Awareness: Part 2

Clearly, I'm on an awareness kick right now. This isn't terribly like me. But I think that for those close to us, this sort of awareness sheds light on some of the meaning behind our journey.

After seeing a documentary like this, I look at our four children and, for a split second, I imagine one of them being an orphan. Once you have children, most parents can tell you that every awful story you hear on the news or read in the papers involving children (which is why I don't watch the news or read the papers, rendering me slightly stupid at this point), almost subconsciously you imagine your own children in such a predicament. It's such a painful experience that I quickly move on to another thought. If I don't, I'll lose my mind. There should be NO orphans in this world. And while we can't solve the problem for all 143,000,000 of them, we can solve it for one and we feel blessed and honored to be granted the privelege and responsibility of doing so.

I honestly do not believe that adoption is the long-term solution to these issues. It is SURELY the short-term solution (or, at least, one of them). The long-term solution is to ensure that everyone everywhere is self-sufficient. That everyone is given the tools and the knowledge to be self-sufficient in their environment. Surely, that is everyone's God-given right. And surely, what those tools in place, this number (143,000,000) can be reduced.