Excerpt from Christian Parenting Today interview with Steven Curtis Chapman

CPT: How can families discern if adoption is right for them?

Steven: If you've had the thought, there's only one person who would put that in your mind—the Father to the fatherless. Just having the idea indicates God's inviting you to something. Perhaps it's an invitation to support adoptive families waiting for grant money to adopt; perhaps it's more.

Every time I've brought this to God, I've said, "This doesn't make sense. I don't want to make a mistake. I don't want to do this for selfish reasons." It was as though I heard God chuckle and say, Do you really think this idea is from Satan - to adopt an orphan and bring her into a Christian home? When you look at it that way, even when adoption doesn't make common sense, it makes spiritual sense.

This is what God's called us to. He doesn't necessarily call everyone to international adoption, but I believe everyone's invited to care for orphans and widows. I know from our experience that when we accept that invitation, God blesses it.

After we adopted Shaoey, if anyone had asked me if we'd adopt again, I would have said, "No, this is it." But one Sunday at church, God knocked me on my rear. Our good friends have four biological children and four adopted, and have gone through some hard times with these kids. That particular Sunday morning, they were having their three youngest children dedicated, including a child they'd just adopted from China. I knew all the tough times they'd already been through, and here they'd gone and adopted another child! As this family stood before the congregation and the pastor talked about how faithful they had been, God clearly showed me this was a picture of his family. He told me, If you want to be part of what I do, this is it.
It was as though the Father had put his arm around me and said, "I want us to do something together. It's going to be hard, and if I have to, I'll carry you, but it's going to be awesome." I left church that day knowing that our family would keep growing. And we wouldn't change that for the world.

For the full interview with Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman: http://www.christianitytoday.com/momsense/2004/winter/1.26.html?start=1