Paul Batura - Chosen for Greatness: How Adoption Changes the World

Copyright 2016 by Paul J. Batura

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, website, or broadcast.

Regnery Faith is a trademark of Salem Communications Holding Corporation; Regnery is a registered trademark of Salem Communications Holding Corporation

First e-book edition 2016: ISBN 978-1-62157-601-3

Cataloging-in-Publication data on file with the Library of Congress

Published in the United States by

Regnery Faith

An imprint of Regnery Publishing

A Division of Salem Media Group

300 New Jersey Ave NW

Washington, DC 20001

www.RegneryFaith.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Books are available in quantity for promotional or premium use. For information on discounts and terms, please visit our website: www.Regnery.com.

Distributed to the trade by

Perseus Distribution

250 West 57th Street

New York, NY 10107

For photo rights information, please see .

To Riley (Julianna), Will (Joli), and Alex (Jennifer).

You didnt just change the worldyou changed ours.

Thank you for giving your mom and me the privilege of

being your parents.

CONTENTS

God moves in mysterious ways; His wonders to perform; He plans His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.

William Cowper (17311800)

People dont rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage. The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantage and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot. It makes a difference where and when we grew up. The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievement in ways we cannot begin to imagine. Its not enough to ask what successful people are like, in other words. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesnt.

Malcolm Gladwell

You go nowhere by accident.

Wherever you go,

God is sending you.

Wherever you are,

God has put you there.

God has a purpose

in your being there.

Christ lives in you

and has something

he wants to do

through you where you are.

Believe this and go in the

grace and love and

power of Jesus Christ.

Rev. Richard Halverson

The Gospel is not a picture of adoption, adoption is a picture of the Gospel.

John Piper

W hen I set out to write my book Seven Men: And the Secret of Their Greatness, I did so with a simple but significant goal.

At the time, I knew there was a crisis of manhood in America. And along with that crisisand in a way the cause of it tooI saw a four-decade-long reluctance to embrace and celebrate heroes, and I wanted to do something about it.

Seven Men, and later, Seven Women, were my attempts to shine a spotlight on some of the most heroic people who have ever lived. People like the late Olympian Eric Liddell, Joan of Arc, Corrie ten Boom, baseball and Civil Rights icon Jackie Robinson, and Mother Teresa.

In compiling these profiles, I was reminded of what President Reagan said in his first inaugural address. Speaking from the porch of the sun-splashed Capitol building on that cold January day in 1981, our nations fortieth president declared, Those who say that were in a time when there are no heroes. They just dont know where to look.

I strongly agree.

Why I chose the people I did was of course subjective, but everyone I selected shared a single, particular trait, and its the secret to their greatness. All of the people I wrote about were somehow self-sacrificing, which is to say they used what they had been given by God to bless others. In doing so, they were expressing unconditional love for their fellow man, which is what the New Testament calls agape, a love of and from God.

And agape lovelove that gives without any expectation of something in returnis the type of love that sits at the center of the pro-life movement. Its this type of love that drives so many of the sacrificial souls who serve the women and children most in need.

I know this because Im married to one of these wonderful people. My wife, Susanne, has for over ten years been the director of Avail, a pregnancy center right here in Manhattan, where we live. She doesnt do it for the money. Trust me. She does it because she wants to help the women who have been told they dont have any real choice but to end the lives of the babies inside them. She wants to help them choose to bring those babies into the world, and in so doing she wants to help the whole world see the most empowering, significant, and beautiful thing any human can ever doto help someone else, especially those who are powerless.

I share that same conviction and goal.

It was a similar conviction and heart for both the most vulnerable among usand a desire to highlight the good among usthat led my friend, Paul Batura of Focus on the Family, to write this book. As an adoptive father of three boys himself, Paul wanted to tell the stories rarely told surrounding some of our worlds most well-known adoptees and foster-care children.

His effort has resulted in a captivating and compelling page-turner. How I wish I could give you a copy! But since you already have this one, Im glad I dont need to.

But seriously, folks, Im not the kind of person who believes in coincidencesbecause I believe in a sovereign God who watches over the affairs of women and men. As such, no adoption is an accident. In fact, every adoption was planned long ago, a fact that makes these stories all the more remarkable. Indeed, as youll see, behind every adoption is a series of intimate, dramatic, and God-ordained moments.

As a writer and broadcaster, Ive made a career analyzing the way the world has changed and is changing; and Ive interviewed many of the people responsible. From that experience and those conversations, I can attest to the fact adoption is changing the world we live in for the better. And as I discovered in my own Seven series, all of these adoptees have done something great, not because