenthood. We feel so blessed that God has given each of us such a heart for children. We have received so much joy over the years through our friends and families children and are so excited to have our own child to forever love as we have so longed to do. Our desire is to adopt a child and to raise him or her to know the Lord. We know that we have a great responsibility to raise this child to know the greatest gift that can be given - to know their creator and to trust in Him completely.

Though we initially desired to conceive on our own, God wanted to show us more of what it meant to be adopted in Christ. As God’s Word says “... when the fullness of time had come , God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” so you are not longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” - Galatians 4: 4-7. We are made sons through God in this way. heirs according to His promise. We believe that through the adoption process God is showing his love, and demonstrating what it means to be in His family. Recalling Christ’s response when asked by the Pharisees as to what was the greatest commandment of the Law, Christ said: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” for us adoption is part of fulfilling these great commandments. Through adoption we will be blessed by God and have the opportunity to love a child in a way that will bring glory to Him. We are so thankful for this opportunity.

As our thoughts and prayers have turned to adoption we are reminded daily of how our adoption into the family of God was made possible. How great is our God that he would adopt us to be His children through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, our LORD! For us we know that our child will be grafted into our family in a similar way. God has taught us the miracle of adoption through His plan of salvation. How awesome is our God! As children and co-heirs with Christ we are confidant in our standing with God. We know that once saved we are justified in the eyes of God and grafted into His family forever. Adopting a child is similar in so many ways. It’s exciting to see God give examples of His grace through the needs and provision He offers to His creation.

Our hearts desire is to continue to live our life for Jesus Christ. He continues revealing to us that His plan is greater. That wonderful things await us if we give every situation to Him. We are so blessed that He would do a great work in our hearts by revealing His plan for us. Adoption is and always has been the plan God had for growing our family. What an amazing journey it has been so far! Infertility may be part of our life, but it is not holding us back. In a way it has been a blessing. It has brought us to our knees and has grown us closer to our Savior as we have relied on Him for strength, healing and guidance. Our marriage has grown stronger as we have comforted each other and looked to Christ for guidance together.

In closing we would like to state our faith in the God of the Bible.

We both affirm that there is one living God. - 1Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:6.

We affirm that God is eternally triune in nature. In this we mean that there are three persons in the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All three are completely equal, each having the same divine nature, essence, and being. Each being fully God yet with distinct personal attributes. - Gen. 1:2; Psa. 110:1; 2Cor. 13:14; 1Cor. 12:4-6; 2Cor. 1:21-22; 1Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:4-7

God the Father is all powerful, all knowing, loving and infinitely wise. God the Father is the father of all whom become his children through faith in his eternal Son Jesus Christ. - Deut. 32:4; Dan. 2:20; 1 John 4:8-10; Psa. 147:5

God the Son is the eternal Son of God. Jesus became incarnate and was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus knew no sin but died for us on the cross as a substitute, allowing the redemption of men from our sinful nature. Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven were he now sits at the right hand of God. We affirm that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man, that he will judge the living from the dead, and that he will come again in glory and power. We affirm that Jesus Christ is LORD. - John 1:1, 1:18, 20:28; Rom. 9:5; Phil.2:5-7; Heb. 1:8,10; 2 Pet. 1:1; Dan. 7:13-14; Mark 2:10-11; John 20:28; Heb. 4:15; 1 John 1:1-3

God the Holy Spirit is the divine Spirit of God. We affirm that the Spirit is active in the life of the believer, that He worked to inspire men to write the scriptures (the Bible, OT & NT). The Spirit guides us and convicts us of our sin. He allows us to correctly interpret the Word of God. We also affirm that the Spirit calls men to the Savior and regenerates the believer. The Spirit of God baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ and exalts Jesus Christ. - Gen.1:2; John14:25-26, 16:4-15; Acts 5:3-4, 8:26-40, 10:44-48, 13:2-3, 21:10-14

We believe that all men were made in the image of God. We believe that God has given us free will. With this free will man has defied God and fallen into sin. We believe that salvation cannot be earned by works of the Law, that salvation is a free gift of God by his grace alone. This gift is made available by the atoning, sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only path to salvation, and this salvation is offered freely to all whom accept Jesus Christ as their LORD and Savior. We also affirm that the mark of a true believer is a genuine repentance of sin against God (turning away from our sin). - Gen. 1:26-27, 3:1-24; Eph. 2:8; Heb.11:6; Titus 3:5

We affirm that the Church consists of a congregation of believers with a shared faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ (the Bible). We believe that Christian growth and maturity can only happen when you are connected with a fellowship of believers. This fellowship keeps you accountable in Christ through mentorship and allows for the opportunity to disciple others younger in the faith. Each member of the Church is ultimately accountable to Jesus Christ as LORD. We also affirm that it is the responsibility of every believer to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. - Matt. 28:19; 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Rom. 10:9

Lastly we believe that Jesus Christ will return to judge all men. The unrighteous will be cast out and condemned to hell, to be punished, separated from God for all eternity. The righteous will live forever with the LORD. - Matt 25:31-46; Phil. 2:10-11; John 6:44

- In Christ,

Scott & Anne Marie Criswell