National Orphan Sunday

You may not know this, but today is National Orphan Sunday.

Estimates vary, but  between138 million and 163 million children worldwide have lost one or both parents. There are 500,000 children are in foster care in the United States; 118,000 are eligible for adoption

These are heartbreaking numbers, and there are more; 18,000 children die every from starvation, another 6,000 die from preventable diseases related to poverty. Of course, not all of these children are orphans. Many are in areas of the world suffering from severe drought and famine where entire families are starving, but the plight of the orphan is especially severe.

What does that have to do with us?

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means
caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let
the world corrupt you.”
James 1:27 (NLT)

God cares about the orphans, and He has called us to take care of them. This is something that is very dear to my heart. I have 4 grandchildren who would have been orphans, who God placed in our family through adoption. Three of these precious children were born in Korea and came to our family through international adoption, one came to the family through the Texas foster system.

I cannot imagine that any of these 4 could have been left in distress, living without hope for a better future.

If you want to see their stories, here are blog posts from their moms.

http://cherrycokecruising.com/?p=1489

http://psalm139verse14.blogspot.com/2011/02/2-years-ago-email-changed-our-family.html

I know not everyone can adopt, and you probably want to know other ways you can help the orphans. One way is to help through a good organization. We sponsor children through World Vision. I know that almost all of  the money really does go to help the children and the communities they live in. I also have pictures and we get updates and even letters from the children. Here is the link.

http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/pages/sponsor-a-child?open&campaign=1193512&cmp=KNC-1193512

You can encourage families who want to adopt, and consider helping them out. International adoptions cost around $20,000 and many families need help to cover that. 

One last thing you can do is not be too quick to decide that you can’t adopt. Maybe God has a child somewhere who belongs in your family. Katie Davis is a 23 year old American who now lives in Uganda and has adopted 13 children. I know, that’s pretty extreme. A family in our church has adopted 14 children through the foster system. Families with more than one biological children have adopted. Adoption is not a last resort option.  Adoption is one very wonderful way that God brings people together to build families.