Thursday, January 07, 2010

Some Thoughts on Adoption

There’s a show on the Discovery Health Channel that I catch every now and then called “Adoption Stories”.  I found one today that was about a family adopting a 4 year old foster child from California.  Watching that made me want to go do a little more hunting on the internet, so off to the computer I went. 

There are some sites that you can go to and view pictures of some kids in the foster system waiting to be adopted.  Do NOT do it unless you are prepared to be broken hearted.  We’ve looked at those sites before and just cried over all those kids who don’t have families.  Mike has said more than once, “We need a bigger house.”  I’m so tender-hearted when it comes to kids that if I could, I would take them all.  If I see or hear of a baby or toddler, especially, that isn’t being cared for or is being mistreated, I just want to snatch them right up and bring them home with me and just love them to pieces.  That’s one reason I haven’t pursued some of the mission trips where you just go and hold babies at an orphanage.  I either wouldn’t be able to leave or I’d want to bring them all home with me.  I don’t know that my heart would be able to handle it.

There’s a particular site I looked at this morning that had a listing by state of all the kids waiting to be adopted… then a listing beside it of all the churches in that state.  Staggering.  The poll was done in 2006 so you have to factor that in, but to give you an example, Arkansas had 937 children waiting to be adopted and 5,843 churches.  In every state except one, there were WAY more churches than children.  WAY MORE.  I feel very convicted over that.  And just the simple fact that there are sooooo many kids in this world that don’t have parents, or don’t have parents that will/can care for them, regardless of what state or country they are from absolutely breaks my heart.

It’s been so amazing to watch several of our friends answer God’s call on their lives to adopt, be in international, domestic, or through foster care.  I’m excited that our journey has started and I can’t wait to see what God will do in our lives and in the life of the child He is preparing for our home.

2 comments:

Ryan Michele Holder said...

Which websites were you looking at?

Jill said...

Hey Ryan,
I was looking at www.icareaboutorphans.com. It's a Focus on the Family site that I ran across. Then also have looked at the photo listing on adoption.com where it lists kids in each state. Don't know how current that is, but still.