Waiting Children

So, for some reason God gave us G, he won't even be a year old when he gets here. We will get to experience a lot of the fun baby things we never thought we would experience. We were expecting a 3,4 or 5 year old but for some reason G came up and he was matched with us. The lady who found him said, "he must be a miracle from God". I think he is our miracle. But my overactive brain and bleeding heart have been consumed with all these older waiting children in orphanages all over the world. You see, when people adopt they usually ask for babies. So babies get adopted and older children stay living in the orphanage. They don't get the chance of a loving home because of their age.

I am already preparing myself for this when we get to Uganda. I'm going to get to know these children and want to bring them all home, and after spending possibly months with these children my heart is going to break having to say goodbye. Jeff and I know G will not be our only adoption, we aren't sure yet where God will lead next, it could be foster adoption or another international adoption but we both want to save as many as we can (or at least I do), sometimes I think Jeff thinks I'm a little crazy. But he also refuses to look at the waiting children from our agency because he knows he would want to adopt them all too. I know God is convicting me to adopt older children, perhaps an older sibling group one day. But for now, G has to be my main focus. He deserves my commitment to him and him only for a little while.

I have been so encouraged to see so many friends adopting. God has really put it on the hearts of so many people in the past few years. The southern baptist convention is really emphasizing adoption and foster care. If you are reading this blog you are probably wanting to keep up with G and his arrival. I am thankful for that. I love having so many people going along with me and encouraging me on this journey. Adoption is not for the faint at heart. We still covet your prayers as we get our court date and go to court. There are a lot of hurdles to jump over before G gets to come home.

But today I am asking for you to commit to pray for all the children in orphanages all over the world who are waiting. Older children who are usually not desirable to adoptive parents. Maybe you can pray and ask God to lead you to pray for a specific area of the world. As you probably know American has tons of children in foster care needing homes and Africa has children on the streets with nothing to eat and the Ukraine has children sitting in cold orphanages where they get no love or care from anyone and China has a major need for adoptions for special needs children. The list goes on and on.

God is very clear in scripture that we are to care for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. So I ask you to pray about what you can do to minister to orphans. You can simply pray that these older children find loving homes. You can search your heart and ask God to reveal if he is leading you to adopt an older waiting child. I promise, God does amazing things with your heart. Five years ago I would have told you I didn't think I could love a child that wasn't my biological child enough to adopt them and now I want to save every kid I can.

My good friend Terah wrote a great post on the Foster care system in America- please check it out- http://terahsampler.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/youre-so-vain-you-probably-think-this-blog-is-about-you/

Also, some good friends wrote a book on how you and your church can get involved with helping orphans. The book is called Orphanology by Rick Morton and Tony Merida.

Bethany Christian Services also has lots of cool ways to help orphans in the U.S. and across the globe.

-Alicia-