It is going to be a while still until we know who Maya is. We cannot see her face, but we pray for her and her mother every day. For Chris and I, orphans and children living in poverty have become our passion. Adopting one child is not enough for us. Our hearts break for all the children suffering in this world on our watch. Adoption is not the best scenario. Adoption means that something terrible happened to the adoptee. The best scenario is for children to live with their birth parents. In order for this to happen, their parents cannot be dying of a preventable disease and they cannot be living on so little that they are unable to care for their children.
I’ve quoted this before, but it is worth repeating…In the book “There is No Me Without You” Melissa Faye Green says:
“Adoption is NOT the answer to HIV/AIDS in Africa. Adoptions rescues few. Adoption illuminates by example: these few once-loved children – who lost their parents to preventable diseases – have been offered a second chance at family life in foreign countries; live young ambassadors, they instruct us. From them, we gain impressions about what their age-mates must be like, the ones living and dying by the millions, without parents, in the cities and villages of Africa. For every orphans turning up in a northern-hemisphere household – winning the spelling bee, joining the Boy Scouts, learning to rollerblade, playing the trumpet or the violin – ten thousand African children remain behind alone.” She goes on to quote Haddush Halefom, head of the Children’s Commission under Ethiopia’s Ministry of Labor, “I am deeply respectful of the families who care for our children, but I am so very interested in any help that can be given to us to keep the children’s first parents alive. Adoption is good, but children naturally, would prefer not to see their parents die.”
One thing Chris and I decided to do to help keep children with their birth parents is to sponsor children. Today, we went to www.WorldVision.org and sponsored two children. Both living in Ethiopia. A girl born on my birthday and a boy born on Chris’. It is difficult to choose from all the children that I needed some way to decide. A few weeks ago, my sweet Momma, began sponsoring a little Ethiopian girl born on her birthday, which gave me the idea to sponsor a child born on my birthday! (Thanks Momma!) My Mom’s sponsored child’s picture is on her refrigerator reminding her to pray for her each day.
Last month, we gave up TV by canceling our Dish Network. Although sponsoring children is not why we gave up TV, I do like to think that we gave up one useless meaningless bill and now added a bill with a purpose :) Will you join us? You don’t even have to give up TV. Maybe you just eat out one fewer time each month, skip a pedicure or a family trip to the movies or maybe you already have an extra $35 at the end of each month and you don’t have to give up anything. It is easy and there are many children in need. To learn more about sponsoring a child through World Vision click here.
-Jenn
And now introducing our sponsored children, Deneke and Tigist. We are so excited to be a part of their lives. I cannot wait to write them letters, learn more about them and see what just a little money and lots of love can do.
If you need more visualization, check out this video with testimony of a 24 year old woman from Kenya who was sponsored through Compassion International beginning when she was 7 years old. It makes a difference. A huge difference.
I Timothy 6:18: “Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and should give generously to those in need, always being ready to share with others whatever God has given them.”
by Jenn
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