One Less

I was going to get on here and write a post about our trip to Costco today. We live in South Florida - the place where all the snowbirds fly this time of year. Let me tell you, snowbirds are not the nicest group of people in the world. Sure, you get an occasional "grandma" who misses her grandkids and has a smile for your children. Sadly, though, for the most part we get sneers, grouchy glances, and many times outright horrible remarks. I have lived here in "paradise" for almost sixteen years. When we moved here I was a mere 22 years old, and the nasty comments stung a whole lot more than they do today. We moved here from the South, and y'all, in the South people are just plain nice! Older women do not yell at young moms when their toddlers drop their sippy cups and juice splashes on their designer shoes! Yes, this happened to me when my third child was younger. In the South, grandmas offer to hold your baby for you when they see you have your hands full. In geographically south Florida, grandmas tell you that you shouldn't have had so many kids, and heaven knows you should not have anymore. Yes, I've been told that, too. Yesterday, in fact. As I said, though, it just doesn't sting anymore.

I had plenty to say about the people we ran into (thankfully, not literally) during our shopping trip to Costco today. The older couples shoving my kids over to get to the sample table. These are people who probably paid cash for their house, and their HUGE Cadillac! The grumpy people in line at the gas pump, blowing the horn, like that would make the gas spurt out of the hose any faster. The unbelievable comments I get when I say I have five children. (They ask, I do not go around with a sign on my head and I usually only have two or three with me).

Anyway, as I was checking the other blogs I read, I decided that typing about old people with bad attitudes is not a wise use of my time. Truly I am sorry for them, they are miserable people and I pray that God would take me home before He allows me to be so unhappy with myself that I hurt others on purpose. Enough about that....

Today McMama has a post about three children in desperate need of a home through Reece's Rainbow. This is an organization that facilitates the adoption of special needs babies, mostly Down's Syndrome. Many, many of these children are from Russia and their circumstances are especially critical. In many areas of Russia once these special needs children turn 4 or 5 they are institutionalized in adult mental health facilities and become ineligible for adoption. These facilities are horrendous and many of the children die. The ones who live are basically tied to a chair and left alone. Horrible, horrible conditions. It should not be this way. So many of these children have very minor medical issues with their Downs. They could live full, healthy lives in a family situation.

My heart is constantly broken lately for the orphans among us. I want so badly to take them all. Sometimes I sit and read adoption stories on blogs, or I look through the waiting children lists on Reece's Rainbow or other adoption agency websites and I pray for these children and I sob because I can't have them all to love. God loves these children and I believe that He wants to use His church to love them, too. If every Christian took the call to care for orphans and widows seriously, we could put a real dent in the millions of orphans around the world who are waiting for their forever families.

Matthew West sings a song called "One Less." It was inspired by a couple who brought their daughter home from Guatemala. There are so many people who have felt the tug of adoption and who now hold in their arms, children born in their hearts. Personally, I don't know anyone who has experienced the miracle of adoption that does not want to experience it again. Once you look into the eyes of a child and your mind takes you to the place that they would be apart from their forever family, you are changed. It becomes a force that drives you.

When I look at my sweet baby boy and I think about what kind of life he would have lived, I am broken. I do not think that we did anything noble. It was only Christ in us that could give us the desire to pursue adoption. Now, I can't stop thinking of how many more sweet baby boys and girls are lying alone in horrific orphanages all over the world, or on the streets, or in abusive and drug infested homes here in America. How many children cry themselves to sleep at night, while no one hears or cares?

Could we not give up just a small portion of our cushy lives to radically change the life of just one? Maybe tomorrow there could be one less? Maybe it would be because of you?