Tomorrow is Orphan Sunday. We are an advocate whether we want to be or not (we want to shout it from the mountain tops, but what will Avery want? what will our other children want?) For now, we will be as vocal as we can. When Avery is older and more able to make decisions we will include her in how much she wants to be involved if at all. Like I said, we are a walking poster family for adoption even if we don't want to be. My basic message is for everyone to do something. There are MILLIONS of children who are orphans - they go to bed without being read to, prayed with, alone, they may or may not have access to the basic needs of food, clean clothes, regular bathing, medical care, nurturing, warmth, toys, they don't know what it means to have a mom or a dad, brothers, sisters, an extended family who dotes on them and loves them. Can you imagine what that must be like? If every Christian would adopt just one orphan there would be no more orphans. We are called to care for the orphans, it's Biblical. What does it mean to 'care' for an orphan? It can mean lots of things. Adopt. Pray for them. Provide financial assistance to organizations that help orphans like Half the Sky and Love Without Boundaries both help children in China by providing medical assistance or training for nannies and a lot more. Or you can search for blogs of people who are adopting. Families are always raising money to help with their adoptions. Some of my favorites are: k6comehome.blogspot.com www.redthreadstitches.com or orphaned-no-more.blogspot.com or www.wildolivetees.com or www.showhope.org. God knows every hair on their head, He is concerned with each one of them. I've been waiting to post about Huk*u (pronounced who-ko) Papers until I had some time to give it. I hope I do it justice because it just dumb-founded me that a system like this still exists. And from the research I have gathered it has only been around since the 1950s. It is Ch*na's way of classifying people into mostly two categories: urban and rural. It is associated with your family history and surname, and it follows you where ever you go. It sounds to me like it's a bit like illegal immigrants in your own country who can't go from province to province. Imagine living in Oklahoma and not being able to go to Texas for work. From what I gather this is what Huk*o papers do - keep track of or control their citizens (the article I read compared it to apartheid in South Africa). If anyone who reads this knows more about this subject than I do, then please chime in! Occasionally they will perform raids and round up anyone who is working outside their province and deport them.
Well, what if you are an orphan in Ch*na? You have no home, therefore you are not tied to a family, or even classified as urban or rural. Forever you are classified as an orphan! Your Huk*o Papers tie you to your orphanage. You have an almost impossible time getting into college and getting a job (you are considered unlucky and people won't hire you). Amy Eldridge from L*ve With*ut B*undaries was our guest speaker at Ch*na Camp this past summer and she told us this (see the link here: chinaadoptiontalk.blogspot.com/search?q=love+without+boundaries, I hope you will read it). My heart was broken for these kids who have this stamp of disapproval for life in their country.
So, in honor of Orphan Sunday, let's recognize that their is so much we can do to get this number down and bring home one more.
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