Q: If a Mormon couple adopts children, can they be sealed into an eternal family?
A: Absolutely! Any child legally adopted can be sealed to their family in the temple. I know of families who have all adopted children and some who have adopted one and added to their other children. It’s wonderful that our earthly families can be our eternal families.
The following is my own opinion, but it is what one Mormon believes, so I think it can still be posted on this website.
We recently got a nice comment from a woman who used to be a member of our Church, but has since becoming involved in another, more mainstream Christian Church. She wrote about her “new eyes and strong desire to help others come unto Christ [the same way that she has].” It was really nice to read, actually. And I’m grateful that she commented because it gave me a chance to think about what she is advocating. As a member of a church that proclaims to be the “only true and living church on the face of the earth” (D&C 1:30) it is sometimes hard to wrap my head around the fact that someone could leave this “fully true” church for a “partly true” church. (Don’t get all offended, I’ll explain my labels).
There are at least two parts to our church: the human part and the inspired part. The human part is honestly just like any other Christian Church. There are fellowship meetings, get-togethers, sermons by people who have some pet virtue they want to beat into the parishioners heads. Sometimes the church is amazing in this realm. Sometimes people reach out to new people and bring them into their warm circle of friends and fellowship. Sometimes seven different people come up to you during the first 14 minutes of church when you are visiting just to introduce themselves (thank you, Abilene Texas 3rd ward! You guys were awesome!). Sometimes there are incredible choral programs for Christmas and Easter. Sometimes someone’s sermon changes your life for good. Sometimes you find your closest friends through the Home or Visiting Teaching programs.
And sometimes, honestly, the human parts stink. People are flawed. And they bring those flaws to the church–especially in the LDS Church where everything is run by the members–a lay clergy, volunteers in every single role from the tiniest nursery tots all the way to the High Priests Group nodding off in the back row. So that means that every person’s flaws and weaknesses are somehow incorporated into the functioning Church body (as well as their good qualities, but that observation belongs in the paragraph above). And so, for people like the woman I mentioned above, visiting a warm and welcoming congregation, perhaps with a social following the service and all sorts of ancillary programs to sign up for, may seem like a shocking difference (especially if her LDS ward was the opposite of the Abilene Texas 3rd Ward). And it might seem like that church is more true. More full and lively. And it probably is more full and lively. As far as fellowship and sociality goes, the Mormons don’t claim to have a monopoly. Other churches are simply outstanding at uplifting and professional sermons, providing like-minded friends, urging people to lead honest and moral lives. I don’t think any Mormon would argue otherwise; and if the human part of our church were the only part, then the answer to my post title is Yes. It is just another Christian Church.
But there is another part to the church: the inspired part. And this is the part that separates 
it from the “partly true churches” that have great human components. God the Father and Jesus Christ really did restore the Church of Jesus Christ back to the earth through Prophets. The Prophet really does speak to deity. That’s an important distinction. The organization of the church below them with Apostles, Seventies, Elders and so on is truly inspired. It works on a small scale and it works globally. I don’t think that Joseph Smith could have come up with that one on his own. The temples are also inspired. Probably the most important element of the inspired part–that which makes it the true church–is the performance of saving ordinances: Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, the Sacrament, Temple Endowment, Temple Sealing. These things are HUGE. It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t been to an LDS temple why they are so important, but it’s like having the map back to heaven, printed in your own language. The temple is the point of having the Church back on the earth at all. This is what makes the LDS Church the “only true and living church on the face of the earth.”
However, sometimes even members of the LDS Church miss this. They see only the human parts and if they aren’t comparable to the other Christian Churches around their neighborhood then it only makes sense to switch. Being a member of the LDS 
church matters if those saving ordinances like baptism and temple ordinances are important to you. They are important to me. They give me security and increase my faith in Christ. I know that He will do what He has promised to do because I’ve covenanted with Him to follow Him and He is always true to His covenants. Those ordinances mean that I have a constant companion all the time: the Holy Ghost. He leads me, comforts me and corrects me. My temple marriage means the world to me because my little family means the world to me: if my road cycling husband were killed in an accident, I have God’s promise that we will be together again in the next life. And I trust that. I won’t even start to imagine losing one of my cherubic children because its too painful to contemplate, but we will be together for eternity too. And when I die, because of what I have learned in the temple and covenanted to do, I have full confidence that I’ll be privileged to meet my Savior. That is so important to me.
Way more important than how successful the ward party was and if today’s sermon wasn’t given as tactfully as I would have liked it. But that is my preference. Everyone is entitled to their own priorities and I won’t condemn you for yours if you don’t condemn me for mine.
Q. Do Mormons believe in the use of birth control or only mass producing children?
A. Only mass producing children. That’s why so many Mormons are going into engineering. . . there has got to be a more efficient way.
Ha. There are a LOT of shades of grey between those two options. This post by Megan addresses some of those issues. For the record though, there are Mormons with no children and Mormons with 15+ children. For everyone, it is a personal decision between the husband, wife and the Lord; not a mandate from the Church.
Question: What is so special to you about The Family A Proclamation to the World? I would like to hear some ideas from you, to help me understand.
I’d like to start with a brief summary of our relationship to God. Because in my opinion, that relationship is the key to understanding the purpose of life. One of our basic beliefs is that we are children of God. Before life began on the earth, we all lived with God as His spirit children. Our Heavenly Father presented a plan to us there. This plan was an opportunity to help all of us, His children, to learn, grow, and eventually become like Him. To quote a church article written several years ago, “We were given laws. We were commanded to walk in paths of truth and light and of virtue and integrity so that we could advance and progress. The ultimate goal held out to us was that if we were obedient in all things, eventually we would become like him. We would live in the eternal family unit as he lives in it, and we would have might, power, glory, and the omnipotent creative ability that he possesses. The name of the kind of life he lives is eternal life.” (“Households of Faith”, Ensign, April 1971, 4).
If our purpose in life is to eventually live as families as God does, then the need of the Proclamation to the World is clear. Families are the fundamental units of society. They are what children look to, to understand what is ‘normal’. They are what God has given us to understand what life will be like after we die. Since the definition of families in our world is becoming more obscure and confused, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made a statement clarifying the definition of family. In my opinion, The Family: A Proclamation to The World provides an answer to a lot of the confusion children are growing up with now. Below are nine issues in the world today that I think the Proclamation addresses. You may click here to read The Family: A Proclamation to The World in its entirety.
The Church teaches its members that even these rare exceptions do not justify abortion automatically. Abortion is a most serious matter and should be considered only after the persons involved have consulted with their local church leaders and feel through personal prayer that their decision is correct. The Church has not favored or opposed legislative proposals or public demonstrations concerning abortion.”
There are many different questions and answers that can be found by reading the Family Proclamation, but these are the ones that stood out to me the most. I hope they help. Our Father in Heaven loves us and wants to help us return to live with Him. He has given us the Family Proclamation to clarify the importance of families in His plan for us, and the role they play in our lives and on into eternity.