The Perfect Little Family

This guest post is from Regent Law 2L Matthew Davis and current Family Law student:

     The Bauchams were told they had “the perfect little family.” But God had other plans — that eventually involved seven more children through adoption. Today the Bauchams are approaching fifty, and their youngest is two years old. This is how their adoption journey began, and what God has been teaching them through it.

     Voddie Baucham, was raised by a single teenage mother and by all accounts had the stereotypical impoverished, struggling, troubled upbringing that many say can and should be avoided by terminating unplanned pregnancies in certain circumstances. In fact, there is a large and growing voice in America today that claims that the poverty, pain, struggle and difficulties of being a single teen mother raising an unplanned baby should be remedied by aborting that unplanned pregnancy, somehow a more humane option.  Voddie Baucham says that those who promulgate those ideas actually regard lives like his, and his adopted children, as unimportant and unworthy of even existing. Voddie’s mom struggled, but never gave up. At age 49 she finally graduated from college, and  Voddie remembers contemplating all she had been through, all she worked for, all she sacrificed and gave up for him to live and have life.  But he will be forever grateful that his mother put her life on hold to care for him and give him a chance, even if it had seasons of difficulties.

     Voddie took these life lessons with him as he grew up and determined to make his life count for something.  He went to college, got married, and eventually became the pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. After having two children early in their marriage, Voddie and his wife soon realized that what looked like the ‘perfect little family’ was actually only a partial family.  Although physically unable to have any more children, they began to discuss their desire to enlarge their family by considering adoption.  Soon the couple found an adoption agency and encountered what many involved in adoptions already knew - that African American families interested in adopting were few and far between.  The Baucham’s saw this as a confirmation from God and immediately began the arduous task of filling out the adoption paperwork. In a mere two months they were matched with a child in need.

Voddie and Bridget Baucham

     The Bauchams first adoption is one that they will never forget.  It was the adoption of an unwanted child from a drug-addicted victim of rape.  Soon after the terrifying and traumatic experience, the pregnant teen mom felt completely helpless and had no idea what to do or where to go.  She eventually found herself at a local Planned Parenthood clinic thinking her only option was to end her pregnancy.  After sitting in that Planned Parenthood waiting room for what seemed like an eternity, she began to seriously think about the life inside of her and how that little precious life had done nothing wrong.  Although scared, addicted, and a victim the pregnant woman believed that the life inside of her deserved a chance. She quietly contemplated in that Planned Parenthood waiting room that somewhere someone would love this baby, and she got up and left the clinic.

She soon found a crisis pregnancy center that helped care for her needs and connected her with an adoption agency who connected with the Bauchams. Courageously giving birth and making an adoption plan for her child, the woman placed her child with agency and the Bauchams adopted the newborn, giving that child a good chance at life.  They also had a chance to pray with this courageous woman and continue to minister to her through her deepest, darkest pains.  The impact of that first adoption soon led to six more.

     The Bauchams describe how these adoptions have radically changed the way they understand their faith and relationship with God the Father. Until he was able to look into the eyes of his adopted children and love them the very same way that he loves and cares for his biological children, Voddie explains that he was never able to fully understand and grasp what it means to be a child of God.  Because we are God’s children by adoption, Voddie explains, “when you understand adoption, you get that, that we are his children, and he [God] is not going anywhere….“Adoption is about the gospel, I mean what else are we going to do with our lives that would be more important than what we are doing right now… I can’t think of anything.”

Read more about Voddie Baucham’s Story here