Occupy Elizabethtown

The other night my face book status was this: 

One third of all Americans consider adoption at some point in their lives.  Only 2% actually adopt.  I am the 2%.

(And not to completely rain on the parade of the Occupiers, but I think you may have rights and privileges confused.  But that's just me.)

But, as part of the 2% of people who've adopted, here are my demands (er, polite suggestions): 

1.  There are roughly 147 million orphans worldwide.  Many don't have access to health care not because they don't have insurance, but because they don't have someone to notice their forehead is hot.  The next time you are sick, send $20 (the average copay) to an organization that supports orphans.

2.  Orphans don't care about higher education.  They just want a Mom and a Dad who love them, tuck them into a safe bed at night, and be there in the morning.  The next time you moan about your college loan debt, thank the folks who loved you enough to encourage you to go to college.

3.  No matter who gets elected, orphans overseas wait in orphanages because of governmental red tape and bureaucracy while parents yearn and ache for their kids who, for now, are just a photo on the fridge.  Next Tuesday, after you vote, commit to praying for parents who are waiting for their adoptive kids.  If you know someone who has recently adopted, offer to cook them a meal.

4.  The average kid in the US foster care system will live with 8 different foster families between the times they are shuffled back and forth by the courts until they are either reunited with their birth family or made available for adoption.  Pray for the folks who love these kids.  Pray for the counselors who try to repair all the damage to which these poor ones have been victim.  Pray that God will raise up foster families willing to love those who are difficult to love.  For God to give those foster parents supernatural compassion and stamina.

5. Pray for God to open your heart to an orphan in some way.  Be it through supporting a family in the adoption process, becoming a foster parent, or sponsoring a family through Bethany Christian Services.  EVERY SINGLE PERSON I KNOW WHO HAS EVER PRAYED FOR AN ORPHAN HAS BEEN CHANGED.  AS HAS THE LIFE OF AN ORPHAN. 

6.  Know this--if you want to see where God is at work,  I'll tell you:  He's close to the orphan.  He defends the fatherless.  Setting the lonely in families is just what He does.  He just can't help it--making orphans into sons and daughters is His main gig.