"There are Children in America Who Need Homes"

I've received this comment twice in one week. One was from a random stranger, but based on her tone and condescending attitude, my guess is that she's a racist and has never done one thing on behalf of the orphan on any stretch of land neither here, nor there. Quite frankly, I don't give a flip about that hateful woman. Maybe she wasn't held enough as a child. Maybe her mama never taught her the "Jesus loves the little children of the world" song. You know the one: "red and yellow, black and white; they are precious in his sight". Maybe she forgot that we were all descended from Adam and Eve, therefore we are all from one race - that'll get a rise out of her for sure! Maybe her ancestors all arrived in the US miraculously because I get the feeling she's one of those ignorant people who post anti-immigration and racist remarks on Facebook and ends it with "if you agree, pass it on". BARF! Whatever old lady. Jesus Loves you; everyone else thinks you're an idiot.

The second time I received this comment this week made me want to scratch my head. I know I must've looked like this:

or maybe this:

This time it was because it was a church lady. I don't understand church people sometimes. Which reminds me how much I love this (completely unrelated) blog: Stuff Christians Like. She continued to share with me that "she feels strongly about domestic adoption". That's great! One thing I love about God and His infinite wisdom is that He calls us different things. He gives us different passions, different giftings, different abilities and strengths.

Let me put it like this: I believe wholeheartedly that we are to "Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows." - Isaiah 1:17 He commanded it over 50 times in the Bible. That is not debatable - obviously it's ignoreable (yeah, I just made that word up) - but it's there nevertheless. What you do with it is between you and HIM.

This might come as a surprise to some who might just see us randomly with our little Korean-cutie and our homegrown boys, but not to those who know us and our hearts for the orphan: "Dude, we don't care HOW you do it; just do it!" I couldn't care less if you adopted a child from a far away land or if your neighbor showed up on your doorstep with her baby and asked you to take it. I don't have any strong feelings about "international versus domestic", "private adoption versus going through the state". I don't know what "DEFENDING THE CAUSE OF ORPHANS" looks like for you. It might be adoption, it might be foster-care, it might be a feeding program, it could be child-sponsorship or going and serving in an orphanage - either in your hometown or somewhere else". It might be to give, it might be to pray and encourage. Whatever it is, don't ignore it.

Bottom line church-lady, they are ALL HIS kids and they ALL deserve a loving home of their own. You feel passionate about domestic adoption? Awesome! So do I! Well, I just feel passionately about adoption, so okay. Knock yourself out!

What gets me is this: out of all the times we've received this comment (and it's been A LOT), not a single one of them has any domestically-adopted children. I just want you all to be warned: I now carry information for Child and Family Services in my purse and the next person to say this to me will be given a plethora of information on how to begin their domestic adoption.

Yep, there are children in America who need homes. In the US, about 500,000 children live in Foster Care. There are about 1,000 children living in Foster Care in Memphis. 200 of those kids are available for adoption today. Globally, there are approximately 147,000,000 orphans on the planet. Each and every one of them created by God and all deserve to have a loving family of their own.

I hope to understand church people one day. Until then, I pray they become Kingdom People.

~Paula