An Adoption Prayer

One of the things which needs to be talked about more with adoption are the deep, spiritual wounds our children come to us with. I'm so grateful that before Judah and Addise came home our wise, trusted pastor-friends, Ed and Stephen, taught us what we immediately needed to do with our kiddos.

They taught us about breaking off spiritual curses and generational sin, cleansing their bloodlines, restoring wounds that may have incurred from a traumatic conception, pregnancy, or birth. The impact from not praying through these issues for our kids can be huge! Night terrors, shame-based or destructive behaviors, attachment struggles, food issues, lying, hoarding, lack of belonging, lack healthy emotional reactions....the list is as extensive as the spiritual brokenness.

Many of these wounds can be prayed through simply with a couple prayers sessions. But I don't know what we would've done without this wisdom.

We experienced some of their wounds within the first week of parenting, particularly on our flight home from Ethiopia. Without going into graphic detail, we experienced intense spiritual warfare and activity with one of our kids from the time we entered U.S airspace (literally!) all the way through U.S customs. We couldn't even make it to customs for what seemed an eternity because of the intense warfare. Our child was wailing out of control, thrashing their body, totally hysterical. We were texting family, close friends, and our pastoral connections begging for them to intercede on our child's behalf. Some thing was happening in the spiritual realm that could not be described in human language.

By the time we made it to customs nearly 2 hours later, all four of us were crying as we got our passports stamped and the officer said "welcome home".

Even in recent days we've seen an increase of wounds emerge with one of our kids. The shift of emotional response was clear enough that we were able to identify this as a wound opening from their past.

Two and a half years later we are in the thick of dealing with their trauma again. I don't expect this will be the last time, too. In fact, it is very normative for kids from hard places to surface old wounds when 1) their environment changes, 2) they feel safe to express that pain, 3) they have the resources available for the wound to be healed. I've seen that in my own kids and the research would agree.

Only a couple months ago I came across this prayer. Within reading a few lines I was weeping. I hope you'll find this resource so practical in helping your child heal from their past. With love and prayers as you parent and provide refuge for kids from hard places.

We say to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that your life is not a mistake.
God made you out of the love that he is. 
He called you into being at the right time and the right place.
He prepared a way for you and gave his life for you.
You are a privilege, not a burden;
a joy and a delight, not an intrusion.
You belong!
You are a treasure just because you are,
and not for what you can do.
You are one of the Father God's children,
and he delights in you, and we delight in you.

Lord, we ask you to destroy the lies this child has accepted.
We bring them to the cross with every destructive attitude, 
expectation, and personality structure or habit pattern.
We see you, Lord, pouring your love all about the child
breathing a fresh breath of life into his/her spirit,
wrapping strong welcoming arms about the child, 
and inviting him/her to grow into the fullness of his/her own life
restfully as you planned for him/her from the beginning.
We pray that the inner child be enabled to forgive those who wounded him/her.
We also pray that the child himself/herself be forgiven his/her negative responses.
We pour the healing love of Jesus into this wounded spirit like a healing balm.
We ask you to gift                   with a sovereign gift of trust and rest and peace, and 
let his/her entire being be integrated with wholeness and harmony
as (s)he is reconciled to being who (s)he is where (s)he is.

Now, we place the cross of Christ (the stopping place of all sin)
between                    and his/her parents and his/her parents' parents
all the way back through his/her generations
declaring that all of his/her inheritance be filtered through the cross. 
All decendancy of evil, every curse coming to the child
through his/her family line must stop on that cross.
We ask you, Lord, to hide the child in your own heart
and to cast light in the eyes of any powers of darkness
that might attempt to oppress or afflict or prevent his/her life.
We stand in the authority of Jesus Christ against such powers.

Finally, we place a blessing in the name of Jesus on                 's life.
We ask you, Lord, to melt any hardness of the heart,
to strengthen him/her with might in the inner man (spirit),
to enlighten the eyes of the heart,
to draw him/her to his/her destiny and
to place a mantle of protection on him/her.

taken from Family Foundations International


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April L. Diaz

April has been a visionary activist her entire life. She has made it her mission to lead high performing teams and develop leaders in the margins of society while caring for our bodies, mind, and spirit. Secretly, she’s a mix of a total girly girl and a tomboy, and is still crazy about her high school sweetheart, Brian. Together, they co-parent 3 fabulous kiddos and live in Orange County, CA.