In the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith,  Chapter 12 reads this way:

All those that are justified, God vouchsafed, in and for the sake of His only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of children of God, have His name put on them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a Father, yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation.

I read through this several times to grab the meanings of all the words and just how vast God’s grace is in adopting us.  Over the years I have hoped that James and I would be able to adopt a child but that has never come to fruition.  Earthly adoption is a beautiful picture of spiritual adoption and a means to spread Christ’s love to a child in need and further the Gospel.  Several of my daughters hope to adopt a child, or two, or three someday.  The Van Surksum adoption (read here) made quite an impact on our family. 

It is with much joy that I announce the adoption of Tiana Grace Spangler.  My husband’s brother Gene and his wife Marsha, along with their daughter Alexis, have cared for Tia for quite some time and on November 10th the adoption of this sweet little girl became official.  This is particularly dear to my heart because I have prayed for another child for this family for ten years.   There are not too many things that I have prayed for day after day for so many years.

What makes this adoption different than others I have known is that my brother-in-law was adopted into my husband’s family.   James was 14 when Gene was adopted at the age of 4.  The stories James has told me about his little brother at that time are just precious and James clearly remembers standing before the judge and giving verbal affirmation to wanting his new brother.  So this picture I am posting here is a picture of multi-generational adoption.  

May the Lord bless the Spangler clan with faithfulness in all the coming generations of Spanglers, until He tarries no more and ushers in heaven for us all.