I’ll Tell You Why: Reflections on Domestic and
International Adoption by Anne Louise Pass
I am going to paste the one part that really hits home for me.....the numbers touch every inch of my heart:
However, children in America need these opportunities as well.
The most common argument against international adoption is that we, as
Americans, have an obligation to take care of American children’s needs before
the needs of foreign children. When I am confronted with this claim, after
pointing out that one’s location does not define their personhood, change their
basic human needs, or limit their right to be loved, I have two replies.
First, there are around 100,000 orphans in the United States
compared to 167 million orphans worldwide. According to The Washington Post,
there were over 600,000 women in America waiting to adopt in August of 2008. In
other words, if every woman in America adopted one child domestically, there
would still be over 500,000 women willing to adopt. However, even if these
500,000 women adopted internationally, there would still be a over 11 million
international orphans needing care. Now, think for moment. In 2007, 78.4% of
the United States’ population of 302 million considered themselves Christian.
James 1:27 commands the Church to care for the widow and the orphan. If less
than half of these 236,768,000 American Church members took this command to
heart and cared for the child that God had placed in their hearts, there
wouldn’t be an orphan problem, in the United States or anywhere else.
Second, in America, orphans are given food, clothing, education,
and job training until they are eighteen. Children who are taken into foster
care because of abuse and neglect are placed in foster homes with temporary
families. They learn how to take care of themselves. This does not necessarily
mean they are given the same economic or educational opportunities as children
with permanent families, or the same opportunities to be loved, although many
of them are. However, in Columbia, orphaned children are turned on the streets
as early as ten years old. In other countries, children are typically turned
away between the ages of sixteen and eighteen and have little to no education
or job training. In fact, out of the 167 million orphans, 120 million will
never receive any education whatsoever. About 60% of these orphaned girls will
become prostitutes, and 70% of these boys will become criminals by the age of
18. 10-15% of these children will commit suicide before the age of eighteen.
Every year, 1.8 million are forced into human trafficking, prostitution,
or the pornography industry, and 11 million will die of a preventable or
treatable disease. These children have no chance at improvement. While orphans
here are struggling, orphans oversees are dying. And while there is a
definite need for loving parents willing to take in American children, the need
for international adoption has an even greater magnitude. In order to heal this
festering wound in our world, millions must respond to all the issues,
domestic and international. To say that parents who adopt internationally are
wrong, ignorant, or insensitive towards the needs of our country is explicitly
wrong, in every sense of the word.
Check out the full article using the link above and let your heart decide if we should only "Buy American"......
Blessings to you and yours.....thanks for checking in!
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