I was born somewhere in the state of Mississippi in May of 1975. I was 5 lbs. and 5 oz. with red hair and the nurses called me Sara. The end. This is all I know of my birth and the beginnings of my life.
Sometime later, I don’t know if it was weeks or months, I was adopted by a couple that had a 3 year old boy. The boy that became my brother had been adopted as an infant, just like me, and was not related to me or my parents by blood.
When I was little, I didn’t understand adoption. I didn’t understand why the woman who carried me in her belly didn’t want me. My mom made me read a book about adoption and how, according to the book, I was special because my mom and dad got to pick me. It made it seem as if everyone else born into a family is just the luck of the draw, but somehow adoption was supposed to make me special. Instead of feeling special, I felt ugly and unwanted. I didn’t have a good relationship with my mom. I felt like I could never please her or measure up to what she thought I was supposed to be.
…
Jeremiah 1:5 says:
“Before I made you in your mother’s womb, I chose you. Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work.”
When I became pregnant with my first child, I was in awe of how God created us to carry and sustain life inside of us. I found myself thinking more and more about the woman that carried me in her belly. I wasn’t thinking about how she didn’t want me anymore. Instead I was thinking about how very much she must have loved me. She carried me in her growing belly, feeling all of my kicks and nudges. In fact, I began to believe that she loved me so much that she chose to go through all of that, so that I could have life! There is no greater unconditional, sacrificial love.
Here’s the kicker though…I also know a Father. A Father that had a son. He gave that son up too. Not because He didn’t love his son, but because He loved me and He loved you, so very much that He wanted to give us life! He chose to go through death on a cross so that we could have life eternal with Him. There is no greater unconditional, sacrificial love.
God is that Father and that day on the alter when I was 8 years old, He adopted me into His family. Not because I had pleased Him or was anywhere near what He created me to be, but because He made me and chose me for a special purpose. He shook me that day and He shakes me still.
The blood of Jesus makes it possible for you to be adopted into God’s family. In fact, adoption through Jesus is the only way into His family. Turns out, my mom was right. Adoption does make me special.
Being shaken by God is the beginning of my life story and I’m constantly stirred to seek Him more. To know Him more. To love Him more. Shaken & Stirred is my adoption story.
I pray that it will be yours as well.
Mary Swafford is the founder of Shaken & Stirred, Meals that Matter, Coffee Talk, and a Co-Owner of Boulder Coffee in downtown Sand Springs. She is a wife, a mother of 3 beautiful children, but most importantly a daughter of the most high God. You are likely to find her chugging or serving coffee, sitting in a tattooist’s chair, or making friends out of strangers.