“Lord you are going to have to show me!” 222 pages of children waiting for a family on
the “Adopt US” webpage: children in the United States who have no family. Children who live in a world where no one
wants them. Children who have next to no
chance at a stable, permanent home where they can rest in the security and
unconditional love of a family of their own.
That many orphans in this country, under our ‘roof’, within
easy reach of the church. And there are hundreds of thousands more languishing in foster care. Many of these children will bounce from home
to home, never knowing the security and love that their devastated hearts long
for.
In the U.S. 423,000 children are living without permanent families
in the foster care system. 115,000 of these children are eligible for adoption, but nearly 40% of these children will wait over three years in foster care before being adopted.
Over
65,000 children in foster care in the U.S. are placed in institutions
or
group homes, not in traditional foster homes.
Neglect
was reported for 54% of all children entering foster care
by
their parent or primary caregiver. Parental substance abuse was a
circumstance present for 28% of the children entering care.
States
spent a mere 1.2-1.3% of available federal funds
on
parent recruitment and training services even though 22% of children in foster
care had adoption as their goal.
“27 Religion that God our Father accepts as
pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans
and widows in their distress and
to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
Lord, you are going to have to show me. As I scroll
through page after page of listings of orphans in this country, I am swallowed
up by the need. I do not know how to choose
a child from this sea of children.
Biography after biography with pictures of sweet little faces and big,
brave smiles. Kids without a family who
will take them and love them and call them their own. If I am entirely honest, I am terrified of
choosing any child. I am terrified of
what it might mean for our family and the way it might turn our easy, well-
managed, neat and convenient into hard, chaotic, messy and uncomfortable. But I
know. I know this is what He has called
us to. We have all felt it. . .every one
of us, separately and together. For nearly
ten years I have argued with Him, reasoned with Him, alternately ignored and
wrestled with Him. No more. It is time for obedience.
5A
father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
Psalm 68: 5-6
