Did you know...

Did you know that there are 143 million orphans in the world?

Did you know that Jesus told us to care for the orphans, the widows, and the fatherless?

Did you know that there are organizations and foundations set up to help families pay for their adoption process?


Today was Orphan Care Sunday at our church today.  Last year our church began a new ministry called "Roselynn's Hope."  It is a ministry that focus on helping families to adopt, supporting those that have already adopted and supporting the children that are adopted as they grow up.  Roselynn's Hope is named after a 19 year old in our church who was adopted from the Phillipines.  It is her heart and passion to see other families open their homes and welcome in their long-lost children.  I was fortunate enough to be there last year for the kick off even and have since moved into the city and joined the church.

Until last year I had never really considered adoption and what that means in the life of a family, the child, and a church community.  The point was made to us during that kick off service for Roselynn's Hope that adoption is a Biblical practice.  I had never looked at it from that point.  Historically adoption (at least in the small town where I grew up) is what you do when you are unable to have biological children.  But as I've joined the body of believers here in the city I have grown to realize that it is so much more then that.  It is not the last option for a family; it is a very real picture of Christ's love for the world.

Adoption is taking a child out of their current only partial home and placing them in the midst of your home and loving them completely for who they are.  It is answering the cry of those in need.  It is making a child a part of something they no longer have.  It is making things right in the life of that child and your family.  It is a thing of pure beauty.

In the last year at my church 3 families have successfully adopted their children and 11 other families are in the process of adopting, are in the foster to adopt program or are foster parents.  I want to be a part of this.  I want to give love to those who are unloved and marginalized.  I want to be like Jesus and take the time to meet the needs of those that the world chooses to ignore.

Today, there isn't much that I can do except pray for my friends that are in the process of adopting, love the babies that I encounter, and serve in any way that I can.  But I hope that at some point in my life God will lead me to the children that I didn't know I had and will grow my family to include them when no one else would.

Adopted by God,

Mel C