Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Waiting Children in TN

I am an adoptive mother of two beautiful girls...one of whom we adopted through the Department of Children's Services. We are praying about the direction of our third adoption in the future. I began wondering how many children there were waiting in the United States and in Tennessee.

When I began researching this past week, I came upon this chart on Focus on the Family's website. It blew me away to see the volume of waiting children and the number of churches in each state. In TN specifically, there were 1,645 children waiting and 11,179 churches. Do the math for yourself, it is mind blowing. If 14.8% of those churches (one family in each church) adopted one child...there would be no more waiting children in TN-- approximately 1,654 churches in the 11, 179.

I know that numbers and statistics can often become monotonous, but when you see numbers like that it literally shocks me. Those numbers are attainable. Those numbers can be wiped clean. I share this information to ask you to pray for what God is calling you to do. Pray that these precious children will one day no longer be part of a chart or graph. They will be part of a family. Perhaps, yours.

For more information you can visit the Department of Children's Services to find out how you can begin the process to adopt a waiting child.


State

Children Waiting FY 2010*

Churches*

Alabama

1,271

10,760

Alaska

678

1,050

Arizona

2,673

3,771

Arkansas

876

6,343

California

13,396

22,798

Colorado

1,246

3,813

Connecticut

1,245

2,909

Delaware

253

1,009

District of Columbia

419

825

Florida

5,011

16,805

Georgia

1,690

14,380

Hawaii

322

1,163

Idaho

389

1,776

Illinois

2,944

13,097

Indiana

3,192

9,204

Iowa

1,068

4,766

Kansas

1,825

4,615

Kentucky

1,951

6,859

Louisiana

1,091

7,983

Maine

575

1,539

Maryland

883

5,816

Massachusetts

2,758

4,039

Michigan

5,236

11,169

Minnesota

1,073

5,628

Mississippi

843

7,718

Missouri

1,952

8,973

Montana

495

1,518

Nebraska

768

2,595

Nevada

2,093

1,248

New Hampshire

227

1,033

New Jersey

2,457

6,713

New Mexico

777

1,796

New York

6,603

14,767

North Carolina

2,427

17,625

North Dakota

227

1,252

Ohio

3,011

14,657

Oklahoma

2,872

6,737

Oregon

1,827

3,646

Pennsylvania

2,522

15,539

Rhode Island

310

703

South Carolina

1,681

9,479

South Dakota

418

1,368

Tennessee

1,645

11,179

Texas

13,111

27,505

Utah

553

2,582

Vermont

180

692

Virginia

1,480

10,952

Washington

3,089

5,393

West Virginia

1,231

3,432

Wisconsin

1,159

6,045

Wyoming

85

803

Puerto Rico

903


Total

107,011

348,067


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Shocking

My husband and I sponsor children through a couple of different ministries.  I love receiving their letters and writing back to them, hoping to encourage them...to give them hope.
Recently I received a letter from one of "our girls," Bethelehem in Ethiopia.  She had received her birthday money, and with it she had purchased a blanket.  She even included a photo, which completely shocked me.

I didn't recognize her.

The change in "our girl" was indescribable.  Until now, the only picture we had of her was one of her standing alone, wearing ill-fitting clothes, belly distended from malnutrition, hair thin and dull, and no smile on her ten year old face that had obviously suffered much.

Now?  Now she is radiant.  Her eyes shine with joy.  Her skin is beautiful and her hair thick and braided.  Her clothes and sandals fit and she holds the blanket she purchased so proudly.  She stands tall and elegant.  She is healthy.  We had only been sponsoring her (at the rate of $35 per month) for about 9 months.

I was speechless.  I wanted to jump for joy!  Oh, friends, if you only knew how God could use you!  So many people think that, because they are not called to adopt, there is little they can do to make real change.
Well, let me assure you, it does not take much to make real change in the lives of these children!  Bethelehem has HOPE.  She has been able to stay in her native country and speak her native tongue and live with her mother and sister despite the death of her father.  She has been given stability and encouragement from a family she has never met.  She knows that somewhere, in America, there is someone who cares about her and is providing for her.  And, in her case, we get to be the ones blessed by God to be the agents of change in her life.

The change in Bethelehem is no less remarkable than the change that occurred in my Ethiopian daughter.  There are easily accessible ways to help these kids...and I am a firm believer that sponsorship is one of the easiest!