A is for April and Adoption!

Yesterday I was thinking about what next to write about, and in the midst of my pondering, I thought about the fact that today begins the month of April. And then I somehow started to toss about the idea that April started with the letter "A", and finally I paired the "A" in April with the "a" in adoption. Hence, the title of this entry and the focus of this month's blog posts. Next month won't be about M is for May and.....motherhood, mammals, microbacteria, Millenium Falcon or monkeys. Though, I'm sure those are lovely topics we could expand upon, this is just how this month's writings worked out, and therefore, I go with what comes to mind.

And truthfully, the topic of adoption is near and dear to my heart in more ways than one. Stick around throughout this month's articles and you just might catch a glimpse into my own personal life. I'm hoping to interview an adoptive mother, hear from an adoptee, give you another book recommendation that focuses on adoption, and whatever else I find to share with you regarding adoption.

But first, let's start with the facts:

• While there are an estimated 153 million orphans, not all orphans are in need of adoption. It sometimes seems like the fix-it solution to the orphan crisis, but of this group, 17.8 million of these children are thought to have lost both parents, live in orphanages or the streets, and don't have the proper care and attention needed for healthy development
• Of the 400,000+ children that are currently in the U.S. foster care system, 115,000 are eligible for adoption.
• One report from the U.S. Department of State showed that during the fiscal year 2012, there were 8,668 children that were adopted from countries outside of the U.S. One site that I looked at explained that the while the U.S. does keep track of adoptions stemming from the foster care system and from outside countries, we no longer keep track of domestic adoptions, i.e. those that occur within the U.S. from private agencies, step-parent adoptions, etc.
• National Adoption Month is actually November, with National Adoption Day being November 23, 2013. This date is an effort to bring awareness to the number of children waiting in foster care for a permanent family. Want to learn more? Click here.

One thing I find amazing is how much the face of adoption has changed throughout my years. Once upon a time, I thought the only families that considered adoption were those who had no other children, and yet now I know many who choose to adopt even after having several children at home. While I grew up thinking all adoptees began as tiny baby bundles fresh from the hospital, now I see babies, toddlers, young children, and teens finding a family to call their very own.

There's a beauty in that diversity that very much reflects the Father's love for us. Some of us may come from Christian homes where we started learning about Noah and Moses while we were eating goldfish crackers in children's church. Before you know it, we were at a VBS or summer church camp when we decided to give our hearts to God. And then some of us grew up with a very different background, and somehow, somewhere during the course of our lives, whether it was during our teen years or after our 50th birthday, we came to know that same grace and forgiveness that only comes from our Father in Heaven.

I'm in the middle of a Bible study by Kelly Minter called, "Nehemiah: a heart that can break," and one of the statements she made during the video has just really stuck with me:

"Jesus blew open the family in the New Testament."

Isn't that the truth? Yesterday we celebrated Easter, which I'm beginning to think was an adoption movement of epic proportions. Because in the moment Christ willingly laid down His life on the cross, I became available for adoption into the family of God, and so did you. Oh, I hope you're part of my family. I hope that yesterday you spent the morning singing praises with many of your brothers and sisters, and maybe there were a few new faces to welcome into the family.

I'm going to close out with a video of a song I love listening to these days, because once I got my adoption papers, my name changed to "Child of the One True King." What about you?