5,000 offers to adopt one boy: Have you been adopted into a “forever family”?

A nine-year-old boy’s heartbreaking plea for a family pulled at heartstrings all over the country last week. 

The appeal from Jordan was made during a local news interview in Oklahoma and generated thousands of responses within twelve hours. “The reason it’s important is because—so I could have some people to talk to anytime I need to,” Jordan said. “I hope one of y’all pick me.” 

Jordan has been in foster care for six years. As of last week, five thousand submissions to adopt him have been received. His younger brother, who was placed in foster care with Jordan, has already been adopted.

Jordan said in the interview that if he were granted three wishes, it would be “To have a family, and family, family. Those are the only wishes I have.” 

Is God your “Abba Father”?

The desire for family and someone to “talk to anytime I need to” is ingrained in all of us. 

The God of the universe, who created the first family (Genesis 2:18), desired all of us to be part of his “forever family.” 

Adoption was original with God: “But 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 no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:4–7). 

When we make Jesus our Lord, we join God’s family: “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ’Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:15–17). 

In his interview, Jordan said he “would just like to have a family to call mom and dad or just mom or just dad.” 

As adopted children of God, we can now call God “Abba Father,” Abba being the Aramaic word for father, or daddy. It was the name used by Paul in the two verses above and by Jesus in Mark 14:36. Jesus knew his Father intimately from the very beginning of creation, and Paul was once a persecutor of Christians until he was adopted into the family of faith and became a “fellow heir with Christ.” 

Our adoption story

Thirty-three years ago, I held a beautiful baby girl with dark curls in my arms. 

I will never forget my instant love for that small human being. 

We went through a process of adopting her and making her a part of our family. We also had a biological son, but there was no difference in our love for our two children. 

I better understand God’s love for me as his adopted child, a “fellow heir” with his Son Jesus. We do not think of our daughter as adopted—she is a “fellow heir” along with her brother. 

I pray Jordan will find his “forever family” to love him unconditionally. 

And I pray his new mom or dad will lead him to his “Abba Father.” 

God loves us unconditionally, and we will always be a part of his family, able to talk with him anytime. 

Do you know your worth in God’s eyes?

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1).