Defend the Orphan!!!

There is a new movie coming out....a horror movie...

Here is part of what Tom Davis has written on his blog...

"I want to challenge my readers and friends to write 500 positive blog posts about how an orphan has impacted and changed your life. Post this on your own blog so that when people search for the movie, they are flooded with positive messages about adoption and orphan care.

Just finish this sentence: "Warner Bros. new horror movie Orphan proclaims that it must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own. Let me tell you about how an orphan changed my life..."

This is the heart of defending orphans. Help push back the darkness and deceit here by holding up as an example the powerful love that adoption and orphan care can unleash."

Visit his site to read the rest.
After the birth of our 3rd child, I heard a piece on the radio about the baby girls in China who had been abandoned. God just captured my heart as I considered the helplessness of these girls. This is where our story with orphans begins. We knew that we wanted to add to our family through this miracle of adoption. Eighteen months later, Steve walked off of an airplane with our new daughter. I was crying as he handed our precious baby girl to me. She was of course, crying and squirming to get out of my arms. I understood. The first year of her life had been spent in a crib by her self most of the time; no one to really hold her, pick her up when she cried, gaze into her beautiful eyes, or bond with this child who was so alone in the world.
Steve and I could have never known the journey WE were beginning.

Cry of the Orphan writes:
"Many orphans and waiting children worldwide have lost their parents due to armed conflict or disease, such as AIDS. In some countries, however, children are increasingly abandoned at alarming rates due to poverty, restrictive population control policies, disabilities or perceived disabilities, and cultural traditions that value boys more than girls."

After our daughter came home from China, we heard about little boys in Korea that had no families to be matched with because there was no waiting list of parents for boys, as there was for the girls. Again, we considered the vulnerability of these orphans who waited for someone to accept them, value them and receive them home. We were matched quickly and brought home our infant son in 5 months. Our family's journey continued as a vision took shape. Again, the plight of waiting children prompted Steve and me to move forward with a long and difficult struggle to bring home our next son from Vietnam. And that little sweetheart was worth every bit of the struggle!

The orphans cry. Will we hear them? A little girl in America with no mother or father to hold her when she is lonely; a baby boy in Korea born premature and sick to a teenage mother who is unable to care for him; a brother and sister abandoned because of war and poverty wait in Africa, praying that they may be adopted together, but afraid to even hope; a sick little girl in Europe that may not even make it without medical help from a willing family ready to adopt and save her life....these needy ones cry out for the strong and tender arms of a mother and father who will provide sanctuary and belonging. They dare to dream of help from a sponsor so that they can go to school and have a chance in their world.

We have also adopted domestically...how amazing to meet the birth mother. I was so nervous, but a miracle took place that day - a circle of love for a baby boy. Three children have also come home to us from Africa. We were able to meet the birth grandfather of two of our children... his family was either killed or displaced as they ran from their homes during a war. Their new home...a refugee camp with no food or hope for his grandchildren. The refugee "village" people were so excited that the biological brother and sister would be adopted by the our family and able to grow up together.

We had to opportunity this year to work with orphans who live/lived on the streets of Uganda. The streets are a slum area - dirty, scary, full of drugs, prostitution, fights, hunger and abuse. This is where young children are living and dying. The only way they can escape such pain is to hide from it with the drugs.
No mother, no father, no family....

A few of us visited an orphanage. This young lady cried several times because she doesn't have a mommy or daddy and anyone else. So young, so alone. I gave her my "mothers love" as much as I could and prayed with her. I pray that in her heart she will accept the truth that she has a Father who loves her.

When these boys first come to the home from the streets, their eyes are hopeless, their faces hard to cover the fear and anger.

Soon, their sweet hearts change and happiness and playfulness begins to replace that hopelessness. They can look forward to living life, instead of living death.

They began to trust that someone cares, that they will be protected, fed, schooled and helped - they began to trust that they are loved and will not be alone again.

Then they learn about the love of God and can began to trust the love of a Heavenly Father.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Jesus

Jesus CAME to us so that we could have hope and life and know the TRUTH. If we do not GO, how will these little ones know that they are not orphans! How will they know the love of a father or a mother. The LORD encouraged me before I left that I would just do what I love to do here in my own home...be a mother. I can't adopt them all and bring them home...but I can mother them and tell them of SOMEONE who is their Father and is bring them home. They are no longer "orphans", it isn't "who" they are...who they, and all of us, are is "Children of God."

"But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:12-13

If you or I were an orphan, we would want someone to defend us...so we must speak out loudly about the REAL TRUTH of the orphan, and not give room for some ridiculous Hollywood movie maker to leave such a horrible impression about these children in need.