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

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!