Adoption on my heart

For a very long time, I have been praying and hoping with all my heart that we could adopt a child.
In the last year, I have had vivid dreams and been encouraged that it will happen: we will be able to adopt a child. In fact, this fall, Mike and I will be taking foster/adoption classes.


This weekend I was feeling a huge burden on my heart for the orphans of the world. I spent some time praying for them. Hannah caught me looking at reecesrainbow.org. Each time she saw a picture of another orphaned child, she would ask "Mom, can we get that one? And that one? Can we adopt him? Or her? What about this one?" After 90 seconds of this I had to shut down the computer, because she was so insistent, so excited, and it was really difficult for me to explain to her that it's not nearly so easy. Bureaucracy, government, and red tape get in the way.


I often go to adoptuskids.org and scroll through the stories and pictures there.
Today I found this one:

 I have seen this picture several times before, read the profile, looked at this sweet face. But today something in my heart asked "Is this the one?" I have no idea if we would be able to parent someone with vast medical, physical and emotional needs. I don't know if we are the right family for him. But I do know that he, and thousands of other children, need a forever home.


I read a statistic last month that said something like "If some-percentage of all Christian families adopted just one child, there would be no more orphans." I wish I could find a reference for that. I really wish more people would consider adoption.

On further study, here's an interesting article: http://www.lighted-path.net/article2_DarkestClouds.html