Look at your globe. Go ahead- spin it around a few time. There are almost 200 countries among
seven continents. It’s huge, right? And have you looked up the statistics recently on the number of orphans worldwide? Most sources
provide different figures, but roughly 17.8 million children are “double
orphaned” having lost both parents; 153 million children worldwide have lost
one of their parents making them a “single orphan.” These stats probably don’t
reflect the number of social orphans living in institutions.
So, it’s a big world full of helpless children in need. We
can only adopt one or maybe two. Where do we even start?
We are starting in India.
David won our church’s curry cook-off our first year in
Hawaii, but other that that we don’t have huge ties to Indian culture! It’s
hard to explain why we chose India- we both just agreed that we want a little
girl from India.
When I visited my Grandma shortly before she passed away in
2013, I was perusing some of her Christian news magazines. She always kept
quite the stock. I came across an article about the plight of women in India
and China. Apparently, those two countries are extremely oppressive toward
women- some will even abort their baby if the gender is revealed as female.
That awful fact really struck me. And I suppose that was the moment God focused
the view of my lens in on two countries.
A couple months later when David and I began discussing our
plans to adopt, our first step was choosing a program, or country. We talked
about India and China. After some research, we learned we’re too young to adopt
from China, so we looked into India. We met all the requirements! We found an
amazing Christian agency that does adoptions in India, so we applied.
I know it might sound cliché, but India just seems right for
our family. It’s hard to explain, but I’m so glad God gave us a passion for ONE
country.
One terrifying and exciting thing adopting from India is the
opportunity for God to work a miracle. The India program comes with various
subjective rules including one about breaking birth order. India typically does
not like for families with biological children to break birth order when they
adopt. That means they would prefer for us to adopt a child younger than our
youngest child. Additionally, it is rare for families- not of Indian heritage-
to adopt a child under the age of three. Our youngest child, Brooks, is 15
months, so I’ll let you do the math! It’s seriously going to take a miracle for
India to approve us to adopt.
We’re actually considered a “high risk family” for the India
program. Because of this, we actually switched to the Ethiopia program for
about a year- mainly out of fear. What if we spent thousands upon thousands of
dollars only for India to tell us, “No you cannot adopt from us.” Ethiopia was
a much safer program for us. Surprisingly, our adoption agency offered transfer
program in December to the India program without any extra fees. We both knew
immediately that we should go back to India. It would have been easier for us to adopt
from Ethiopia- those kids are super cute, and there are so many in need. But,
we were not called to adopt from Ethiopia. And WE will not accomplish this
adoption.
Our child is waiting for us somewhere in India. And God will
be the One to bring her home.
So, now you have a
very specific prayer request for our family: pray that CARA, the India agency
for all things adoption, will look favorably upon our family and allow us to
welcome one of their children into our home.
Trusting Him,
Melissa
Adoption is not the only way to address the global orphan crisis.
For other ways to get involved check out the book Orphanology by Tony Merida and Rick Morton. (Yes, this was the book
that God used to open David’s heart to adoption!)
