Adoption Awareness Month

November is Adoption Awareness Month!!

This is what that looks like to me.

When I look at this sweet face, those incredibly huge eyes, and those oh so kissable lips adoption becomes REAL.  And once it is real, you can't ignore it anymore. Eighteen months ago, this baby boy was a statistic.  He was one of the 147 million.  Today, he is my son.

This little boy is still a statistic.  Right now, as I sit in my comfortable, warm home, my tummy full from a huge dinner and my heart full from much laughter and even some bickering at the dinner table - "David" languishes in a crib in a nursing home.  Yes, I said a nursing home!  He is three years old.  The reason he is in a nursing home is because his country has decided that no one wants him and he has been given him up for dead.  He is labeled "unwanted" and not worth the effort.  No one ever holds and cuddles him or kisses him goodnight. Thank God for two missionaries who have decided that "David" (which means beloved) - is worth the effort.  That our God is so big, and so huge that He is going to find David's Mommy and Daddy and bring them to rescue him!  They have contacted Adeye at No Greater Joy Mom and she has agreed to spread this little guy's story.  He is not on a waiting child list anywhere.  No one else in the whole wide world is advocating for him.  Please, please spread his story so his Mommy and Daddy can find him.  They are out there.  I am sure of it.  Waiting to see that precious smile in person.  Ready to help him learn to sit up and eat and thrive in a family setting.  I read adoption stories literally every single day.  I read stories of "healthy" children and "special needs" children.  What I have learned is simple.  The only real "special" need is the need to be a part of a family unit.   There may not be miraculous, complete physical healing, but children thrive in a family setting - every.single.time.  It is the way we were created.

This month adoption is being talked about a little more.  Churches are hosting Orphan Sunday and stories are being shared.  Please remember that these children need us every day of the year, and their lives are not just "stories" like the fairy tales we read in books.  They are real and many times they are horrific.  Even for the "lucky" ones, who are fed and not abused, their lives are filled with loneliness and the shame of feeling unwanted and unworthy of love.  All they want is a family to call their own.

Please ask God to show you how He wants you to help advocate for the orphan.  There are many ways to get involved and many amazing ministries, like Amazima, Ordinary Hero, 147 Million, and Reece's Rainbow, that are working diligently for the cause of the fatherless.  I hope you attend a church that is connected with orphan care all over the world.  I promise you that God will reveal to you how He wants you to be involved.  Furthermore, I promise you that He does want you to be involved.

It is our problem!!