306 | Revolutionizing Orphan Care, Modeling Sacrifice, and Running Close to Your Kids (Mike Gallagher
Episode Description
Mike Gallagher’s life changed forever when he and his wife adopted a child. Already the parents of three biological children, they stepped out in faith to meet a need that many people try to ignore. Now, Mike shares how every dad can get involved in reaching the 100+ million children globally without a permanent place to call home.
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Mike Gallagher and his wife, Mandy, co-founded The Chosen & Dearly Loved Foundation in 2014. Their campaign, 1MILLIONHOME, focuses on shifting the model of orphan care to prioritize family support and reunification. Mike and Mandy have six children: three biological, one adopted domestically, and two adopted internationally.
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· Help your children build dependency on Jesus by modeling sacrifice and adventurous faith.
· To reverse the orphan crisis, we must focus on reunification when possible and adoption when necessary.
· Children who have experienced trauma need true safety as well as felt safety.
· If you’re overcommitted, you won’t have the capacity to be there for your children.
· Make praying with your children a core aspect of your relationship.
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Podcast Intro: [00:00:01] Being a great father takes a massive amount of courage. Instead of being an amazing leader and a decent dad, I want to be an amazing dad and a decent leader. The oldest dad in the world gave you this assignment, which means you must be ready for it. As a dad, I get on my knees and I fight for my kids. Let us be those dads who stop the generational pass down of trauma. I want encounters with God where He teaches me what to do with my kids. I know I'm going to be an awesome dad because I'm gonna give it my all.
Mike Gallagher: [00:00:39] Like Jesus says, Come to Me who are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn for Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. It's that accessibility, that openness that doesn't matter what time of day or night, come to Me. Come to Me now. Come to Me always. Come to Me at your worst. Come to Me. Come to Me again and again and again. Sometimes I'm shocked with what they come to me with. Like it's some nasty situations or nasty battles. You know, it's, it's no joke. And it's, it's all the things that I didn't go to my dad with that they're coming to me with.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:01:16] Welcome back to DadAwesome. Today, Episode 306, I have Mike Gallagher joining us. And he founded and leads the organization Chosen and Dearly Loved. Which is now the 1MILLIONHOME and campaign, 1MILLIONHOME. And we're going to talk about adoption, special needs adoption. We're going to talk about orphan care and some of the work that they have been pioneering for the last 13, 14 years. But we're also going to talk more than half the conversation about Mike and his family. So very grateful you guys joined us today. I want to just quick shout back to last week, episode 305, was our Thanksgiving episode and it really was, if there's been over the last almost six years of this ministry, a moment where I took a whole episode and said, Look what God has done. I titled it What an Awesome Ride. Almost six years, over 300 episodes, what an awesome ride. And the second half of the title is what a Wild Opportunity. So what an awesome ride, what a wild opportunity. We talk about where God is leading us after kind of as we head into I'm calling the anchoring phase in this current chapter as a ministry. So we'd love to invite you guys to route back, listen to episode 305, and even best case, hop on YouTube and watch that episode. It's very visual episode with so many photos and video clips of what God has done. So let's jump in though, this week, joining us, Mike Gallagher, for episode 306. Here's that conversation. As I heard some of your story and maybe the setup is accurate and maybe you'll correct me if I'm wrong, but that there's a little bit of two chapters of the Dad Life for Your Family in a moment where God spoke to you and your wife separately in a couple of Bible verses and direct it. Is that right, there's like a moment that kind of changed your family?
Mike Gallagher: [00:03:15] Yeah, it's interesting because we, we have business backgrounds and it was right in the middle of a business pursuit. We were really specifically called to adopt and adopt now and adopt a child with special needs. And the way the Lord spoke and intervened was unlike anything we've ever been through. So it was undeniable that it was of Him and although it was probably the worst possible time, circumstantially, we knew it was His time. So yeah, so that's when that began back in 2009.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:03:49] That was 2009 that that He, He nudged you and your wife in that moment, you said you knew that you were going to adopt. Was there some leading factors that kind of prepared you and kind of led you in that direction?
Mike Gallagher: [00:04:02] Well, it's interesting, we had three kids at the time, and once my second son was born, my wife actually looked over at me one day, never mentioned this and said, Do you think we'll ever adopt someday? And literally, I confess, the thought that went through my head as a Bible believing Jesus follower was still, I'm not raising another man's kid. And that was like that hard-hearted, arrogant, I got more important things to do, flesh response. I didn't say it, but I thought it and I'll never forget that. And years went by and then in 2009, a whole series of events started to really bear witness to that. We had to pay attention to what was going on with these orphaned children all over the world and do something about it. And yeah, ultimately, it started with that first adopted daughter.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:04:59] Yeah. And your family now, your twins that you adopted are 13, I believe, from Uganda. Is that right?
Mike Gallagher: [00:05:07] Yeah. So we our, our first adoption was in Nashville. She was actually born to Chinese immigrants who who were not able to keep her because she had really significant special needs. And so it was interesting, we opened the door and we thought it might take a year before we were placed with a child and it took a matter of weeks, it went really fast. And so it was life changing. The warnings were so dire, but this this magnificent child came home and has just blessed and inspired us ever since. After that, we were getting involved in Uganda at the time, and and there was another long story, but ultimately brought home twins from from Uganda whose birth mother was dying of AIDs. So that was another one to where we knew quickly, but then they didn't come home quickly. It took about 15 months to ultimately be able to bring them home.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:06:06] Yeah. And today present chapter, the youngest twins are 13, your oldest is 22 and you have, you have three, three olders and three younger. Is that right? Kind of, 6 total kids.
Mike Gallagher: [00:06:19] The three olders were, were, you know, biological, they were, we had kids and we adopted kids.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:06:24] Okay. And in this chapter of dad life, it's just fun to kind of like, hey, pan out for a second, any recent discoveries, anything that you're like, Oh, this has been helpful, like a recent like, oh, that, I wish I would have known that maybe earlier, but I've discovered something in the dad life?
Mike Gallagher: [00:06:41] I guess, as I think the first things that come to mind are, we're entering a really amazing phase of really running with our adult age kids. One's 16, one's 20, one's 22 and they're amazing men and woman of God. And totally on their own, ownership of a walk with the Lord, a love of the Lord, a fierce love, love of Jesus. They are choosing to run really close with us. And, and it's become so rich and meaningful. In a time when they would, even though they're becoming more independent, we're more closer than ever. And it's more meaningful than ever. And that's cool. Like, we're walking into that for the first time. And for the younger dads that I'm walking with, I'm just, I'm shining a light of like, what they have to look forward to, but also challenging them what they have to kind of build to, because that was, you know, about a decade in the making.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:07:44] Right, I want to go into that further, so what you're shining is you're you're sharing stories of what you're experiencing now with your older kids running with you. What are you pointing to as some of the things that we need to build into for that to take place?
Mike Gallagher: [00:07:59] Yeah, so much of it is, what we model. I think what they're seeing in us, I think because of our journey of just these wild adventures and challenges that were just based on obedience, you know, we really believe the Lord was leading us to do specific things like adopt children or move or start things and they were glorious, but they they required a lot of suffering and and a lot of cost. And and honestly, we didn't, we knew there was cost, but we didn't know the full costs going into a lot of these things. And in that costs you know, it cost the children as well. It costs, costs everybody in the family, these are family decisions, and yet that's the bad news. The good and greater news is it forged such a dependance on Jesus and dependance on guidance from the Lord where where we were in situations so desperately needing His wisdom, His protection, His confirmed will, you know that they witnessed that over so long. That was one just key part of it that that they wanted that and needed that themselves. I mean and and the other thing was, even though we were involved with pressing things, far reaching things, they were always number one. And they knew that. And and we we summed that up in just trying to say, like Jesus says, come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn for me, for I'm gentle and humble of heart. It's that, it's that accessibility, that openness that doesn't matter what time of day or night. Like, come to Me. Come to Me now. Come to Me always. Come to Me at your worst. Come to Me. Come to Me again and again and again. And sometimes I'm shocked with what they come to me with. Like it's some nasty situations or nasty battles. You know, it's it's no joke. And it's, it's all the things that I didn't go to my dad with that they're coming to me with and I think those are the two things that have produced the most growth, the most development, the most intimacy and maybe if, maybe if nothing else, the humility and that goes a long way.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:10:34] Yeah. When you say that they're running close with you now, your, your older kids, is it career, professionally or living close or what types of what all do you mean when they're running close?
Mike Gallagher: [00:10:45] Well, our oldest daughter is actually working directly with me. And it's cool because it's it's family strengthening. So we are, we're creating new ways to allow parents to have a better understanding of trauma and toxic stress and a lot that comes against trust based relationships. And this is something that I personally have had to journey through and my own journey of transformation in my own walk and in my marriage and in my parenting. And so it's been pretty spectacular that my oldest daughter whose been through all this, as the oldest daughter of this pretty complex family, is witnessing the hand of the Lord, the ways of the Lord and the love of the Lord, as well as the love of her mom and dad that she can really bear witness to. But also bear witness to some of the best equipping in the world and as well as most importantly, the witness of Scripture. And so she she and I together get to be these faithful witnesses and these equippers of parents and future parents.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:11:59] Amazing. Now, when you said, as a dad, you play into the invitation of God to come to me when you're weary, heavy burdened, but you actually, you and your wife lived that out, saying come to us when you're feeling heavy or feeling confused or feeling frustrated or feeling. What are some ways if if us dads right now are not sensing that openness or the draw to us, instead of maybe we're watching our kids go isolation or go hide things, not bring those burdens to us. Any any coaching for us around how to how to open and welcome our kids to bring those burdens and and heaviness?
Mike Gallagher: [00:12:38] Oh man, yeah, that's so important. And it's always so fragile because at any moment we're going to lose them to and and yeah, I think, I mean, we we teach about this whole concept of felt safety. So they need to be legitimately safe, welcomed, comforted, supported with whatever they're bringing. And so I think it's, number one, it's that sense of felt safety and we can kind of take inventory of how safe are they really with us. And the other thing is, it's so easy with the pressures of leadership and provision and all these things where we can be so preoccupied or so overcommitted that we have no choice. Like we're mere men, so, like, if we're so overcommitted, there's just no way we're going to have anything in the tank for, for our kids, let alone our kids in some form of crisis. So it's, I think it's a proactive taking of inventory of where we really are with our commitments and where, with our posture towards the kids. And then one last thing, and maybe this is even the most important thing is we should be praying for them. If, like the mouth speaks that which fills the heart, and if we're churning in our heads and in our minds like, Oh, he's such bad, why is he like, you know, and we're churning on these things like it's going to fill the heart. If we're in prayer for them, like coming in, like aligning with the Father's prayer for our son or daughter, and we're filling our heart with those types of prayers and contending for, for these things because the heart speaks under pressure, You know, that's when everything comes out, good or bad. And so there's these proactive disciplines. It's not a formula, but it's more of a discipline that I think aligns with the ways of God that and we can develop these things. Over time, we can develop a greater prayer life that's devoted to our children, a greater felt safety for them that they can experience legitimately when they do come to us, a greater stewardship of what we're committed to so that we're not fooling ourselves that we're going to have, you know the best for them when really we got leftovers, crumbs. It all works together, I guess. And I'm, still like, desperately trying to do all these things.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:15:08] Yeah. Yeah, It is a journey for sure. Now, if I was chatting with your wife, Mandy, instead of you, Mike, and I asked her just over the last decade of dad life, what are some of the areas that like Mike is working on, but he stumbles in this area or like this is an area that's been harder in the dad life or to bring the hopes, the values actually bring that into your parenting? What are some of the areas maybe she would mention that you're a work in progress?
Mike Gallagher: [00:15:35] I mean, all of the above. So, I don't know. I'm, I'm a major work in progress and all of the above. But, yeah, I think, I think just the presence, I think that's where, because I've been so devoted, I've gone out of my way to really prioritize family, prioritize my wife and children. But even then, I can be very preoccupied, very stressed, very turning on things other than just being present, tuned, really connecting. And so, yeah, presence and then one other area that I'm like really praying to grow more in is just playfulness. Just to have more fun and be able to disarm things, be able to take kind of the serious edge off of life and out of situations and seasons. And so those are, those are the you can pray for me on those areas, because there's a lot of work in progress.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:16:35] Yeah. Yeah. The phrase and I believe this phrase comes out of Colossians 3:12, but the phrase chosen and dearly loved. Can you share a little bit about your heart around that phrase?
Mike Gallagher: [00:16:50] Yeah, that, it's a fun story because we're in business, trying to keep our business going amidst this economic meltdown. And the Lord called us to adoption. And not just and adoption, but special needs adoption. And we're just realizing all these kids that, that were abandoned because they were born with something, quote unquote, wrong with them and they were the most likely to be abandoned and then they were the least likely to get adopted. And we're just learning about all these kids and nobody wants them. And and so and it's kind of funny because we were getting things organized, starting a ministry, and it needed a name, and we waited on the Lord and prayed for like a year. And ultimately those words came together, chosen and dearly loved back in, I think, 2010 and it was the complete opposite of unwanted. You know, if there could be two complete opposite extremes. One is unwanted, abandoned, left. The other is chosen and dearly loved. And we were trying to really lead with that on behalf of these children that like to lead with God's perspective on these children and that these are not liabilities. These are not, you know, problems. These are not burdens, although they require more than you can imagine, they're blessings. They're going to bless your life. That's the Father's heart for them. And that's what that's the kind of parents they need to intervene on their behalf with that that gaze, that heart for them, that's where that comes from.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:18:39] Yeah. Mike, would you go another couple steps deeper into chosen and dearly loved and specifically a little bit about the vision, what you get, the work that you have had the joy of being a part of and the tears of being a part of, I'm sure. But can you also help us dads who have not journeyed, have not experienced playing dad, being dad to a special needs child or an adopted special needs child? Just things maybe that we don't know that would be just helpful for us all to know.
Mike Gallagher: [00:19:12] Sure. It's interesting because as we prayed, I actually stepped out of the business, we made it through the crisis and the the guys that took over did a far better job than I would have. And it enabled me to to start something to help more kids like those we adopted. It was pretty simple at the time. As we prayed the scripture that came, even though we thought, Oh, it's all about adoption. We're going to work for adoption. The one scripture that came was that of Malachi 4, and it was all about where God talks about turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children back to the fathers. Lest I smite the land with utter destruction. Like that was the scripture for what we thought was going to be an adoption ministry. And so this has been unfolding since then. I mean, 13 years, I guess. And we're just getting closer and closer and closer to the heart of God for all families, of course, not just adoptive families, special needs families, but for all families. And we just have such a burning heart for families of origin. And to preserve families at all costs, you know, whenever possible, to actually preserve kids within their families before they're ever separated or abandoned and those who are separated or abandoned to do anything we can to actually restore them within their their birth homes, if not that, their extended families, and then okay, if not that, adoption. But always in that order. And we we started with this, we're called Chosen and Dearly Loved, but over time, we actually launched an initiative called 1MILLIONHOME. And we were discovering all these things that were actually working to preserve families, to restore families, to keep kids in families. And we were giving more and more of our effort to that seeing adoption is we need more adoption than ever, but it needs to be seen as a safety net, a last safety net option. All the other efforts need to go towards preserving families or reuniting, restoring families. And even with all that effort on getting kids home, it still goes back to that Malachi 4 message like it's about what happens in the home long term and in the moment, in the season and the lifetime, it's all about, you know, the hearts of the fathers and mothers turn to their children and children to their parents. And so that's, that's the grandiose vision, but it's also just the the greatest focus of what we're trying to do. We're just trying to preserve families, restore families and strengthen families.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:22:00] Yes. The the heart of that, that charge, the last verse of the Old Testament, Malachi 4, like of turning, I mean, that applies to every single one of us dad's, the turning of our hearts to our kids. But then you're saying it's God's heart, way beyond that, it's God's heart for kids that are separated, physically, too maybe, they have first have to get close physically to their dad before they can experience the heart of their dad. But then, as a last resort, it could be the heart of an adopted father turned towards a child. Is that does that would apply to all those layers?
Mike Gallagher: [00:22:38] Of course. And of course, that's the heart of the Father, right. It's the heart of the of the Lord that, that we become restored to His image. And ultimately he is Father and has His heart to us and He wants our heart to Him. So, you know, we have to work that out as all kinds of parents. And it really involves, I mean, unwed, pregnant, single mothers that we like, if anything, we want to challenge and support people to keep their children, to love their children, to get what they need to commit and stay and and sacrifice for their children. I think most really want that. Desperate situations come in and, you know, tear, tear families apart. But in their heart of hearts, virtually everybody wants to be with their families of origin or as close to it as possible. So we want to be, even though we're such champions of adoption, we're champions of all families and we want to do everything we can to to encourage family and strengthen family at every level, every turn.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:23:51] Yeah. And we're going to link out some of your kind of video and the visual overview of the model of, I believe, 80% you found can actually get connected with their biological or a family member. So, but it's just a, just for the guys listening to hear that explanation of just real tangible, there's this model which is an orphanage that keeps the kids till they, until they graduate versus that other door that connects them back with families. Can you explain that a little deeper?
Mike Gallagher: [00:24:21] Yeah. And sadly, the word graduate is, is not accurate. I mean, they actually age out. And that's what we discovered is they, you spend all this money, all this effort to raise children apart from family in an institutional setting, like a group home, like an orphanage and, you know, feed them, educate them, maybe even share the gospel, you know, all the, all that you can. But still, they're outside of their original design, which is to be in a family. And the outcomes that we were realizing were really, really bad. After all of that, it often produced really bad outcomes. You know, they get into crime, they get in prison, they get into prostitution, they get into suicide. And a lot of those stats were a lot like what happens to street kids who were never on any care. And so we just started to realize like, oh, dear God, like this is not acceptable. And and yet you can't just see this and then talk about it. We have to find something that's actually working and we did. We found one site that was raising a couple hundred kids, and ultimately they started to realize some of these kids have parents that are still alive and they found them. Or almost all of them have aunts, uncles, grandparents, like actually quite a few of them that we can track down and support and prepare and equip and disciple and reunite these kids. And it started with a few, it ended up getting all 200 of those kids, and then all of a sudden they had room where they could start bringing in kids off the streets. And they realized like, man, there's actually 12 times as many kids on the streets as there are on all these institutions. So what if all these institutions started moving like this and we could not only help 8 million kids living in orphanages, we could help 100 million. You know, if we all start really taking this seriously because it is seriously working like that, that's our whole point. So kind of one by one, we're doing this and we started in one site and one city, it it ended up reducing the street kid population from over 1,100 down to like 100. And all the kids got home and all the kids stayed home and that, so it transformed a whole city. And I think we're in about 20 cities now. We're helping over 120 organizations do this. And ultimately, we want to help, you know, thousands and thousands of sites actually know how to do this. It's not easy. Like this is a serious, comprehensive, systematic change, but it's completely possible to break these steps down, train your teams how to do this, and then actually do it safely and successfully. So that is the that's the mission right now.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:27:19] I didn't mention this earlier, but the reason we're even having this conversation, Mike, is because within a week, three different, when I get nudged by three different people to, Have you heard of 1MILLIONHOME? Have you heard of Mike Gallagher? Like three different people, not even if even if an initial reception like who is this guy? Three of my friends nudge me, and that's that's how we got this conversation going, is within one week. This was about a month ago. And and so you hosted event at our church in Minnesota. I'm going to link that video in the show notes here along with a few of the other shorter 5 or 7 minute videos just to help people understand more about this. I mean, it's a movement and it's a movement that is directly, this idea of the future is family and that Malachi 4:6 of like if this doesn't happen if the hearts of fathers to their kids and kids to their fathers, there's destruction is the path forward. This is like the most critical thing that we can, at DadAwesome, for us to think what's our role with our own kids? To turn our hearts, to be present, to stay and fight for the hearts of our kids versus go passive or leave our family behind, worst case. But then there's the work for these kids that are not experiencing an earthly father right now. And how can we, you know, a ministry called DadAwesome, how can we have something, a part to play beyond our own family? There's a part to play at the home front, but there's a part to play in the bigger family of God. That dads step in with courage and with resources, so I want to applaud and thank you on behalf of everyone who's listening. And I want to mobilize our people to be a part of it. So what are some action steps? How can we, besides the show notes and those videos in your website, anything else that you could say, this is the next step for us dads?
Mike Gallagher: [00:29:03] That was just so well said and it just so motivating and so hopeful that that even in these very daunting, very serious battles, we have so much going for us. And I love what you're saying, because if more of us really step up, step in, we can we can take some serious ground. There's so much where it's it's really proven that in these hardest places, hardest cases, there's these glorious, redemptive stories of family restoration. And we all want to be part of that, like it may begin with us, but then we can be part of this at pretty serious scale. And so as far as next steps, I mean, we want to serve first and foremost, we really are called to strengthen families right in our own country. And what we're doing at every day is a big part of that. It's it's about strengthening marriages, strengthening parent child relationships, equipping. I mean, first and foremost, with anyone raising children who have been through trauma or any foster and adoptive parents, it's life or death to really understand what's going on in that state of fear. We want to equip and strengthen families in our churches, in our ministry worlds, in our missions. And we have something for that, like it's going to be going to be offered in Minneapolis and in other cities and other churches. So stay tuned for that. As far as getting involved globally, anyone that's involved in any kind of orphan care, visiting orphanages, supporting orphanages, trips to orphanages, all of those things. We want to help and we want to help kind of graciously guide a paradigm shift and not have you just cancel and cut off that work but redeem that work, repurpose that work and help more kids than ever have better outcomes than ever. By staying involved, by actually redeeming this this commitment which often creates more harm than we realize we're making. We have the opportunity to really transform, redeem all that. And so anybody involved in orphan care, we want to we want to collaborate, partner with you all, help you through that journey of shifting towards family care. And I mean, always whenever people give, it allows us to do all this work. So that's always a great way to to participate too.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:31:41] Yeah. Like I gathered that in my just research for this conversation, the heartbeat of deep passion, deep conviction, proof cases over and over again of like, this works and there's science and there's deep research, very smart people around your project. But yet a gentle, not saying they're all getting it wrong and come support us and not them but a gentle like hey join like like let us give you some ahas and help kind of guide or use the word redeem with those and help help point and so I love, I just really appreciate that heart versus a we figured out we've got to get this thing figured out it's a it's such a humble stance so thank you and and yeah we will be sending all of our DadAwesome listeners your direction with all those links and all those resources. As just kind of a last word or a moment to encourage us dads just maybe goes back to the home front for you or the like, just what you experience with your six kids. Is there any, if you were sitting with me, couple other dads and there's some pretty decent coffee shops in the Chicagoland area, if we were sitting down, good cup of coffee, and you just had the last word, last 2 to 5 minutes to share any anything else in your heart that you're like this, this might be helpful for you guys who in a younger dad chapter than then than where you're at, Mike. Anything else that you want to share with us?
Mike Gallagher: [00:32:58] Where I have been most blessed and where I see kind of the most what will carry on for generations, it's it's praying with my children, reading the Word of God with my children, doing things in a way where the word of God, the ways of God that I'm praying to God are are really a core, frequent part of our relationship and and dynamic. As I have, and I'm just, you know, still new in all this, we're kind of first gen, but man, I just see where they are hungering after God themselves. They're turning to the Word of God, turning to prayer themselves. And it all started where it was just something that we enjoyed together, something that we chose to do together. So I think, I think if I could only say one thing, I think that would be, the most far reaching thing that I would encourage all parents to do with their kids.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:34:00] Thank you. Would you say a short prayer over all of us dads?
Mike Gallagher: [00:34:04] Okay. Yeah. Lord, thank you. Thank you for this time. Thank you for this winsome, joy filled, life filled podcast. Like to champion dads to talk about the awesome blessing and calling of dads and privilege. And God, we want to thank You that we are blessed with that gift ourselves and we want to we want to honor and bless all the dads that are tuning in. They're tuning in because they want to be fathers that are more in Your image. They want to be caregivers more in that image of Jesus as a good shepherd. They want to guide and redirect and protect and heal and bind up. So I just pray a renewed sense of the holy privilege it is in the mundane and the nitty gritty, again, the crisis of fatherhood. And see how see all that through Your eyes. See that that is of such greater worth, that what happens in those moments is what will be happening for generations. Lord, give us all courage, give us wisdom, give us, give us presence of mind to see those moments that fill our days to be Christ like to be more like You, Heavenly Father, in those moments with our sons and daughters. And I know You will bless that as we do that more and more. So would You, would You empower us to recognize those moments and to seize those moments and keep us humble in all things or just keep us humble? Keep us with a fiery first love, love of Jesus, that all these other things that bring life and closeness and trust flow from. So we ask all this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:36:02] Thank you so much for joining us for episode 306 with Mike Gallagher. All the show notes, the conversation links, the links to those three other videos that I mentioned are all going to be at dadawesome.org/podcast. And then you can, it'll be right there at the top where you can always search Mike Gallagher for those show notes. Guys, thank you for listening this week. Thank you for leaning in to a topic that I mean, this is a big topic, the turning of hearts of fathers to their kids, kids to the fathers beyond just our own kids, but thinking globally and throughout all of history, this is God's heart is to see the family flourish. So thanks for joining us. And I want to just invite you guys, encourage you, let's be prayerful about what is our role, what's our role? How do we step in and learn more and prayerfully just consider some of what was shared today. So thank you for being a part of this community. Let's go, let's go love our kids. Let's go pray for our kids. Let's have a great week and let's have some fun with our kids this week.
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· 8:16 - "We really believe the Lord was leading us to do specific things like adopt children or move or start things and they were glorious, but they required a lot of suffering and and a lot of cost. Honestly, we knew there was cost, but we didn't know the full costs going into a lot of these things. In that cost, it costs the children as well. It costs everybody in the family, these are family decisions, and yet that's the bad news. The good and greater news is it forged such a dependance on Jesus and dependance on guidance from the Lord where we were in situations so desperately needing His wisdom, His protection, His confirmed will, that they witnessed that over so long. That was one just key part of it that that they wanted that and needed that themselves. The other thing was, even though we were involved with pressing things, far reaching things, they were always number one. And they knew that.”
· 12:57 - "[Our children] need to be legitimately safe, welcomed, comforted, supported with whatever they're bringing. And so it's, number one, that sense of felt safety and we can kind of take inventory of how safe are they really with us."
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