Tomorrow is my 23rd birthday. Twenty-three years
ago my parents rejoiced because after seven years of waiting and heartbreak God
finally gave them a child. Hundreds of people prayed that they would have
children, and their prayers were finally answered. I was born into a family
that loved me, cherished me, and wanted me more than anything else. My birth
was celebrated with joy and excitement, and my parents could not wait to raise
me and give me everything I needed. My birth was the moment when my parents
looked at me and chose to keep me and love me.
I wish that this was the welcome that every child received
upon their birth. I wish every mother held her child with the tenderness that
my mother held me with. I wish that every father spent the amount of time with
his child that my father spent with me. I wish every pair of siblings had the
blessing of growing up together in a loving home like Philip and I did. But
they don’t.
Over the past year I have met and come to love many children
who had the exact opposite experience from my own. The day of their birth was a
much-dreaded event that resulted from a violent rape of a girl much too young
to be a mother. Their father left their mother while she was still pregnant
with them. Their mother gave birth to them, only to realize that she couldn’t
care for them and left them in a plastic bag in a ditch. Their mother’s
boyfriend sexually abused them so the government took them away from their
home. Their family’s poverty forced them to work hard jobs from a tragically
young age. Their parents abandoned them, leaving them to join street gangs,
fight for survival, and develop substance addictions to escape the pain of
their lives. Their entire lives have been a collection of disappointments,
tragedies, abandonments, and rejections.
When I think of my birthday, I think of a day dedicated to
celebrating the miracle of God giving me to my parents. It’s always a happy day
when I am reminded how much I am loved. When these children think of their
birthdays they think of another year without family, another day spent begging
for food, another night lived in terror that someone will come in while they
sleep and abuse them. Or perhaps they don’t even know when their birthday is
because they’ve never had loving parents to tell them about the day God gave
them to them. Their birthdays mark the day that no one chose to keep them and
love them.
I have always thought that adoption was a nice idea and
something I would perhaps consider doing someday. Now that I know how many
children spend their lives without love and without the assurance that at some
point someone chose them, I think it’s the best idea in the world. I am not at
a place in my life where I can adopt a child, but when I am it’s the first
thing I want to do.
For my birthday, I have a wish. I don’t need any gifts (they
won’t fit into my backpack anyway), I can’t get cards or flowers, and I don’t
need a cake. For my birthday this year, my wish is that every single person
reading this would consider the power that they have to completely change the
life of a child. As I write this from the Pollo Rey restaurant in San Juan, I’m
looking out the window at a group of street children. They likely have no
family, nothing to eat, and no one to look at them and say, “I love you. You’re
mine and I choose to love you.” They will live violent lives as they learn to
push those around them down in order to survive. Everywhere I go in the world
there are children like these boys, and it doesn’t have to be that way.
If you are reading this, please stop and seriously consider
the beautiful gift that adoption is. If you’re at a place in your life where
adopting a child would be plausible, please really think about it. If, like me,
you’re too young or still unsettled, think about adding that to your list of future
life plans. If, like my parents, you’re past the point in your life when
bringing new children into your home is doable, consider helping a younger
person to adopt. Adoption is expensive and difficult, but so worth it. If
everyone reading this really took it seriously and pursued one child, at least
223 children would have new lives. They would have someone to choose them,
someone to tell them everyday that they are lovable, and someone to teach them
how much God loves them. Adoption is the perfect picture of God’s love for us.
He willingly chose us, took us into his family, and loved us when he didn’t
have to.
My birthday wish is that you consider doing the same for one
of the millions of precious children who know nothing of love. That’s the best
birthday present I can imagine.
