A family is not defined by our genes.

It is built and maintained through love.

Since an adoption process is very complicated and long, it is hard for a couple to decide that they want to adopt their children.

But Presbyterian missionaries Aaron and Rachel Halbert didn’t hesitate to adopt their children.

Aaron and Rachel knew that they want to adopt children even before they got married. Aaron wrote an article on The Washington Post and explained that it was for them to have children naturally.

Also, they understood that black children are less likely to be adopted than white children and decided to take black babies to their home.

They felt a calling to be parents of children who may have a hard time finding their family. Until then, they did not know that they would create an unpredictable family.

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Aaron and Rachel visited adoption agency in Mississippi. They decided to adopt one boy and one girl, two African-American kids.

Their racially diverse family just had begun.

After their adoption, they did not plan to have any more children.

But they heard about the National Embryo Donation Center. These embryos are usually destroyed or given for the research, but Christian centers accept “donation” of embryos for the couples who have difficulty to conceive naturally.

Aaron and Rachel wanted all of their children to fit in a family and get along with their black siblings, Rachel had two African-American twin embryos implanted.

Then, something amazing happened.

One of the embryos split in two…!

I will let Aaron take a place from here to explain what happened.

“As I have made the stroll from my wife’s hospital room to the NICU these past few days it has been hard to fathom the way that our family has been put together.

This past Sunday, my gorgeous wife – a white evangelical, like me — gave birth to our beautiful African-American triplet daughters whom we adopted as embryos.point 137 | These sweet girls will hopefully soon be coming home to meet their 3-year-old African-American brother and 2-year-old biracial sister, both of whom we adopted as infants.point 282 |

The normalcy of this paragraph is something I have come to take for granted.point 63 | Yet what seems to us to be the logical outcome of being pro-life is still something that to others often needs much explaining.point 168 | ”point 171 | 1

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facebook.point 9 | com/profile.point 21 | php?id=38421543">Facebook / Aaron Halbert

“I grew up as a child of evangelical missionaries in Honduras, very aware of racial diversity because I was the blue-eyed, cotton-topped white kid who stuck out like a sore thumb, but all the while felt deeply connected to the people there, even though we looked very different.point 292 |

My wife, on the other hand, grew up in the delta of Mississippi and it wasn’t until she took a few trips to Haiti that the veil of racial prejudice was lifted from her eyes.point 141 | One of the central themes of Christianity is, after all, that God, through His Son, is calling people from every tongue, tribe and nation.point 256 | 1

Grasping diversity will make the world stronger as we marvel at God’s creative genius on display through His people’s varying pigments, personalities and proficiencies. Our differences are cause for celebration, not scorn.”

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“When we were still dating, a common bond that drew us together was the fact that Rachel and I both wanted to adopt.point 294 |

While we were fertile, we were both deeply convicted that one of the ways to be pro-life is to involve ourselves in adoption.point 103 | Several years into our marriage, even as we were pursuing the idea of returning to Honduras as missionaries with the Presbyterian Church in America, we visited an adoption agency in Mississippi, where we were living at the time.point 294 |

We were also trying at the time to conceive naturally.point 45 | 1

Knowing that it is often more challenging to find adoptive homes in the United States for non-Caucasian children we informed the agency that we were willing to accept any child except a fully Caucasian child. We did this with the deeply held conviction that if the Lord wanted us to have a fully Caucasian child my wife would conceive naturally.”

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“When we began the adoption process we knew race could play a major role in our family dynamics, which led us to ponder deeply what a racially diverse family would look like.point 304 |

We believe when you look into any human’s eyes, you look into the face of an image-bearer of God – into the eyes of a person whose soul is eternal.point 122 | While that is the common thread of all humanity, it doesn’t mean our racial differences are insignificant.point 214 |

We see the human family’s varying physical characteristics as awesome reminders of God’s creative brilliance.point 99 | It’s not that we think race doesn’t exist, or that we don’t see it.point 159 | In fact, it’s the opposite – we see it, and we embrace it.point 209 | 1

There is something beautiful and enriching being the only white face sitting and chatting with some of my African-American friends as my son gets his hair cut on a Saturday morning. There is also something wonderful in the relationship that is built as my wife asks a black friend on Facebook how to care for our little biracial daughter’s hair.

The beauty of a multi-ethnic family is found there, in the fact that the differences are the very thing that makes ours richer and fuller. It forces you to think in a new way about the way you think, speak, act and live.”

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