November is National Adoption Month, instituted to raise awareness of the impact of adoption on children and families. It’s a month close to my heart. Years ago, my husband and I completed our family of six with the adoption of a two-year-old girl from China.
At that time, the foreign adoption process was long and arduous. Three years after our initial paperwork was completed, we finally received a photo of our new daughter. We fell in love with her through that photo but still had to wait four months before we were allowed to travel and meet her. Plenty of time to worry about things. What would it be like to raise a child from another culture? Would she feel at home in our family? Would she miss her birth country? Would she love us?
As it turned out, those fears were unfounded. From the moment we met, we were drawn to her, and she loved us, too. But love was only the beginning. Over the years, we’ve learned that adoption is a journey of learning, discovery, and belonging. Through our daughter, we’ve come to understand more deeply the beauty of resilience and the many ways God builds families.
For us, November is a chance to pause and thank God for leading us to adopt and for the gift our daughter is in our lives. She is a living reminder of His creative and enduring love. Adoption has also deepened our appreciation for the gift of life itself—how precious, fragile, and divinely intended every life is—and what it truly means to be chosen by God as His adopted sons and daughters.
Not everyone is called to adopt a child, but each of us is invited to embrace the spirit of adoption in our own way. As Catholics, we can reflect on this truth through the beautiful devotion of Spiritual Adoption, popularized by Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
Venerable Fulton Sheen and Spiritual Adoption
Archbishop Fulton Sheen began the devotion of spiritual adoption as a way for the faithful to witness to Catholic teachings on sanctity of life: “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception…” (CCC 2270).
Fulton Sheen’s devotion calls us to “adopt” an unborn child at risk of abortion by praying daily for nine months for the child’s protection and for the parents’ hearts to be open to life. He asked us to pray this short, simple prayer:
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I love you very much. I beg you to spare the life of the unborn child that I have spiritually adopted, who is in danger of abortion.
How to Spiritually Adopt an Unborn Child
- Pray for grace to carry out your devotion.
- Plan nine months of prayer, the time a child spends in its mother’s womb, for a specific unborn child (or one only known to God) who is in danger of abortion.
- Name your adopted child. This will help you feel a deeper sense of connection.
- Make your pledge privately or through a parish program. This prayer may be used: “Heavenly Father, I wish to spiritually adopt (the name you’ve given your child), who is in danger of abortion. I promise to pray for this child for this for nine months, and through my prayers, I ask that this child be given the gift of life. Amen.”
- Recite Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Spiritual Adoption prayer daily for nine months.
Spiritual Unity
There is a growing indifference today to the sanctity of life, but we can make a difference through our prayers. Venerable Fulton Sheen’s simple prayer, prayed with dedication and love, unites us with the unborn, and creates an intercessory bond with the child and the mother. Just as earthly adoption is an act of love for the family that welcomes a child as one of its own, Spiritual Adoption mirrors the love of God, who adopts all of us as His own sons and daughters. God knows and loves every individual from the moment of conception, and He has a plan for each life.
Even though we may never meet or know the name of the unborn child for whom we pray, our prayer is turned into an instrument of solidarity rooted in the Catholic Faith and made into a firm arm against the culture of death. When we intercede for the unborn in prayer, we become part of an unseen network of support that offers comfort and grace to women making difficult decisions. Spiritual Adoption fulfills God’s mercy, peace, and healing love, and the ability to see every child, born or unborn, as a gift.
Photo by Eldar Nazarov on Unsplash
