Recently I was made aware of a situation where two siblings locally were removed from their home for child abuse. A group of over 3,000 people were presented with this situation and asked whether anyone in the room could take these children in. I was thankful to find out a couple stepped forward........ but saddened and a little perplexed to find out that only one couple, out of a group of over 3,000 christian people.....stepped forward.
I wish I could remember where I read this so I could quote it accurately as well as give them proper credit, but somewhere recently I read a statement that said something like this: "In a city where there are christians, there should be no unwanted children."
Ouch.
Which makes me wonder why this is so. WHY, if there are 450,000 churches in the U.S.A., WHY are there 129,000 children in the U.S. waiting for families?
My pastor, Alex Himaya, did a sermon series explaining WHY God has such a heart for adoption. I encourage every believer to hear it (Click here to hear). Out of that sermon came an orphan ministry that John and I are so thankful to be a part of. I am working on a new blog,
adopt-ed.blogspot.com where I hope to share stories related to orphans and vulnerable children, connect adoptive families, highlight events, share some of the outreaches of our church adoption ministry, etc. I do hope you'll come visit it, set your google reader, and be a part of the Adopt(Ed) ministry at The Church at Battle Creek.
12 comments:
What an awesome post Charissa.
Some of the reasons that kids in the US are waiting for families is just that, people not stepping up. And then there is the other reason. Adopting from the foster care system is not easy and the system makes it quite difficult on the few wonderful people who *do* step up. I cannot begin to describe the heartbreak poured on our family by the foster care system. After 8 years, I gave back my license and closed my home. And I must add it was NOT the kids that caused the heartbreak., It was decisions made by the social workers and the courts, and the way many of them treat the kids as disposable.
It is a very broken system.
I deeply respect and support your deep heart of love for children needing adoption. I do wish to respond to one element of a question you asked, if I may. You noted there are so many children waiting to be adopted here is the US and wondered how that could be. I work in a social service agency, and wanted to share that some of the children are very hard to place because of their actions. There are young people who have sexually molested other children, who have emotional problems that cause them to have rage and physically assault others or smash windows, walls, and doors. They need specialized care and are a great responsibility. Many choose to opt out of adopting them due to the risk they are to others in the family. It is tragic that the actions of their parents many times (mostly) has put them in this place in life. Broken lives break lives, without the intervention of God. But sometimes when children who are 12+ are making decisions like this with no contrition, it is a desperate situation to find them a home. Not all are "innocent".
Great post, and love the new blog, Charissa! I especially love the Adopt(ed) t-shirts! Are they for sale somewhere?
:)
Justine
Justine,
Yes! The t-shirts are for sale at our church's bookstore. The proceeds are used towards adoption grants. I'm glad you asked.
Anonymous, I understand where you are coming from. Really, I do. At the same time not every child in the system is disturbed, abusive and destructive. While most families are NOT in a position to take in a child that is emotionally disturbed, it just seems to me that if every 3rd or 4th church took in just one of these children there should be enough support from the remaining 3 or 4 congregations to make it possible. I know there are many government programs working to help these kids. I just wish there were more CHURCH programs to reach out to these kids and support the families who are brave enough to open their homes and take a risk. And yes, I have heard some of the stories about "the system". I do hope some reform can be made. It is a heartbreaking situation.
Thanks for the post. Knowledge is power. May the broken system be repaired for the sake of the children.
thank you for posting this...
Christine,
This is a powerful post for me to read. We are a family almost ready to step forward and take on a few more kiddos.
It is your ministry on adoption and your beautiful family that are helping our family's feet step forward.
Sandi McMillan
Oh my! Oh my! My heart is on fire! This is so powerful! I am wondering if I can share it? Do you mind if I post it on my blog? WHOA! And thank you for your response to the social worker. So many people use that as an excuse to not open their family to foster care or adoption. I hear it all of the time! Not wanting a child that is "scarred"...makes me so so sad that we are not trusting more in Christ, but let the fact that our system is not perfect and we let these children forever pay for their parents situation. We do need to work on the system, but at the same time, we need to trust our Father and let Him guide us in this.
You have made my day by finding your blog!!! LOVE IT!
Frankly, I doubt this is actually true. I am on a yahoo group of people who want to adopt - and there are people who would be more than happy to take sibling groups of any race, older children, children with disabilities... Over and over again, they submit dossiers - or try to, and are told that no more are being accepted. Most states keep kids in foster care, moving them from place to place, until the kids are emotionally challenged older teens....and even THEN - they are often not adoptable.
If you look on some of the lists of children supposedly available for adoption in this country - most of those children are either about to move into placement, are already being adopted by a family member, or have a long line of families praying and hoping to adopt them. I know this is true because I have e-mailed and called about a few of them and have been told "sorry!"
There are also often certain "criteria" that must be met - so if a family expressed interest, but had younger children, or older children, or another boy, or whatever, they may very well have been turned down within the first 30 seconds.
Journey to our Ukrainian Angel is absolutely right, too. We have a foster child and there has been a family he likes who has been trying to get licensed to take him since OCTOBER! To no avail. All they ever got was a mailing with a list of classes that were all over by the time they received it.
Thanks Annie. Very interesting. I know there must be a solution to the problem. Sounds like some major reform needs to take place, for the children's sake.
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