Letter: Consider adoption

Dear Editor,

In l976, President Gerald Ford made the first National Adoption Week proclamation, and by l990, the observation had grown to an entire month of activities.

National Adoption Awareness Month programs are designed to promote positive perceptions, debunk the myths and draw people’s attention to the over 127,000 children who are currently in foster care, waiting for a “real” family! And this is in America alone. The numbers worldwide are an estimated 143 million children, from babies to teen-agers, all yearning to have someone to call “Mom” and “Dad.”

While 127,000 seems like an enormous number, it should be noted that there are more than 300,000 churches in this country, which tells us that if just one out of every three church-going families opted for adoption, we’d be demonstrating God’s love in one of the very best ways possible. Do you know someone who might be interested?

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27). But what does keeping yourself from being “polluted by the world” have to do with caring for widows and orphans? I wonder if that doesn’t have a little to do with the fact that we humans are amazingly selfish creatures. Our wealthy American culture endorses a “me-first” mentality, which rejects the whole concept of self-sacrifice. We have endless opportunities, with hobbies, movies, sports and an enormous assortment of consumer goods, with which to entertain ourselves.

And, while none of these things is inherently wrong, their pursuit too often distracts us from loving and helping those who are hurting. In other words, we’ve allowed the world to pollute our core values, and it’s easy to close our eyes to the hurt of these children.

While it’s obvious that adoption isn’t for every family, it may be for yours. To learn more about adopting, check iCareAboutOrphans.org. You just may be the answer to a little child’s prayer and you’d probably make your family a lot happier too.

Tags: opinion, hudson, letter, adoption