November 8th is "Orphan Sunday" -- a day when NGOs, churches, adoption agencies, and even ordinary folks like you and me take the time out to consider the plight of orphans all over the world. It doesn't matter what color you are. It doesn't matter what religion you believe in, or even if you believe in one. It doesn't matter if you are gay or straight. It doesn't matter if you are childless or have a dozen kids. STOP for a moment. Stop the hectic, crazy pace that we call "normal" and think about THEM. All you parents out there -- stop and think about your children. Think about all the things that you and your kids take for granted. Enough food. Clean water. Clean clothes to wear. The opportunity to go to school. Think about all the times when YOUR child gets hurt. You're there to kiss their "boo boo" and make it all better, right? Think about your 4 year-old waking up screaming in fear from a nightmare. You sprint to their room, tell them it's going to be alright, wipe their tears away, and cradle them in your arms like you did when they were so very tiny, right? Think about the joy of giving your child a birthday or holiday gift. Think about the incredible look of wonder and surprise on their faces when they open it and it's exactly what they had wished for.
Now think about your child being without all those things. Without all those comforts we all take for granted every day. Without YOU. Utterly alone. Can you even picture my children, ages 5 and 3, living alone? The 5 year-old being the head of his "family" of two, scrounging for enough food for his little brother, and trying to keep him safe living on the street? I know we here in America don't like to think about stuff like that. It's not pretty. It's not happy, and it's hard to talk about. It IS reality.
I hear over and over again, "What a wonderful thing you are doing -- adopting an orphan, saving him from a life of despair, rescuing him." Wrong. The opposite is true. WE are the selfish ones. WE want another child in our family. WE want to grow in ways we, even now, can't imagine. WE are the lucky ones. Lucky that so many twists of fate, both miraculous and tragic, led us to our precious Shimeles and allowed him to become a part of our incomplete family. We alone did nothing special, nothing amazing. Nothing that many, many other people have done and are capable of doing. It is what WE were meant for, and Shimeles was meant for us.
Adoption isn't for everyone. International adoption isn't for everyone. Transracial adoption isn't for everyone. But there are so many other ways to help if adoption is not for you. Think about them. Think about their everyday reality. Think about a toddler who doesn't know what it means to feel "full" because she's never had enough to eat in her lifetime. Think about a child who has never had the luxury of feeling safe, and the opportunity to let his guard down and stop being vigilant, even for a minute. Think about your kids not having a childhood. Now think about how much you have. Think about how fortunate you really are. Think about how lucky you are to have been born into the family that you were. What can you do? Take one minute and 35 seconds to watch the video below, and just think about it.
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