Finding families for orphans

I first heard about Holt International at a concert in January. Back in 1955 after the Korean war, a couple with six children from Oregon petitioned for an act of Congress to allow them to adopt 8 orphans from Korea. Thus began Holt International, which has now placed over 60,000 orphans into loving families all over the world.

Not everyone can adopt a child, but one thing I can do as a single girl is provide the financial support for an orphan to receive food and medical care while waiting to be adopted. They have the opportunity to be in a loving home environment (foster families) until they are adopted. One of my close friends from Korea was placed by Holt years ago...when I learned this it made their work all the more real--it has changed lives of loved ones.

My little boy is Yue Ling from China. He turned 2 on May 3rd and he is so precious! He does not like dogs, is able to walk on his own now, and has the cutest little nose I've ever seen! I may not meet him on this earth, but for now he is mine to pray for and support. I thank God He has given me this opportunity to help "one of the least of these."

View the children waiting for a sponsor.

Picture: This little boy from East Asia is still waiting for a sponsor and then adoption. You can see him in the Holt photolisting by clicking on the link above.

Bring Me Hope!

Grab the box of Klenex and visit Bring Me Hope to watch their eye-opening video on China's orphans. This organization, run by a Christian family, hosts summer camps for orphans as well as adoptions. You can also request a DVD by mail to share with your friends and family.

On the same vein, I wanted to recommend this sweet book for children, "I Love You Like Crazy Cakes," which prompted my sister to want to adopt from China.

Follow-up on Russia...

After my last post about China and Russia I received contact from a girl who just returned from Russia. I appreciated her perspective. I do not discredit my source for the information that Russia was closed, but I also wanted to show her side of things.

She wrote: My family just returned home on Wed. with our 2 Russian children which we officially adopted last week, so I wanted to encourage you with the fact that Russia has not closed adoptions yet. There is word that they may very, very soon, but right now they have not. Also, the Russian people are not at all open to American adoptions. Most believe that Americans simply adopt to harvest the children's organs. This has been "confirmed" in their minds by the adopted child killed in S. Carolina (I think) recently and a woman in one of their gov. minstries who is very opposed to adoption.

Too real to be just a dream....

I had a dream last night. Enough for me to wake up with an aching heart. It was so real.

I was back in China...*deep breath* We were working and I stumbled the wrong way and found myself in a horrible place...the room was full of dirty beds and cribs and every inch of space was taken. Little babies, newborns, some nearly a year old, stuffed three and four to a crib, neglected, ignored, filthy, hungry. It was horrific. Then someone grabbed me...I could not be there.

Then I was outside with a friend trying to reach a certain place in time...there were five babies left in a trash heap. I was crying...we picked one up and he was still alive...but the next did not move. Wake up.... Then we were trying to bring the abandoned ones home with us. They would not let us. I kept pleading...wanting to sign the paperwork... and I just cried. Why? Why would they let their own people die, starve, or rot in filthy institutions instead of let them be adopted by people who so desperately love them?

There was more...not sure at the legality of this part of my dream but somehow I was smuggling three babies back to America and made it. I remember very clearly holding one in my arms while Carson took another, and feeding them milk bit by bit. And then I woke up...exhautsed.

I never could have come up with that dream on my own. It was like a punch in the stomach. Yet parts of it are true. From a friend I know that conditions exist like that for the orphans across China. More than we could ever imagine. And we tried to visit an orphanage when we were there but high authorities would not let us. That was tough--and if I ever go back I am going to get to one if it is the last thing I do. :)

And China is one of the most difficult countries to adopt children from. I do not want to be cynical, but I am afraid I may not get my opportunity. The couple must be at least 30 years old, and that is 9 years from now. With the state of relations between China and America, especially with China and Russia being in alliance against us, it would not surprise me if China followed Russia in refusing to allow America to adopt anymore. Russia did this just a few months ago, and it created an uproar. Even the Russian people were furious, saying their children would die when loving families wanted to take them.

Perhaps God will yet answer that desire in my heart to have Chinese babies of my very own.

How could anyone not want a baby?

If this doesn't make you...

...cry or say "aww" or want to thank God for the work faithful in China are doing...!

I love Chinese kids and I love what the Philip Hayden Foundation is doing!!! Looking through this scrapbook of kids when they were first abandoned, and what they looked like when they were adopted is incredible! Look at Abigail and Maria. Are they not precious?

I've been watching Petal grow up for a year now and she is sooooooo cute! And Peter is one of many, many babies with cleft lip who Langfang Villiage takes care of until they can have surgery. These babies like Hayden are beautiful BEFORE and after their surgeries!!

God is good all the time!

China babies...

"Singer Steven Curtis Chapman and wife Mary Beth recently brought hom to Franklin, Tenn., their newly adopted daughter, 14-month-old Maria Sue Chapman. She is the couple's third daughter adopted from China and their sixth child. Steven bonded with Maria, a "special needs" child because of a potential heart condition, while visiting an orphanage and foster homes for children in China." -From Christian Retailing magazine