Instagram story viewer> @adamjohnbarta> Posts

Adam John Barta

@adamjohnbarta

2.2K

followers

2530

following

Husband to @jinnaleebarta
Dad to @annikamarekbarta
Pastor/Director, Pursuit College @thepursuitnw
✨Awakening a generation to the glory of God

POSTS STORIES REELS

81,590 words and counting. 📖

I’M WRITING MY FIRST BOOK!

If you know me, you know my brain is usually running a thousand ideas at once.

I have written musicals, built colleges, and learned how to play several instruments when the job demanded but it always came at a personal cost. The cost was lost time with family, personal goals, debilitating stress, depleted brain power, and a never ending act of of juggling.

It took me years to earn a college degree. I started and stopped so many times. I still remember staring at my very first academic assignment thinking, “How on earth am I going to write FIVE pages?”

Now I’m 288 pages into my first book 🤯

ADHD has made life a long road.

I stayed up late nearly every night, sometimes working until morning, chasing projects I still couldn’t seem to finish. I was chronically sleep-deprived, and my health paid for it.

Some days I had such a hard time focusing that I felt stupid. That’s painful to admit.

But neurodivergent brains are beautiful and brilliant. I’ve always loved how mine sees connections and dreams up possibilities.

And in July, something changed.

I finally found the wellness support that helped me address cortisol and stress, quiet the constant noise in my brain, feel energized, and think clearly again. I’m also down 20 pounds & 21 inches. CRAZY! I want to do healthy things for myself like walk and eat clean. And pray!

For the first time in years, I’m getting things done without having to run myself into the ground. I feel twenty years younger. And no more brain fog 😭

Then came this book.

I’ve lived its message for years. I’ve prayed it, studied it, taught it, wrestled over it, and watched Jesus work it into my life. 81,590 words later, it’s finally coming together in book form.

I cannot WAIT for you to read it.

If you’ve been sitting on a dream for years, please hear me: You can do this. You can overcome. You can get the support you need and make something beautiful from the ideas you’ve been carrying.

DM or text me if you want info on the wellness stack that unlocked my brain’s potential.

You guys… I’m almost done writing a BOOK! 🙌🏼

#ADHD #neurodivergent #bookcomingsoon #brainsupport by @adamjohnbarta

Adult adoption is very real.

The truth is that no one ever loses the need or desire for family. An aged out former foster youth and young adult never outgrows the need for family. A married couple without a child to call their own also never loses the desire for family. This is why God puts the lonely into families (Ps. 68:6) and weaves His story IN and FOR our lives.

On May 31st, 2019, in a courtroom in Adam’s hometown of Tacoma, we legally adopted Annika as a 26-year-old adult and she mutually chose us as her parents. Adam and I were 36 years old. Just 10 years between us.

We were issued a birth certificate changing Annika’s legal status as a ward of the state of Oregon to the daughter of both mine and Adam’s. It lists myself as her birth mother at the tender age of 10 years old with the address of my family’s coastal home that my grandparents built with their bare hands from the ground up. The home that housed multiple generations of my family became Annika’s birthplace on the new birth certificate. And the city Adam’s family loved and called home for generations was the place that the adoption was formalized and finalized.

At our adoption party we had a sign that said, “Our favorite book says we’re all adopted.” The B-I-B-L-E. Eph 1:5 states, “God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family through Jesus Christ... it gave Him great pleasure.” Those of us who believe are adopted as children of God. Adoption was first God’s idea, seen all throughout scripture: Moses was raised by Pharaoh’s daughter (Ex 2:10), Esther by her uncle Mordecai (Es 2:7), and Jesus by Joseph (Mt 1:28-25).

There’s even adult adoption in the story of Ruth. After the death of her husband, Ruth bound herself to Naomi with her well-known declaration of covenant: “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God,” (Ru 1:16).

Our family is as right as rain. The adoption helped heal multitudes of pain for each of us. And just as it gives God pleasure to make us all His sons and daughters so are we living in the fullness and pleasure of being a family. We’re like a three-strand-chord that can’t and won’t be broken. by @adamjohnbarta

Last year, I did something significant. It was equally challenging and rewarding.

I built and launched a ministry college on the heels of receiving a Masters Degree in Leadership Ministry with an emphasis in Counseling and Care from @faithinternationaluniversity

It was an honor to build on a firm foundation, established by @russellbjohnson and his dad, @bryan.johnson back in 2016. The time had come to start a new chapter with a renewed vision: Pursuit College.

After traveling the country and working with great schools of ministry, I brought back some of the best of what I had seen alongside some new ideas that were forming in me.

Pursuit College is essentially the school I’ve always wanted to attend. The staff and faculty are top-notch. It’s balanced with serious academics and high encounter. It’s a real college. With highly trained and vetted professors. And a community of believers who are ready to change the world.

Our students are learning to contexualize and apply the Word of God faithfully, while stewarding a biblical approach to walking in the ways of Jesus, according to the Spirit of God.

Today it dawned on me: I’ve been so busy building something that I love that I didn’t have time to share milestones and memories along the way on my page. I’ve posted a handful of stories here and there but my engagement with social media has been mostly absent. There is so much I want to share with you… not because you asked, but because God is so good!

BY THE WAY, if you’re reading this and you’re interested in knowing more about Pursuit College, DM me. The deadline to apply is Sunday, August 30 and we have room for you if God’s calling you to step into the classroom this year. We have in-person, online, and hybrid options for working adults.

Year two begins in 12 days. Here we go!

#discipleship #athens #corinth #pnw #greece by @adamjohnbarta

14 years of adventure. 7 years as Dad, Mom, & Daughter. From Oregon beaches to Venetian canals and beyond… we love you forever and always.

On this day, seven years ago, Jinnalee and I stood before a judge and swore an oath to take on the rights and responsibilities of parenthood to our beloved Annika. As an adult adoptee in Washington State, she was also awarded the privilege and dignity of “adopting” us as her parents. It was a mutual choice of love, admiration, responsibility, and honor.

Surrounded by loved ones (including our dear Grandma Patty who recently graduated to heaven), we were grafted to each other forever.

May 31st is now affectionately celebrated as our “Anni - versary” (Adoption Day).

#adoption #family #adultadoption #gotchaday #travel by @adamjohnbarta

22 Years with the love of my life ❤️

Come away with me for another 22 and beyond. You’re more than wonderful and more than amazing. I love you, ma Jinnabelle. Happy anniversary!

#anniversary #22yearsandcounting #love by @adamjohnbarta

What a joy it is to know you and to love you.
I celebrate the day God brought you into this world.
Happy birthday, Jinnalee 💐❤️ by @adamjohnbarta

Tonight, Jinnalee and I both received our diplomas for our master’s degrees in Leadership Ministry with an emphasis in Counseling & Care. We had the honor of walking with the @faithinternationaluniversity #classof2025

A big thank you to the faculty and staff — for all that you’ve equipped, imparted, and encouraged in us. We are so grateful for you.

Also, thank you to our daughter, parents, and dear friends for their patience — no more papers for a while 😅

In 2019, before Jinnalee’s brain surgery, she told me that if she made it through the surgery she wanted to learn another language. After her recovery time, I asked her if she wanted to go back to school with me instead. We spent countless hours studying and growing together. It felt daunting at times — through changing ministry seasons and after eight more surgeries, we pushed each other to finish strong.

Thank you, Jesus for carrying us through this season of our lives. To God be the glory! by @adamjohnbarta

May 31 marks the day that we officially became family.

Although we have identified as family for 13 years, we went before a court to legally adopt each other 6 years ago.

Jinnalee and I not only adopted Annika as an adult (yes this is possible in Washington State)—Annika equally adopted us, as she chose to accept us as her parents.

This will always be a day marked by God’s great kindness to us. He truly puts the lonely in families (Psalm 68:6) and we couldn’t be happier to share the rest of our lives together as a forever family!

We are grateful for our parents and extended family who have embraced adoption and lovingly received Annika without hesitation. This is one of many ways to reflect the Kingdom of God here on earth.

Happy Gotcha Day @annikamarekbarta, or as I like to call it… our family “Anni”-versary!

#happygotchaday #adoptionday #anniversary by @adamjohnbarta

✨Twenty-One Years Together✨

On this day, 21 years ago, I vowed to love and cherish you all the days of my life. To have and to hold you. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, for sickness and in health.

I have never regretted a single day and I love you today more than all of our yesterdays combined.

You are the love and light of my life. So beautiful and thoughtful. A creative force. The perfect mother to our daughter. Full of the Holy Spirit and chutzpah. You fight for everything and everyone you love. You are unmatched and becoming in every way. Your song is the cadenza to our life’s concerto. My heart beats for you still and forever. Happy anniversary, my love! ❤️

#happyanniversary #21years #love by @adamjohnbarta

Moved by the masterful work of Michelangelo’s (all marble) design of Cappelle Medicee in Firenze!

#florence #firenze #michelangelo #italy
📷: @annikamarekbarta by @adamjohnbarta

Buongiorno from @alredentore_venezia in #Venice #Italy 🇮🇹 by @adamjohnbarta

This year, my forever valentine and I celebrated #valentinesday at home - she is recovering from a minor surgery.

Enjoy these pictures from our epic trip to Prague where we heard the @orchestrfok play Mahler’s Resurrection in the most amazing Smetna Hall!

#latergram #vday #mylove by @adamjohnbarta