November is Adoption Awareness Month. Many of you know that already and if you are FB friends with me you know that I have been sharing some pretty sobering statistics so far this month.
The good news is that I have also been getting lots of questions along the lines of "what can I do to help?" I love these questions. My husband always cringes when someone asks me something like this face to face and then he does one of those hiss type whispers in my ear and says, "Don't overwhelm."
He knows me well.
So, in an effort not to overwhelm, but to give a very specific answer to the questions I have been receiving, I have come up with a list. We all love a good list, right?? So along with some pictures I have included for your viewing pleasure, I am also including some links to various ministries that I know for a fact spend your money wisely. Because, let's be honest - everyone wants a piece of your bank account. I get it. Honestly, I do. And you can not give to everyone. I get that too. And it is ok to be comfortable enough with yourself and in tune enough with God's will for your life to say no. Truly, it is ok.
I gave up being a pleaser a long time ago and it was the most freeing decision I have ever made. You do not have to please me by donating to "my" cause. If you and God have discussed the orphan, I guarantee you that He has given you a place to ACT. Do that. The thing is, most people don't do anything. Most people do not even know that there are 163,000,000 children right now going to bed without a family. Sit on that for a second.
Most people don't know that the silence in orphanages all over the world is deafening. Of all the horrific stories I have heard about orphanages all over the world, the one common denominator, the one most haunting thing that everyone comes away with is the SILENCE. Children who know that no one is coming stop crying. Children should never ever stop crying.
So today I am going to make you a list. The organizations on this list are personally known to me. I could pick up the phone and call the people who head these organizations right now. I know them personally, I know they are the REAL deal. I know they love the Lord and the orphan and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they spend your money wisely. You can give to them without hesitation.
First I want to quickly introduce you to my family. Right now we have five children in our home. Two seniors in college, one senior in high school, a 13 year old and a 5 year old. Our oldest daughter is getting married in August. Our first experience with adoption was when Stan and I got married 20 years ago and our two oldest were just 19 months old. We had been abandoned by their birth father and Stan instantly became their daddy. Our five year old came to us as a newborn in a domestic adoption, and he is the one who totally wrecked our entire family for the orphan. All of our kids love adoption advocacy, desire to adopt themselves one day, and desire to spend their lives ministering in some capacity to "the least of these." Our oldest daughter and her fiancee met working with a human trafficking ministry in NYC, and hope to do that again in a few years. Trafficking rescue has way more to do with adoption than you see on the surface. Our youngest daughter desires to mother special needs children and she will be amazing at that. I can not wait!! I could not be more humbled that God gave all of these amazing kids to me.
This precious one is our #6. He is coming to us sometime in the next few months from China. We love him so incredibly much already. I mean, seriously, look at that smile!!
In his honor, the first ministry I want to recommend to you is Shanghai Healing Home. SHH is an NGO (non-governmental organization) run by American missionaries in Shanghai. They provide excellent care for special needs orphans, and provide necessary surgeries and post-operative care until their forever families are found. They have child sponsorships available or you can make a one time or ongoing donation. I completely and 100% trust the integrity of this ministry. You can click the link to find out more about this organization and their needs and you can donate online.
This is our daughter Bryce and a young man by the name of Benyam. Bryce met Benyam when she was in Ethiopia on a mission trip with the next organization I want to recommend to you. Ordinary Hero has the motto "change the world for ONE" and I love that. Sometimes when you hear the number 163,000,000 it just seems too much. Too big. Too impossible. But, when you hear "change the world for ONE" it brings it back into focus. ONE. You can do that. I can do that - and together, together we can change the world. So, Benyam is ours. We love him, we pray for him, our picture hangs on his wall in a frame that reads Family. We support him and one day we hope to bring him home to our family forever. But, there are lots more children just like Benyam in Ethiopia and OH offers child sponsorships, short term mission trips, and many other opportunities for you to get involved. Click the link and see what you can do to help.
This is Emma. Emma is our favorite missionary in all of the world!! Her story will blow you away. Seriously. She received the call to Uganda at just 6 years old. And three years ago, at 19, she moved there. Since moving to Uganda, Emma has founded The Gem Foundation. Emma and her husband Josh care for 28 special needs orphans. She is sweet, humble, and selfless - and she is strong, brave and absolutely fearless when it comes to her trust in God and her willingness to follow His call on her life. She is a true hero and an inspiration. Daily she lives out the admonition in Timothy to "let no one despise you because you are young, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." Emma is an example worthy of emulating. She is the real thing and we are honored that God allows us to call her a personal "in real life" friend. We know that one of (if not THE) main reason He moved us to Arizona was to meet Emma and her family. Your money would be WELL used if you choose to donate to The Gems.
Ok, bear with me -- I know I am overwhelming just a little. I have two more and I can't bear for you to miss out on either of them. This is Emma again, before she moved to Uganda. The little girl she is holding is her baby sister Ruby. I am not going to give away much of Ruby's story, because you can read it for yourself in her book - Rescuing Ruby. Seriously, go order it right now.
Ok, now that you did that, let me tell you a little about Ruby's Mommy and Daddy. Dwight and Linny Saunders are the founders of International Voice of the Orphan. IVO is on a mission to care for orphans all over the world. Click this link to find out about their feeding programs, programs to provide surgeries for needy orphans, mission trips, child sponsorships and so much more. Personally, Dwight and Linny are some of our very best friends - they are mentors, inspirations, shoulders to cry on and pray with. Our kids love hanging out together. They are currently in the process of their 10th adoption. The picture you see below is just one example of the miracles they have seen unfold since their family set out on a mission to care for the orphan almost 30 years ago. They also are the REAL thing - and your money would be wisely spent if donated to IVO.
This is the Saunders Family with their children who still live at home.
The last organization I want to tell you about is a brand new one. It is called Care 4 the Orphan and a friend of mine started it just a few months ago and asked me to be a board member. So, in the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you that this one is one I am very closely involved in. Actually, I will be honest, all of these are the ones our family chooses to support. But, what I love love love about Care4theOrphan is how absolutely mind blowing the concept is and how absolutely ANYONE can participate. The mission of Care4theOrphan is to find 1 million "giving units" that donate $1 per month. That's it. ONE dollar per month. Anyone can do that - even my "poor" college students, even my 5 year old. Once we reach one million $12 per year donations that gives us 12 million dollars a year. We want to donate $250,000 per month to four different orphan ministries every month. How awesome would that be???? So our social media "challenge" is for you to click the link and go to our page and click the "Give Now" link and donate your $12 for the year. Then take a picture of yourself (like Patrick's below) holding a sign saying where you are from and that you donated $1 per month at Dollars4orphans.org -- the tag at least three friends and challenge them to do the same. You can also like our FB page.
So, there you have it. My very favorite orphan ministries and links to each of them. From the very bottom of our hearts, Stan and I want to thank you for prayerfully considering how you might help. These precious children deserve a family. They deserve a mommy and daddy to tuck them in at night. They are literally crying out for someone to hear them.
And the thing is, once you know...... once you know, there is really no turning back. As David Platt says, "Orphans are easy to ignore before you know their names. They are easy to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they are not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes."
With only a couple of exceptions, every child pictured in this blog post is a previous orphan. Now, they are sons and daughters - of God and of mommies and daddies who love them more than life. They are cherished, treasured, and whole. They have a family. They ARE our "whys." And we GET to. We get to be a part of God's sovereign plan. There is no greater JOY on this earth.
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