Justin Padgett was teaching fifth grade at Highland Elementary School in Lincoln County, Kentucky, in the Spring of 2021.  It was during the Covid-19 pandemic, but he was finally able to teach his students in person for the last nine weeks of the school year.

Justin was working with one of his students, Jayden, who had fallen behind in some of his schoolwork.  “I was helping tutor him, one-on-one, with reading and social studies,” Padgett said.

Jayden called Justin over to his desk and frankly said, “I have to be adopted.”  Justin took Jayden out into the hall so they could talk privately.  Jayden told him how his current foster parents couldn’t adopt him and his three siblings – Hailey, Alexis, and Jase – and his birth family had lost their rights.  Jayden asked if Justin and his wife could adopt them.

“He was nice to me, and he always helps me,” Jayden told Fox News Digital.  “He was a really loving person, so I just wanted him to love me and my family.”

That evening, Justin discussed the matter with his wife, Kasey.  They had married in 2018 but had been unable to have children of their own.  They agreed that they would like to adopt Jayden and his siblings.  They had already been in classes to prepare them to become foster parents.  By the end of July 2021, Jayden and his siblings were able to move in with the Padgetts, their new foster family.  They continued the adoption process until it became official in March of 2022.

In a picture shared by Padgett family of six on the day that the adoption became official, they are all wearing light blue t-shirts with the caption “Love Created This Family” with a Scripture reference beneath it: 1 Samuel 1:27 – “For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him.” *

Because of our sins, we are estranged and desperately need to be adopted.  The wonderful news is that there is Someone who loves us and wants to adopt us: the Heavenly Father.  Because of His love for us, God paid the price for our adoption; it required the death of His Son Jesus to atone for our sins (1 John 2:2).

God will save, adopt into His forever family, and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

Love made it possible for us to be a part of God’s family.  He will adopt you, too, if you’ll only accept His offer through your trusting obedience.

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from “Kentucky teacher adopts his student and the boy's three siblings: 'Our lives are complete'” by Gretchen Eichenberg of Fox News, www.foxnews.com.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org