Adoption Through the Eyes of our 13-Year-Old Son

What Adoption Means to Me

by Parker Patterson, 13 years old

A lot of people like to be critics and say that our parents are just forcing us to adopt all these kids. Those people are way off track; adoption is not just a good thing to do and everybody shouldn’t do it. God has to call you to it and the people who say it’s not fair to us kids or that it is a burden are completely wrong. I think it is a huge privilege and a great joy!


It is a privilege because it is rare for God to call a family to adoption like He has with ours. A good analogy would be diamonds. Diamonds are rare and special; if everyone had diamonds, they wouldn’t be all that special and it wouldn’t be a privilege to own one.


Adoption has also been a very big factor in developing my character. It has taught me so much about myself. I think adoption has been almost as good for me as it has been in the lives of the kids we have adopted. It would be so selfish to say ‘well, I know the kids in Haiti are starving, but I want more Christmas presents, so too bad for them.’ That would be so wrong!


In my opinion, the people who say we are being deprived are looking at it from a worldly point of view. I would much rather have more siblings and less presents. If these people are so narrow minded that all they can think about is how much worldly stuff we can accumulate, they must have never met our family! It seems to me that they need a change of heart. How about thinking about the starving, dying, orphans that actually are deprived. They have nothing, not even love from parents! The least we can do is give them that. Worldly things are temporary, short-lived, fading and not all that great.


Joy, true joy, is lasting, satisfying and fulfilling. For me, that comes from two things: God, and knowing that we are saving kids’ lives.


Before God even called us to adoption, I had started to notice that even all the cool stuff we used to get at Christmas didn’t ever bring me joy. And it’s the same with most worldly things, they just don’t last. But joy is way different. It is deeper and more lasting. I think hope and joy go hand in hand, kind of like a cycle. You get joy from the hope we have in Jesus. And you also get joy from doing God’s will. But without hope, there is no joy.


I guess what I’m trying to say is it is much more rewarding to help orphans than get worldly things. I think 2 great verses that our family definitely lives by are Matthew 6:20 and 19:21. Both kind of say that you should store up your treasures in heaven where they will last and that will bring true joy.



I just wanted to let everyone know that Parker (our 13-year-old son) felt God calling him to write this essay today.  No one prompted or paid (haha!) Parker to do this; well, I guess God prompted him, but no one in our family had anything to do with what Parker wrote in this essay.  I am humbled to be this boy's mother.  I don't cry easily, and I didn't make it through this essay without crying.  God has called our family to the privilege of adoption, and we are ALL blessed.  We are a team who are ALL committed to God's calling.  Matt and I are not making the decision to adopt without first involving our children through prayer and conversation.  It is our children who beg us to adopt more kids, and I am humbled to see God's mighty work in the lives of our children, as well as our own.  He is not just rescuing the fatherless, lonely and forgotten, He is rescuing our entire family.  We are His; our lives are not our own.  We were bought with a price; the ransom of God's One and Only Son.  To God be the glory for building the Patterson Adoption Team where ALL members have a heart for adoption!  Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him!!!

*Edit:  Forgot to mention that this essay is Parker's untouched, unedited first draft, and Parker pretty much loathes writing!  He wrote this in obedience to God's calling upon him, and God gave Parker this message during his quiet time this morning.  Parker is our oldest bio child, and he is an AMAZING brother to ALL of his siblings; we are so blessed to be his mom (as we are ALL of our children, who are ALL simply AMAZING!).  Also, if you would re-post this, I think it would help give a voice to all of the children in adoptive families.    I just ask that if you re-post that you would please email me or leave me a comment that you're re-posting simply so we can see what God does with this Divinely inspired essay, and maybe Parker will begin to like writing with the responses he receives from this essay! :-)