Adoption

I read a blog post yesterday that really hit home.
We follow a lot of blogs about Down syndrome, heart defects, leukemia, and adoption.
Many of the blogs relate to one, two, or even all of those topics!


There is an organization called Reece's Rainbow, that coordinates adoption for special-needs children in other countries with no other chance at life.
In so many places, children like Anthony have no value and are placed in orphanages at birth. After reaching the age of 4 or 5, they are often transferred to mental institutions where they are often not cared for and, because of conditions, DIE within a year or two.


Reece's Rainbow is a wonderful service, but it is not how we adopted Anthony.
We went through our State DSHS office, became foster-to-adopt parents, and went through a 2-year grueling process to have Anthony in our family forever.
I know not everyone can do that.
BUT, there are ways everyone can help a child in need.

The post from yesterday, at Our Story: Continued, addressed how anyone can help children near and far. I'm going to copy and paste from her blog. Children are needing our help everywhere.

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Not everyone is called to adopt. There are life circumstances that can prevent or delay the possibility of adoption. A friend of mine wanted me to share ways that those who are not called to adopt can still help make an impact in the lives of orphans and foster children around the world.

Here's a few ways....


foster.

•Now, now. Don't start rolling your eyes at me. Foster care does not have to look the way that most of us understand it to look. You can be repite foster parents, giving a break to long-term foster parents...providing a weekend or a week of foster care at a time. Not only are you helping long-term foster parents refresh and regroup, you also have an awesome opportunity to share love and family with children who have been removed from their families. Whether you are newlyweds without children yet, parents raising a family, or empty nesters, foster care can be a valuable gift you can give to the least of these. Whether it's short term respite foster care or long term foster care, there are many people who are not called to adoption who can foster and love children who desperately need it!
give.

•I've heard people say, "if someone can't afford the adoption cost, they shouldn't adopt." I shudder to think of Reese living in an insane asylum because finances stood in the way of her joining our family. And finances would absolutely have prevented her from joining our family if it wasn't for our brothers and sisters in Christ helping to pay the ransom required for her to join our family. Here's the deal..."God doesn't always call the equipped, but He does equip the called." And so many times, He wants us to take the step of faith in obedience to His call before He opens His hand of provision. Maybe you are able to be God's means of providing for the costs of an adoption of a child. Maybe God wants you to give what you don't even think you can afford to help save a child's life and place them in their forever family. In the same way that God wants the family who says "we can't afford to adopt" to take steps toward adoption and trust Him to provide, maybe God wants you, who may say, "we can't afford to support someone's adoption" to give anyway while trusting Him to provide.
pray. pray. pray.

•Pray for the orphans around the world. Pray for the missionaries working with the street children who have aged out of orphanages. Pray for governments around the world to be supportive of adoption. Pray for the mothers giving birth to children with special needs to have the courage to raise their children without abandoning them. Pray for those in the process of adopting. Pray for those who may be called to adopt, but just need that last little bit of courage. Pray for the children waiting for families to feel God's presence. Pray and ask God if adoption is something he is leading you to, now or in the future. Pray. Pray. Pray!
volunteer.

•In our city, we have several children's homes in which children who for whatever reason can't be placed in foster families live for an average of nine months. These kids are usually hard to place in foster families because they are large sibling groups, have behavioral or medical problems, or there are just not enough people who have said "yes" to fostering children. I've gone on the websites of several of these children's homes in my city and I'm blown away at how easy it is to become a volunteer there. Anything from getting a group of friends together to throw a birthday party for these children to being a one-on-one tutor or mentor to grabbing a paint brush and painting walls to answering the telephone at the front desk. There is a place for everyone to serve!
go.

•Maybe you're not called to adopt, but maybe you can take a week off of work and go on a short-term missions trip to help support orphanage staff and the orphans. Maybe you are a speech pathologist {*wink wink, A.} who can help teach orphanage staff how to properly feed babies with cleft lips {a therapist did this for our daughter before we found her and the impact was huge!} or teach staff how to better stimulate language reception and expression in kids with institutional or developmental autism. Or maybe you can go and spend a week in an eastern european city handing out mcdonald's hamburgers to children who snuff paint and take other types of drugs to take away their feeling of hunger...girls who have a 90% chance of being active in prostitution and kids who will more than likely die by taking their own lives. I know that not only will you change the lives of others, your life will never be the same.
support.

•Bring meals, have a shower, run errands, send a housekeeper, bring over coffee, and do everything you can to love on families who are in the process of adopting or who have recently adopted a child. Get to know their new child and play a role in welcoming that child into your community. Offer to babysit their other children while they have special bonding time with their new son or daughter. Be a non-judgmental ear when they want to talk about how hard the process has been or how hard the adjustment is when the honeymoon period is over. And, be the friend who congratulates them when they say they are adopting a child who has fetal alcohol syndrome or fostering teenage boys even though they have smaller biological children in the home. If you have concerns about the decisions they are making, it is fine to ask questions, but make sure your initial reaction and underlying tone of your question-asking is one of encouragement and support if their motive is to obey God's special calling for their family. In no way, minimize the value of supporting an adoptive or foster family. It really does take a village {and the church!!} to make an impact on the orphan crisis of our world!
These are just a few ideas. Do you have any other ideas??
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I was inspired by the post, and hope that some of you may be inspired as well.