He couldn’t have been more than 3. I didn’t know his name – I still don’t. He sat on my lap. I realized that my hands were rubbing on his hungry, bloated, buddha-like belly. He didn’t seem to notice. He just sat there. I just held him.
I started to wonder how often – if ever – he was singled out to receive attention or affection. I was saddened at the thought that no one tucked him in at night, read him stories, sang him songs… As I held him my heart broke. I thought about all the things he would never get to do. He would never get to lick the spoon after his mommy finished stirring the chocolate chip cookies. He would never get to play ball with his dad in the back yard. He would never get to cry out for his parents when he was sick or scared of the dark. He would never get to spend a weekend at his grandparents. He would never have family members be proud of him when he got an A on a test, or had the lead in the school play, or won the spelling bee. He would never get to grow up with fantastic holiday traditions and memories. But, what hurt the most was knowing that he didn’t even realize he was missing out on these things. He just knew he was hungry and alone.
As my arms wrapped around him I began to think about all the children that never get held. I began to think about adoption and what that could mean for a child like this… what adoption meant for me.
You should behave instead like God’s very own children, adopted into His family – calling him “Father, dear Father.â€� – Romans 8:15
His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure. – Ephesians 1:5
I was adopted. God adopted me. And being a part of that family, being a child of God, changed my life. In the same way, there are many of us, who have that kind of ability – to change a life.
Here are some statistics:
(http://skywardjourney.wordpress.com/orphan-statistics/)
It is estimated there are between 143 million and 210 million orphans worldwide (recent UNICEF report).
The current population of the United States is just a little over 300 million… to give you an idea of the enormity of the numbers… (The current population of Russia is 141 million).
Every day 5,760 more children become orphans.
2,102,400 more children become orphans every year in Africa alone.
Every 15 seconds, another child in Africa becomes an AIDS orphan.
There are an estimated 18 million AIDS orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa (a number higher than the total of every under-eighteen year old in Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Ireland combined).
8 out of 10 children orphaned by AIDS lives in sub-saharan Africa.
Approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, but…
Each year 14,505,000 children grow up as orphans and age out of the system by age sixteen.
Each day 38,493 orphans age out.
Every 2.2 seconds another orphan ages out with no family to belong to and no place to call home
In Russia and the Ukraine, studies have shown that 10%-15% of these children commit suicide before they reach age eighteen.
These studies also show that 60% of the girls become prostitutes and 70% of the boys become hardened criminals.
Another Russian study reported that of the 15,000 orphans aging out of state-run institutions every year, 10% committed suicide, 5,000 were unemployed, 6,000 were homeless and 3,000 were in prison within three years.
but there are only approximately 250,000 children being adopted each year…
Give fair judgement to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. – Psalm 82:3
Jason Kovacs posted on the Abba Fund blog:
My best guess (looking at the data available, see my Orphan Statistics post) is that 40-50 million orphans worldwide are adoptable or would be best cared for through adoption. Ideally that means adoption locally/indigenously first and then adoption internationally.
As for Christians, according to Mission Frontiers, globally there are:
Christian Believers – 800 million who have been born again into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Other Christians – 1.37 billion who consider themselves Christians because they come from a Christian culture.
Culturally near non-Christians – 1.8 billion are not yet Christians but live in a people where a viable, indigenous church movement has been established.
Therefore, if roughly 6% of the born again Christians in the world adopted we could care for all the adoptable orphans in the world (I have heard 7% used and that might be true as well).
Either way you add it up, there are way too many orphans worldwide and way too many Christians to not believe we can make a difference!
I don’t really have any answers. I don’t really even know what I am asking. I guess I would like to challenge you to at least pray….. I guess I am challenging us all to have the Father’s heart… to love all His children…
