We Can't Save them All....

Hi Everyone. Adrian here. I've been reading a fantastic book about Mother Theresa, called "Serving the Poorest of the Poor". Towards the end of the book, she recalls a time early in her life where her work was called "a drop in the ocean". At that time, she said: "We will never be able to care for all orphans, cure all disease, feed all the hungry, or treat all the lepers. But, our purpose is not to cure the world's problems, but to demonstrate Christian love."

This reminded me of a great blog post I came across not long ago, where the author questioned whether adoption is truly the best answer if the goal is caring for orphans. His point is that it costs thousands of dollars to adopt one child. With that same amount of money, many, many children can stay in their own country with relatives, or extended family. From an economic standpoint, adoption isn't very cost effective. However, it's not only about money. It's about personally touching the life of someone else. Seeing them smile and laugh, caring for them when they hurt. Teaching them the love, grace, mercy, and principles of God. Giving them a loving family. As Mother Theresa said, we can't save them all. But, if we all do something, more and more will be saved, both physically and spiritually.

The answer is multi-faceted. The comments from the blog post catch it best, from multiple points of view. The first commenter asked this question: "Am I adopting to save a life or am I adopting to become a parent to a child?" The answer for us is "Yes". It's both.

Another comment that I really like: "We have repeatedly said that adoption is not the answer for Ethiopia/Africa, but it was the answer for our boys."

Here's another that is very good. "We are to help the orphans and widows. Plain and simple. There will be many ways to do this: adoption, financial aid, missions, supporting a child through an organization, etc. We are just called to continue to minister to them as Christ does. In this way we are living the Gospel which is most important for all Believers. I don't expect that a pagan journalist is going to understand my faith and the working out of that faith.
I can not understand why my little one's mommy gave them up for adoption but I have to believe that they were Providentially placed in our home for a reason...maybe even to learn the truth of the Gospel and take it back to their homeland someday. That is not only taking care of a very small part of this generation but hopefully impacting many generations to come. "

There are so many other great comments. I'd love it if you read them.
Here's the article:
http://tomdavis.typepad.com/tom_daviss_blog/2008/08/is-adoption-the.html

Thanks,
Adrian