This week I read an article about the changing trends in international adoption. Jack and I have been praying about our next adoption and what path God would lead us on, so I was certainly struck by what I read. The article talked about how the faces of international adoption are changing - from faces of babies to faces of older children. Faces of boys, not girls. And faces with special needs including underlying medical conditions.
It is becoming easier, in many countries that allow international adoption, to find an international family to adopt a healthy baby. In addition, the article stated that the growing economies and better social acceptance for domestic adoption in foreign countries has lead to more children being able to stay in their home country. Praise God for this!! With these and other changes and trends in adoption, however, many children with special needs and older children have been left waiting in line to be adopted.
Anecdotally, this seems to be the case with our agency as well. There is a waiting list of Americans who are waiting for a young, healthy 0-2 year old child to be available for adoption, while older children, some with special needs have been sitting in orphanages waiting for months, sometimes years for a family to adopt them.
Please don't get me wrong here. I am not insinuating that it is wrong to adopt a younger or healthy child (we did just last year), but as we have asked God to allow His will to be done in our lives, our hearts have been opened to possibly something different with this adoption.
Would you take a second to pray for all of God's children who are waiting for their forever families? In particular, would you pray that God would continue to reveal His perfect plan to our family?
Hi Dana & Jack. We met at Sarah V's surprise birthday a few years ago. I have found your blogs to be so inspiring and helpful on our own adoption journey.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I have recently been matched with a beautiful boy from S. Korea. We got the call about him much earlier than we were expecting (by about a year). Another family had accepted his referral, and then felt uncomfortable with a possible medical issue, and declined. We spent a lot of time praying going into our referral meeting and took a leap of faith that if this child was meant to be with us, we would welcome him into our family no matter what the issue was. At this time, he appears to be a healthy, loving child. We praise God for him, and cannot wait to meet him.
I do pray that other families keep an open heart. And I know that God will continue to bless your family as you grow. All the best!
Hi Andrea -
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you and congratulations!! Thanks so much for sharing your story - I would love to be able to follow your blog as you bring your son home - can you send it to me?
Thanks for your encouragement as well!
Dana
Hi there! I was directed to your blog by Sara Wyssman. We used to be in the same small group when my husband and I lived in Missouri. We are waiting for a court date for the adoption of older brothers (8 and almost 7). The statistics of older children waiting for families are astonishing. We'll be praying that you make the right decision. You can read about our decision-making process on our blog, specifically this post. Blessings on your journey! http://likethelove.blogspot.com/2011/11/spooky-aka-how-it-all-went-down.html
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