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Adoption & Advocacy with Kirti Pickard · The Defender Podcast

• 0:02
  Herbie Newell: Welcome to the Defender Podcast, a resource to help mobilize and equip the body of Christ to manifest the gospel to orphans and vulnerable children. This podcast is a ministry of Lifeline Children Services, and I'm your host, Herbie Newell.
• 0:16
  Rick Morton: Alright. Welcome again to the Defender Podcast. This is Rick Morton. Today is 02/19/2025. Can you believe it?
• 0:24
  We're past Valentine's Day. We're in the in the home stretch in February, and, the weather here in Birmingham can't decide whether it's gonna be 70 degrees or 20 degrees. So we're, seems like just a normal winter. But, today, we're gonna have a just a a really fun experience, I think, on the Defender podcast. We've got a guest that I've been really excited about, having the opportunity to interview, because I'm actually putting her on the other side of the conversation.
• 0:53
  So we have today with us, Kirti Pickard. Kirti was born in India and she was adopted at the age of four, and so she has firsthand knowledge of the things that we talk about all the time here on the Defender podcast. And so we're excited that we're gonna get an opportunity to talk to her, but big, like, spoiler news here, she is also a podcaster. And, and I was telling her before we got on the air that, that I really I've become a fan of her podcast. And so we're gonna talk a little bit about that, talk about her show, what she's doing, just some topics in general that we think you'll find of interest.
• 1:30
  But before we get there, let's talk a little bit about a favorite friend of ours, Mission one hundred and forty three. That's a favorite friend that's also really dear to Kirti's heart. So at Lifeline Children Services, we're dedicated to equipping families, churches, and communities to care for vulnerable children. One way that you can support the mission is through Mission one forty three founded by our guest today, Kirti Pickard. One hundred percent of the proceeds from Mission forty three go directly to Lifeline's work to impact children and families worldwide.
• 2:02
  To shop and support, check out the Mission one forty three link in our show notes. And if you'd like to give directly to Lifeline and be part of this life changing work, you can find us at lifelinechild.org/donate. Together we can make a difference, one child, one family, and one story at a time. Well, as I said, Kiirti Pickard was born in India and adopted at the age of four. She has a deep firsthand understanding of the profound impact of adoption and what it can have on a person's life.
• 2:31
  She's continually grateful for God's sovereign hand in her journey. In response to her own adoption, Kiirti is committed to serving both God and others, striving to live out the calling of James one twenty seven and all that she does. Kiirti is the host of When I Grow Up, a podcast that shares the extraordinary stories of people whom society deems to be ordinary. She believes that everyone has God given desires and gifts and her mission is to help them share what God has done in and through them in their everyday lives. A verse that we point to in that and I think that's a verse that's kind of at the center of what she's doing, Philippians two thirteen, For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
• 3:14
  As we said, she also leads Mission one hundred and forty three, a fundraiser that benefits Lifeline Children's Services here And through this partnership, she is helping Lifeline to support our mission to impact vulnerable children and families. Kiirti, welcome to the Defender podcast.
• 3:30
  Kirti Pickard: Thank you, Rick, for having me. It is an honor to be here, and it is honor to be even considered to be on this podcast.
• 3:39
  Rick Morton: Listen. I'm you know, after listening to your show, I mean, my goodness. I'm I'm a little intimidated here, to be honest with you today. I mean, my you're you really are doing an incredible job.
• 3:50
  Kirti Pickard: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, God gets all the glory. I'm just here to serve and be the hands and feet.
• 3:58
  Rick Morton: Well, hey. Before we get into talking about, your advocacy work and the things that you're doing, through your podcast and your company. And just tell us a little bit about your story, about your adoption story, and and then how has that made you, you know, really just think about all this?
• 4:18
  Kirti Pickard: Yeah. So a little bit about my story was I was born in India. I was abandoned right away as a baby, where local authorities found me and brought me to an orphanage. And that is where I spent the first three and a half years of my life up until, 02/2010. I was born in 02/2006.
• 4:40
  Two thousand '10, my now parents, Sam and Eve Pickard, came and picked me up from the orphanage, and I spent some time with them and was adopted at the age of four. So that's, in a nutshell, kind of my adoption, but how I came to terms to a healthy image of my own adoption, that is a little bit different. That was a little bit more of a journey. I really I'm not gonna lie Rick. I had a really hard time coming to terms and having peace within my adoption, and it wasn't until I heard somebody else's story where I was able to see God's goodness, and then it kind of lit a fire for me to almost look at my story in a new way.
• 5:30
  In this past year, I got the opportunity to walk with two really great friends of mine or not walk with, but I gotta see them walk through the adoption process. And that was I'm not even gonna lie. That was probably single handedly the greatest way that I've seen God's love. Like, I just I can't express it. Watching that adoption story unfold impacted me so much.
• 6:01
  It was an open adoption. And the I mean, obviously, I wanna respect the story of, the people because that is their story. But the mom was debating on whether or not she was going to put the baby up for adoption. And she was really struggling with this, and I watched because I'm hearing this secondhand from my friends. But hearing this, it just hit my heart so much because it was like, here you have this mom who wants nothing more to love her child, and she does love her child so much.
• 6:43
  Like and she just wants to be with her child, but she is able to recognize that in her position right now, she's not ready to take care of the child in a way that this baby could be. So just watching her have so much bravery and courage to love this child enough to give it to people who are able to take care of it, that was enough for me to recognize that, hey. Like, that could be the same story as my own mom. For years, I looked at my abandonment and saw, oh, well, this was an easy decision for her, or, oh, like, she left me. Like, I shouldn't have any, feelings towards her.
• 7:29
  Like, this is her actions, and now I have to live with them. But being able to see that, I could see the love, and it was just so eye opening. I don't know if that makes sense, but that was just
• 7:42
  Rick Morton: Oh my gosh. Yeah. It makes sense. I mean, I think, you know, I I say when we work with prospective adoptive families and we're, you know, we're talking about from the parent side of things, you know, stepping into adoption that, you know, one of the realities is that we don't, although God makes incredibly beautiful stories through adoption, we don't get here without brokenness. Right?
• 8:04
  Like, we don't get here without, without some hard things. And I think one of the hard things, and I, you know, certainly can identify on kind of on the other side of your story is the unknown in, you know, in so many adoption stories. And I think there are lots of kids that really, you know, that's part of the difficulty of the journey is really not knowing. And I love the fact that the Lord gave you the opportunity to be able to see that in your friend's journey because, because we do see I mean, these birth moms that are making this choice, you know, the the first thing I think we say in terms of, like, the pro life movement in general, just talking about, you know, the idea of that many times we I I think in our society, we have a tendency to cast birth moms in in a negative light who who plays for adoption. But but I think the thing we wanna celebrate is is they made the first right choice.
• 9:09
  Right? Like, they, you know, that every every child that we see, no matter what their story is, no matter, you know, no matter the the twists and turns, one thing we can say for sure is is their birth mom chose life and did something incredibly courageous and just experience validates exactly what you're saying that, you know, we we see birth mom after birth mom after birth mom that are making you know, these birth parents are making incredibly intentional choices and they're out of love. And and so I just I love the fact that, you know, that the Lord used that and it's cool. And we'll talk in a minute about your podcast and kind of how you've gotten to to doing what you're doing, with your with your show. But, again, just hearing you say that, I mean, I'm already making the connection to say, wow, like, that that experience that you had with hearing someone else's story and helping that helping you to really be able to reflect on your own story, I can tell that's impacted you pretty deeply because it really has made its way out in your podcast.
• 10:18
  Let's talk about that. Like, how did how did that did those two things come together? I mean, was that something that fueled the passion for you to to begin to to do your show?
• 10:27
  Kirti Pickard: Yeah. So I've been adopted for, I mean, just shy of fifteen years now. I didn't dig deeper into my journey of my actual adoption until, like, probably last year or so. So like I said, that experience kind of shifted a lot of my perception where I looked at that birth mom, and I almost saw my own birth mom in her story where I had this newfound compassion where that shifted my perspective so much where it just made put such a light on adoption as a whole for me where I was able to see, like, the love of a father, like, just how much God works through adoption. And it just really fueled this flame where I just wanna hear more stories, and I want it to be known just the goodness of adoption where it's not abandonment.
• 11:20
  It's not hurting. Like, yes, those are parts of adoption, unfortunately, but let's look at the bigger picture and let's look at God's fingerprints all over it. Like, this is not something we should be dwelling on or sad over. We should look at it as a celebration as this is God working I mean, a prime example of God's will coming to fruition. It's it's just his mighty works.
• 11:49
  And so this podcast, it's kinda based on Philippians two thirteen, we're talking about how people implement their faith into their everyday work life. Well, coming up to the month of November, that is adoption awareness month. So I wanted to use my platform to elevate the idea of adoption for the month of November, and that was really cool. So I gotta hear different people's stories on people who have been adopted and who have adopted. And it was just really awesome because throughout each story, you saw consistency, and that consistency was God, where it was just like you saw the rockiness, but then you saw the goodness as well.
• 12:31
  And it's just letting those two blend together and seeing that God's plans will work out for his will, and his will is greater than ours.
• 12:41
  Rick Morton: You know, this may be a little bit of a weird thought, but, but I'll be honest with you. Even as I was even as I was listening to your podcast and and thinking about some you know, just the reason why you're doing what you're doing, in part, I started thinking about, the people, the figures that we see in Scripture and the, you know, like, we read the Scriptures as if those people knew that, like, who they would be now. We read the Apostle Paul as if the Apostle Paul knew that his letters were gonna all be gathered together and like put in a book and that that was gonna be something that was gonna guide the church for, you know, generation after generation after generation. But I think when you go back and read Paul's writing, he didn't he didn't know that at all. He knew that God had called him to something and he was faithful to it and he pursued it in the moment.
• 13:37
  But I think if, you know, if you had the opportunity to sit down on a podcast and interview Paul, I think Paul would just say that he's just an ordinary guy that God has called to do something and he's he's just striving after that. And I think, I mean, I think what he says over and over and over again is that he's he's a guy that just serves an, you know, an extraordinary God and that that's the, like, that's the essence. And so, yeah, I think you're, you know, I I think the the the the thing that the Lord's kinda giving you the key on is pretty simple but pretty amazing and it's something that, quite frankly, we miss in looking at the stories that the Lord has given us to, you know, sort of pattern our life after. And and so, you know, kinda thinking about that and and just, you know, another verse that is that's pretty important to all this stuff that we do is, you know, is James one twenty seven. You know, in thinking about that, you know, how does James one twenty seven impact you personally?
• 14:42
  And, and then, like, how are you striving to live that out in your daily work and in your daily life?
• 14:50
  Kirti Pickard: Yeah. Well, as you know, mission one forty three is whole like, its root is in James one twenty seven, is caring for orphans and widows. And through that, I wanna use that as a platform to go and make an outreach. And the more that I think about it, the more that I pray over mission one forty three and even the podcast is just the idea that I truly believe that that is something that I feel called to live out. I think there's some things that there's some areas in the bible or some verses where people feel strongly, gravitated towards, where they think that that is or they believe that that is, where they're called to be.
• 15:34
  And I just feel like James one twenty seven is where I'm supposed to be, is with the orphans and with the widows. And I love the ending where it says, and refusing to let the world corrupt you. Like, be in your faith and your identity in Christ. It's like, even if anyone around me doesn't know what I'm doing or doesn't appreciate what I'm doing, that's fine because I'm not doing it for them. I am doing it for the Lord, and I'm doing it for his will and to build his kingdom.
• 16:08
  And part of refusing to let the world corrupt you is just being solid in your identity and your calling.
• 16:17
  Rick Morton: Yeah. Knowing who you are. Right? And knowing whose you are, I think, is is that's that's way more important than knowing who you are.
• 16:25
  Kirti Pickard: Oh, yeah.
• 16:26
  Rick Morton: Because we, you know, because we can become pretty, diluted quite honestly at times thinking about who we are, but something that is always good to ponder on is whose you are and that's, you know, that's a that's a good centering thing to to focus on, and the best place to go and do that is just to, you know, dig in the scriptures, which is, you know, which is what you're doing. So with Mission one forty three, let's talk a little bit about that. So tell folks what, like, what this is. How how could they become involved with you, in order to come alongside and join you on the mission that God's called you to and called you to help them live out to to care for widows and orphans?
• 17:09
  Kirti Pickard: Yeah. So Mission one forty three is a faith based organization that's dedicated to supporting, equipping, and serving people and organizations that are dedicated to caring for orphans and widows. Yeah. So with that, supporting is, like, supporting them either financially or just, like, supporting them, like, with a community. Equipping them is for education and, like, helping them learn more about adoption, about foster care, and just giving them a platform so they can go out.
• 17:46
  And then serving is for those who maybe they're not fully ready to step into adoption, but they love the idea of just caring for these kids, where maybe you wanna check out foster closet or Royal Family kids camp or different areas where you don't have to commit your entire rest of your life to, care for these kids, but you can commit a week. You can commit a couple hours, a couple dollars, whatever it may be, but going and being the hands and feet. So that is what Mission 143 is. So right now, it is, I'd like to consider it like a mustard seed ministry. It eighth of a mustard seed, but it is gonna do so many great things.
• 18:32
  I wholeheartedly believe that.
• 18:34
  Rick Morton: Well, everything gotta start somewhere. Right? Like, you everything has to have a beginning.
• 18:39
  Kirti Pickard: Yeah. And I think that this is what Mission one forty three is. It's just the beginning right now. So we sell clothing, and a % of the proceeds go to people in our organizations that are dedicated to caring for kids. So Lifeline is one of them, and we have Royal Family Kids Camp is another one.
• 19:01
  Rick Morton: Yep. Standing ministry, outstanding organization.
• 19:05
  Kirti Pickard: Yeah. Just people who are ready to care for those kids, we wanna be ready to support them. So, yeah, that's a little bit of Mission one forty three in a nutshell. But as far as supporting Mission one forty three, a lot of it, honestly, like I said, it's in the beginnings stages. So I word-of-mouth is a big thing just, like, earning more about it, and sharing about it.
• 19:32
  You can always buy apparel, and proceeds will go to lifeline. Yes.
• 19:37
  Rick Morton: And Come on. Tell people where to find it. Like, that's I there are pea I guarantee you there are people that are listening to this podcast right now, and they just been waiting for you to, like, say the website and tell them how to get there.
• 19:50
  Kirti Pickard: Well, I would love to share with you the website. It's not up. The website for the entire Michelin one four three is not up yet, but, definitely, when this is posted, I can post a link down in the comments.
• 20:03
  Rick Morton: Perfect. Perfect.
• 20:07
  Kirti Pickard: So right now, we will be having orders on those smaller websites, and then going forward, hopefully, we will be getting the big website launched.
• 20:16
  Rick Morton: Fantastic. Well, I just you know, like, I mean, I think this is a this is a great story, and I think people are gonna wanna they're gonna wanna participate with you. Hey. By the way, let's just make it clear because if folks don't know that are that are listening to us, where does the one forty three come from?
• 20:31
  Kirti Pickard: Oh, yes. I'm so sorry. Oh, I missed 43, that stands for the 143,000,000 plus orphans that are around the world. So that's kids that are in foster care or in orphanages or if they simply are roaming streets, unfortunately. If you go to different websites, say say bigger numbers, like a 53, I think, some of them.
• 20:56
  But, yeah, the number, unfortunately, is growing, and so just being aware of it and as the church breaking down that number more and more.
• 21:08
  Rick Morton: Well, the truth is nobody knows. Right? Like, we all of those numbers on some level are an estimate, but I think what it what it does and and even by basing Mission one forty three on this idea of a 43,000,000, you know, kids is is it identifies them. It, like, it speaks to them and it speaks to their existence. And, you know, you and I both know that part of the problem is that the orphan and vulnerable children can find themselves just forgotten about.
• 21:36
  And it's pretty easy to put the needs of kids around the world, kids in our own community in foster care, it's pretty easy to put that out of our minds because we're not, you know, like, we maybe don't see that every day. And so I love the, you know, the branding, the stuff that you're doing with the clothing because it really is a way to put that right in front of yourself and put it right in front of your community just by, you know, just by wearing those clothes and so to, you know, catalyze, conversations. Well, you know, what are some of the biggest challenges that adoptees face? I wanna kinda turn the corner and talk a little bit about your advocacy and what you're doing. So, you know, and and maybe what are some of those challenges that adoptees face that are a little difficult to see, that that maybe everybody doesn't perceive?
• 22:27
  What would you what would you say to people that are, you know, that are trying to come alongside and and love well and and pray for somebody in their life that is that isn't an adoptee?
• 22:39
  Kirti Pickard: I would say, well, based on my own personal experience with my adoption, I think an issue that I really struggled with or the idea that I struggled with was the feeling of belonging. Although I am in America right now, I was born in India. Right. And for a while, I had this idea I was wrestling with is, am I even supposed to be here? Like, I was not even born here.
• 23:06
  Like, I should be in India. Like, I I have other parents. Like, I should be with them. Like, there is no like, I shouldn't be here. So that's just a struggle that I had, I think.
• 23:21
  But also the idea of just, like, community where I am one of very few colored people in my school. And I think I this may be a stretch. I'm not sure. We have a pretty small school, but I think I'm the only Indian at our school. So it's like, also, you're kinda just like the black sheep.
• 23:43
  Like, you're just out there where I think making it harder to fit in and stuff like that where even if they don't say it, like, I never really said that, but it is something that I always had in the back of my mind where it's like, when I walk in a room, there's, like, a 98% chance that I'll be the only colored person in that room. And there's a even higher chance that I'll be the only Indian in that room.
• 24:06
  Rick Morton: Yeah.
• 24:07
  Kirti Pickard: So it's like small things like that where it's that's something that really kind of I wrestled with in my mind a lot, which it in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter. Like, your color does like, color of your skin doesn't matter, and where you came from doesn't matter. But as a kid, it does. Yeah. Or at least it did for me.
• 24:29
  So as far as coming alongside kids who have been adopted, I think, and helping them and supporting them through that is being open to let them share their story and being open to, like, if they're okay with it, like, asking questions, but also hearing them out where it's like, I think I said some, like, random things. Like, I would make, like, comments, like, be the only brown one or something. And it was kind of just like a joke or something, but in my mind, sometimes it wasn't a joke. Yeah. I mean, now it's like I'm over it, but, like, as a kid yeah.
• 25:09
  I don't know if that No.
• 25:11
  Rick Morton: It makes total sense. And I I think, you know, we part of what we what I think we have to do is we have to create safe spaces, and part of creating safe spaces to to be able to talk about those things and acknowledge them is, like, not being tone deaf to it. And and I think, you know, I've learned on the other side as a, you know, as a parent of three kids that came home through adoption that, you know, sometimes they don't like, they wanna make sure that that we're okay to talk about it. And so I I think, you know, like, we if we don't sort of press in and say, hey, I heard you made that, you know, like, I heard you made that comment about, you know, just kinda feeling like you stand out. How you feel about that?
• 26:04
  Kirti Pickard: Mhmm.
• 26:05
  Rick Morton: You know, like, just like, those those things are just kinda opening doors where where I think sometimes the as adoptive parents, like, we're a little bit afraid to start down the road of those conversations sometimes because we're afraid of where they could go. And we're and we're afraid we're afraid and we're afraid that we don't have answers. We're afraid that, you know, we're afraid that you're gonna ask something, and we're gonna we're gonna have to tell you that we don't know or we're not gonna be able to, you know, kinda meet that need or or whatever when when truly, maybe the need just is that you just wanna be able to be open about it and talk about it and it not it not be this unsaid thing. And so, I I mean, I think that's really, you know, I think that's really cool. So you got the floor here.
• 26:54
  Right? Like, you you have the opportunity to be able to say anything you want to right now. So if you were gonna advise, adoptive parents about, you know, if if they were if they were sitting down with you for a cup of coffee and and they were saying, Kierti, tell me, like, as we start into this process in adoption, what can we do to help our kids get a sense of belonging to, you know, to really, you know, to really make sure that they that they have a sense of a healthy identity, and what can we do to help them to to pursue Jesus?
• 27:32
  Kirti Pickard: Yeah. I would say, first, be open in conversation. Don't make adoption a hush-hush thing. Like, then you're almost putting this idea of shame maybe around it, which that's what we wanna do. We want adoption to be a celebration.
• 27:50
  So I think having open conversation with your kids, not only your adoptive kids, but even sometimes people will have, like, adopted kids and biological kids. So having conversations with both of saying just, like, what the differences is and knowing that those differences are okay. And I think a big one would be encourage your kids to pursue their story. And not only that, pursue, like, your story with the lens of love. Like, it may be hard based on, different kids' stories and what they come from, but learning to encourage or learning, for the kids to forgive, maybe, but encouraging them to pursue their story and pursue Christ in the center of their story and having compassion.
• 28:48
  And I think that's easier said than done. So parents, good luck. It's that don't want to, and that's okay. But just know just always have that door open with your kids about those conversations and always be ready to look for Christ in the center of it. Yeah.
• 29:08
  Does that make sense?
• 29:09
  Rick Morton: Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, and I think, you know, as a dad, I've kinda learned to let my kids have the freedom to feel the way they need to feel. And, you know, and so, you know, I won't get into it too much because it's their story. It's not mine.
• 29:30
  But I I will say that one of my kids has a whole lot more interest than than the others and, like, trying to, you know, know details and trying to understand, you know. And and one of our one of our kids is like, No, I'm good. Like, I know what I need to know and and I'm, you know, I'm fine. And the fact is, you know, it's not our place to try to want that for them or to try to push that on them. It's our place to be ready to go with them wherever they feel like they need to go and to be supportive and to, you know, help as much as we possibly can to support and enable that journey, you know, whatever it is it looks like.
• 30:19
  But in the middle of that also to affirm the goodness of God and to affirm the fact is that while there may be unknown, while there may be tough things, while there may be you know, beautiful things and and all that, the one thing that we can look at the story and see is we can look at all three of our kids and all three of their stories and and we can see the sovereignty of God. And they can see the sovereignty of God in that. And that's, you know, that a that a good and loving God preserved and protected them and and, you know, and brought them to the place that they are, and that's that's really helpful. You know, what about the church? Like, how how do you know, how has, you know, how has the church helped?
• 31:11
  Or or maybe how do you wish the church, you know, the the local body of believers, could help in in adoption, particularly in this idea of, you know, thinking about identity and those sorts of things.
• 31:27
  Kirti Pickard: Oh, yeah. You, you talked about the church. Well, my the start of me being able to see my adoption in a healthy way came from hearing somebody else's story that was within the church. Yeah. And people that are have been on my podcast that have shared their stories on adoption are from the church.
• 31:50
  So I think that, selfishly, I would like to say, adopt. If you're called adopt, lean into that because that is a great way to, help kids who have been adopted is to also adopt and share your stories. Just be so comfortable with allowing those conversations of adoption, and you can see the consistencies in different adoption stories where they may have started differently. But, again, like we talked about, where you see God's sovereignness in it, where sometimes you just need that extra like, as an adoptee, sometimes I need that extra encouragement from hearing other people's stories to understand my own. So
• 32:35
  Rick Morton: Yeah. For sure. And I I love the fact that, you know, that's what I mean, obviously, that's what your podcast is about, but I but I think it's that's also an encouragement, I think, to to the church, I mean, to the body of believers to say, let's, like, let's not fail to tell these stories because they because our our stories ultimately point to a greater reality of God's love. Right? And God's plan and his, you know, his his sovereign hand that's in the middle of all that and we affirm that whenever, you know, whenever we're telling our stories.
• 33:08
  And so what we try to do and and I think for our family, it's been, like, we just don't wanna be weird. Right? Like, that's so, you know, so so those so those weird moments, like, yeah, that's we probably don't lead with that. You know, I I don't go around and I don't I don't I don't announce my kids and go, hey, there's here are my adopted kids anymore than, you know, that somebody who, you know, has birthed a child is gonna go, here's my child that I birthed. Right?
• 33:32
  Like, we you I mean, my kids are just my kids, but but the fact is, when we get into relationship with people and and we begin to know them, like, we we just, like, we just need to be comfortable talking about our lives and and, you know, because at the end of the day, so many people find Jesus and so many people understand the the gospel through the lens of other people and other people's stories. And and so and we've got these stories, right, where because adoption is part of our story, like, you just telling your story kicks the door wide open to be able to point somebody toward the truth of the gospel. Yes. You know? Like, you like, you can't you can't tell your, like, your life story and and you can't unfold parts of that without pointing to the greater reality that that Jesus did the work for us to be able to be adopted into the family of God.
• 34:34
  Kirti Pickard: Mhmm.
• 34:35
  Rick Morton: And and, you know, and I just that I mean, that's such an amazing, you know, such an amazing gift that, that when you're telling your story, kind of all roads lead to the good news. You know?
• 34:48
  Kirti Pickard: Yeah. I love that.
• 34:52
  Rick Morton: So, if somebody's considering adoption and they're nervous, they feel uncertain, what's your advice to them?
• 35:02
  Kirti Pickard: I would say don't seek comfortability in your calling. If you look in the Bible and you see different stories where God has called people into action, I don't I mean, I'm almost confident in saying that you will not find a comfortable story or a comfortable action that somebody had to do to go and build the kingdom. I think of so I'm gonna point to some scripture just because this is I think this is so important. John thirteen twenty seven, Jesus is predicting his death, and he says, now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray father, save me from this hour?
• 35:41
  But this is the very reason I came. Father, bring glory to your name. And I think that's such a cool verse because Jesus Christ, the son of God himself, did not get an easy calling. So why do you think that you would? You're not like, don't seek that as a characteristic of your calling because you will get nowhere, or I don't think that you will at least if you play it safe or if you think, oh, well, this is too difficult.
• 36:16
  Maybe it's not for us. I think you're wrong. Yeah. I think leaning into that uncomfortability a little bit and praying through those situations, finding a community, and educating yourself are all great ways to lead lean into this idea of adoption even if you are uncertain about it.
• 36:37
  Rick Morton: So somebody's listening to us talk, and they're really inspired right now and they say, hey, I wanna I wanna take the first step. I wanna get involved. I wanna make a difference.
• 36:53
  Kirti Pickard: Mhmm.
• 36:54
  Rick Morton: What can they do?
• 36:56
  Kirti Pickard: Oh, man. I would say there's so many avenues you can go down. It depends on your your desire to make an outreach. Are you thinking of adoption? Well, then I'd say, like I said, go find a community, go pray, go start getting educated.
• 37:13
  If you're fostering, then, again, go find community, go pray, go get educated, and then go foster. But maybe you're younger. Like, I'm 18, but I still have such a heart for, James one twenty seven where I am actively seeking different opportunities where I can get my foot in the door, even if it's the small things like volunteering at camps. Maybe it's donating clothes. Maybe it's just those simple things that you are still able to make huge impacts in kids' lives even if they don't know it and even if you don't know it.
• 37:51
  Like, I think another great way is, mentorship. Even if you you could do it at schools or even if it's just like, hey. You got a kid. One of my greatest favorite members of mine, he works at a gym. And the way that he started mentoring me was literally just me showing up to the gym all the time, and I asked him questions, and he would just answer them with an open heart and an open mind.
• 38:19
  And that was that has had one of the greatest impacts on my life is just hearing from somebody who is wiser than me speaking to my life. So little things like that.
• 38:32
  Rick Morton: Great interview, by the way. That was a that was a really cool episode. So if if so, like, that's that's the best endorsement I can give you is you mentioned that episode and I immediately thought, I've heard that episode and it was and it was fantastic. And, yeah, and I think, you know, what God calls us to is is, you know, what we said before, which is it's inherently inherently normal people just walking out and being obedient to the things that, you know, God's called us to and it in, you know, in some people's lives that may be adoption, it may be that, you know, you're supposed to go teach reading to some, you know, kid that's struggling to know how to read. But the fact is the Lord uses all of those things to add up to, what he desires from his people.
• 39:22
  What I know for sure is is that anybody that's going to do that needs to do it with a Mission one forty three sweatshirt on. So we're gonna so we're gonna drop in the show notes a link to Mission one forty three. We're gonna make sure that folks that are listening to the podcast are aware and know, and and they're gonna they're gonna come find you on your show. And so let's give a let's give a plug for When I Grow Up. When where where can people find When I Grow Up?
• 39:50
  Kirti Pickard: Yeah. You can find it on Apple. You can find it on Spotify. You can find it on, Samsung Play. I think that's what it's called.
• 40:00
  K. And, yes, I Pretty much anywhere you
• 40:04
  Rick Morton: can find an audio podcast, you can find you can find the show. And so the name of the show is When I Grow Up, and, and, you know, every every other week, you're dropping episodes. Right?
• 40:16
  Kirti Pickard: Mhmm.
• 40:17
  Rick Morton: Yeah. Very cool.
• 40:18
  Kirti Pickard: Yeah.
• 40:19
  Rick Morton: Well, Kirti, thanks so much for joining us. This has been just a ton of fun to have a chance to talk to you and and get to know you. And like I said, you know, I'm a I feel like a little bit of a fanboy right now because I've been I've been listening and and, have been checking out what you're doing. And so it's really been fun to have an opportunity to talk to you and get to know you a little bit, and we look forward to, you know, following your story and all that the that the Lord continues to do with you, over the years. And so, yeah, thanks for being with us.
• 40:51
  Kirti Pickard: Yeah. Thank you for having me. It's been awesome.
• 40:54
  Rick Morton: Well, we just wanna say thanks to all of you for joining us on the Defender podcast. We, we do this and we do what we do because we believe that the key to serving orphan and vulnerable children and and vulnerable women is the body of Christ and that God has called us into this work because ultimately He wants to show His glory by what He does through His church. And so we'd love to help you. You can find us at lifeline children services or lifelinechild.org, lifelinechild on all the social media platforms, but we'd love to hear from you. We'd love to hear, how we can help you and we'd love to hear if there are if there are ways that you've been blessed by this ministry.
• 41:38
  And so for Kirti, I'm Rick Morton. Thanks for joining us and we will talk to you again on the next edition of the Defender Podcast.
• 41:47
  Herbie Newell: Thanks for listening to the Defender Podcast. If you enjoy making this podcast a part of your weekly routine, we'd love for you to take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review The Defender Podcast to make it easier for more people to find. For more information on how you and your church can partner with Lifeline, visit us at lifelinechild.org. If you want to connect with me, please visit herbynewell.com. Follow us at Lifeline on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter by searching for Lifeline Child.
• 42:15
  You can email us directly at info@lifelinechild.org. Beloved, will you allow God to use the gospel through you to impact the life of a child? Please contact us because we are here to defend the fatherless. We'll see you again next week for the Defender podcast.