An article last week by our good friend Dan Cruver on www.edstetzer.com does an excellent job explaining why this vision isn’t the sole territory of the large, well-resourced church.  Rather, he explains that often it is the small church that embraces orphan ministry in the fullest manner possible:  not seeing it merely as “one more good cause” but as a core aspect of the church’s character, representing not only a ministry of mercy, but also a vital force for discipleship and proclamation of the Good News.

Read the whole article here.  And, if you haven’t already, make sure to register for Together for Adoption’s upcoming conference in Austin.

Louisville is a beautiful city and will be in top shape in mid-Spring a week after the Kentucky Derby (thankfully minus the crowds.)  Meanwhile, the facilities at Southeast Christian Church are nothing short of amazing.  The area is also easily accessible by road from countless southern and mid-western cities, and via air as well.

Yet there’s one factor far more compelling than any of the others.  Henry Blackaby urges, “Look for where God is working and join Him there.”  In orphan care, the Louisville region certainly fits that description.  Churches across the city and surrounding areas are at the forefront of the stirring that’s happening all across the country as Christians rise to God’s call to “defend the fatherless.”  The community is alive with energy for this work, from huge congregations like Southeast Christian Church and Highview Baptist, to an expansive network of small churches across southern Indiana, to the region-wide Orphan Care Alliance, to all that Russell Moore is doing out of SBTS.

Best of all, these churches and many others are taking a personal ownership of Summit VII.  It will not only be an event of national reach and global impact.  It will also be a conference truly rooted in the local church.  We’re excited to pair this local team with the volunteers that step forward from around the country to make Summit all it can be.

Elizabeth and I are now headed back to our respective offices on our respective coasts (DC and CA), but we leave refreshed by the time with such remarkable friends, new and old.  Just as much, we’re more excited than ever by the glimpses of all that God is doing in the area already, and by all that will happen when we (and you!) get to join Him there next May!

Paul Pennington at Family Life’s Hope for Orphans shared this great news with us about stories and interviews recorded at Summit VI in Minneapolis:

Monday, August 30^th through Friday, September 3^rd, Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman will be guests on FamilyLife Today.  As many of you know, the Chapmans adopted three girls from China and several years ago began a ministry, now called Show Hope.  As many of you also know, the Chapmans lost their precious daughter, Maria Sue, in a tragic accident in May 2008.

In addition to the Chapman shows next week, FamilyLife Today will also be featuring several orphan ministry leaders in a two-part series in mid-September.  Hope for Orphans has had the privilege of helping hundreds of churches start orphans ministries over the past seven years.  These two broadcasts will feature some of our special friends who have been pioneers in this movement, including, on September 16^th, Rocky Gill, Founder of Hope for 100 at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, TX, Elizabeth Styffe, Director of both the HIV and Orphan Care Initiatives at Saddleback Church (where Rick Warren is the Senior Pastor) in Lake Forest, CA, and Jedd Medefind, President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans and former Director of President George W. Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative.  On September 17^th, guests include three local church orphans ministry leaders:  Beau Fournet of Watermark Church in Dallas, TX, Jodi Lewis of Kentwood Community Church in Kentwood, MI, and Jill Toth of Biltmore Baptist Church in Asheville, NC.  Please make sure you tune in on both dates and hear what God is doing through churches all across the nation to bring His love to the fatherless.

The Cry of the Orphan partners (Focus on the Family, Show Hope, and Hope for Orphans) are excited about our special, one-hour, pre-recorded program called Answer the Cry which was produced to support this year’s Orphan Sunday, scheduled for November 7^th, 2010.  Come back to Hope for Orphans in September for the soon-to-be announced details on how you can use this program for your church or Bible Study via DVD or live streaming.  The program features Francis and Lisa Chan, Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman, Mark Shultz, and interviews with Hope for Orphans’ own Paul and Robin Pennington, as well as Kelly and John Rosati of Focus on the Family.

The full article is definitely worth the read for anyone who has pondered the ethnicity issues tied up in cross-racial adoption.  Here’s a few highlights:

The relationship [of adoption] results from a broken bond but creates ties as strong as genetics, stronger than race or tribe …

After millennia of racial and ethnic conflict across the world, resulting in rivers of blood, America declared that bloodlines don’t matter, that dignity is found beneath every human disguise. There is no greater embrace of this principle than an American family that looks like the world.

Instead of undermining any culture, international adoption instructs our own. Unlike the thin, quarrelsome multiculturalism of the campus, multiethnic families demonstrate the power of affection over difference. They tend to produce people who may look different from the norm of their community but see themselves as just normal, just human.

Read the whole article here.

There’s certainly good reason for frustration at the reality every news programmer knows all too well: news consumers rarely remain interested in other people’s tragedy for more than a few months, at most. Such is human nature, as much a testimony to evil in our world as Haiti’s earthquake itself. The truth is, if we tried to sustain concern for every tragedy we’ve ever seen on TV, we’d melt like cheese on a stovetop. So, as the media’s conveyor belt of heartbreaking stories rolls on, we are left making uneasy peace with an emotional journey that looks like an EKG: long stretches of numbed apathy spiked by occasional moments of empathetic sorrow. Is this really the best way to live?

Read the full article on Cardus online.

We are just 7 weeks away from our 2010 national conference in Austin, TX. Join us as we consider “The Gospel, the Church, and the Global Orphan Crisis.”

We are very grateful to God for all that He has been doing to bring this event together. Registrations are up 300 percent from last year’s conference! We’d love to have you gather with us! Check out our conference page for information here.

This year our pre-conference event is with Dr. Karyn Purvis and Michael and Amy Monroe. We are partnering with Empowered To Connect to present this Pre-Conference workshop on Thursday, September 30, 2010 in Austin, Texas.

Here is our pre-conference page.

These often-varying estimates are sometimes misstated and frequently misapplied. For example, the various global estimates (143 M, 145 M, 163 M, etc) are often quoted in ways that imply that all of these children have no living parents.  It’s hard not to make that mistake, since most people typically think of an “orphan” as a child that has lost both parents.  But since global orphan estimates include children who’ve lost either one or both parents, roughly 90 percent of children classified as “orphans” have one living parent.  This does not mean that these children are not highly vulnerable, but it does mean that the best response to their needs is often not adoption or some form of orphan home, but helping the family remain intact or reunite.

In recent years, the most frequently quoted numbers have been UNICEF estimates.  However, the data used to produce UNICEF’s most recent estimate (145 million) is three years old.  Previous UNICEF estimates also include the frequently quoted 143 million figure.

The most recent and, according to many experts, most accurate numbers we have at this point are those delivered in a U.S. government report from late 2009.   These numbers are expected to be updated late this year.  This report projects:

• Total global orphan estimates for 2008 are 163 million (Children having lost one or both parents).
• Of these, an estimated 55.3 million have lost a mother and 126 million have lost a father.
• An estimated 18.3 million children have lost both parents.

In addition to the fact that such statistics are often misquoted or misunderstood, the simple truth is that statistics rarely motivate to action.  If anything, they create a paralyzing sense of “what can one person do?”  (See this prior blog posts on the shortcomings of orphan statistics).  So, while it certainly is important to have a good grasp of the numbers and what they actually mean, it is vital that advocates emphasize the most important statistic of all:  it only takes one caring individual to transform the life of an orphan.

Finally, Christians also need to understand that the biblical concept of “orphans” or “the fatherless” found throughout Scripture is a category that includes much more than just the boy or girl who has lost both parents.  Rather, it describes the child that faces the world without provider or protector.  Some children who fit this description have one living parent.  In some cases, such children may even have two living parents who’ve abandoned or abused them, or simply have no capacity to care for them.  No statistical analysis will ever perfectly capture the global number of children who fit in this category, but that need be of little concern.  Ultimately, God’s call is to defend the defenseless child—whatever the particulars of her situation may be.

That line wasn’t a compliment or an analysis, just a fact.    What it says is that the New York Times—a publication that often proves to be as unaware of what’s happening in American Christianity as any—is beginning to recognize what many of us have seen for quite some time:  Christians across America are once again choosing to mirror God’s heart in caring for orphans in their distress.

When we do, even those most prone to be critics take notice.

Ultimately, however, the reporting missed the bigger story.   First, it missed the fact that the expedited adoption process following Haiti’s earthquake was very narrowly focused; it was no “adoption bonanza” as the article irresponsibly claimed, but rather a narrowly targeted process that helped only children that were in the adoption process before the earthquake.

Second, it missed the fact that with very few exceptions, Haiti’s orphans face the direst of circumstances.  Even those with an orphanage roof over their heads (including children with living relatives that are unable or unwilling to take them in) often know hunger, disease and abuse intimately.   Several prior blog posts note the consequences when adoptions are stymied (including here and here).  And it is certainly worth noting that while inter-country adoption often comes with difficult moral dilemmas, other attempts to care for orphans are frequently rife with far worse problems.  Shortcomings in both inter-country adoption and in-country care should be addressed and solved, not used as an excuse to stymie either effort in favor of the other.

Most significantly, the article missed the biggest story of all:  hundreds of children no longer live on the streets or in orphanages as a result of the expedited adoption process following Haiti’s quake.  Instead, the author selected from vast hours of interviews a handful of anecdotes and carefully-chosen quotes to emphasize potential pitfalls of inter-country adoption.  In a well-meant attempt to explore important (and sometimes overlooked) issues, the article ultimately failed to tell the full story.

A letter to the editor of the NY Times is below:

__________________________________________

Editor,

Your article, After Haiti Quake, the Chaos of U.S. Adoptions, smartly highlights the complexities of inter-country adoption.  Sadly, its emphasis, anecdotes and innuendoes were decisively those of the critic, underscoring potential flaws while missing the far more important reality.

Here’s the central fact:  tens of thousands of children will grow up in institutions and on Haiti’s streets if not adopted.  While orphanages are sometimes the only way to provide mass care temporarily, they are simply no substitute for a loving family.

Many Haitian orphans have relatives willing to care for them but for financial need, and every effort should be made to support such solutions.  Meanwhile, orphans without local options should not be kept from loving families abroad by the fact that adoption—like every solution to complex human needs—carries challenges.  It is time to reject the false choice between in-country care and inter-country adoption.  Compassion demands a commitment to both.

Jedd Medefind, President

Christian Alliance for Orphan

_________________________________________________

Last weekend, my brother and I hiked deep into California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Our mission: to re-supply my father and his two close friends who are fulfilling a lifelong dream of hiking the John Muir Trail, 210 miles of breathtaking, rugged wilderness.  Their faces glowed as they described the glories of God’s creation they’ve encountered, from Alpine meadows to granite peaks.  But my father’s friend Henry, though never losing his smile, also reminded, “There’s been real pain, too.”  Severe blisters, cramping legs, shoulder pain, biting hailstorms and cold to the verge of hypothermia were just a partial list.  It was clear the three hikers were having the time of their lives, but pain was interwoven with the journey.

It is easy to feel it should be otherwise.  Something deep inside us still recalls the world before the Fall and joins creation in groaning at all the things that aren’t the way they should be.  But the simple truth is that this side of heaven, most anything worth doing comes with pain—care for orphans via adoption, foster care or global ministry as much as any.

Of course, keeping our roots in Scripture (from Jesus’ words about “counting the cost” to Hebrews 11:36-38) disabuses us of any fantasy that health and wealth are guaranteed compensation for faithfulness.  Yet still there is a temptation to gloss over the difficult thing or just shove them under the carpet.  In adoption ministry, for instance, there can be a pull toward making “ministry” mainly a “cheerleading” for Christians to adopt with little emphasis on support after the child has come home.  There’s certainly a place for helping people see the beauty and purposefulness discovered in adoption and other forms of orphan care.  But ultimately we need to know:  there will be pain, too.

What’s tremendously heartening is that the movement of Christians committed to orphans is coming to embrace that truth.  I increasingly hear church orphan ministry leaders talk about the journey—that long, often beautiful, often difficult road that comes with loving anyone for a lifetime, especially a child coming from a hard place.

My prayer is that more and more, church orphan ministry will be a place where this beauty-mixed-with-pain is shown for what it is:  an inescapable reality of life in a broken world and a journey worth taking.  May it be that in church, like nowhere else, worn out foster parents, struggling adoptive families and weary orphan care workers can speak transparently about their burdens.  And where others can help them bear the load in discerning, well-prepared, sacrificial ways.  That’s church orphan ministry—and just plain Church—at its very best.

Bethany Christian Services reported that the combined international and domestic adoption placement increased 26 percent over the six-month period of January to June compared to the same time period in 2009.

Intercountry adoption inquiries were ahead by over 5,000 requests the first half of this year compared to 2009, totaling an unprecedented 10,567. Meanwhile, there were 8,037 domestic infant adoption inquiries, which is also higher than in 2009.

Alongside it’s excellent work in facilitating adoptions, Bethany is also providing remarkable leadership on other fronts as well—serving children that will never be adopted, and championing the “cause of the fatherless” in ways that benefit other organizations and expand Christian engagement in all forms of orphan ministry.  Internationally, this includes in-country care for orphans in more than 12 countries.  Domestically, Bethany is also helping expand the cutting-edge “Safe Families” foster care alternative beyond Illinois, where it has proven remarkably successful, to other parts of the country.   Bethany has also worked with the SBC to establish an innovative new fund providing scholarships to help SBC pastors adopt.

It’s thrilling to see organizations like Bethany acting out a vision that’s larger than their own organization alone.  Again and again, I’ve seen Bethany’s leaders work behind the scenes—in ways that will likely never be noticed or praised—simply to help advance the cause of the orphan and God’s kingdom.   Having friends and co-laborers like that makes work with the Christian Alliance for Orphans a privilege like none other.

One such story caught my eye, and my heart, today.  It’s a short post put up this morning on Facebook by Russ Weir.  Late last year, Russ traveled all the way to California from Texas to meet in person and strategize together about how to encourage and grow the orphan movement.  It was a rich time of fellowship and thinking, and I now count Russ a dear friend and true brother-in-arms.  Some of you may know him, too, through his leadership in the Red Letters Campaign.  His simple, poignant words speak for themselves:

In almost every way, today is ordinary. But while driving to work this morning, I realized that today is something particularly special. Four years ago, a sick and broken little 7 year-old girl was grafted into my family through adoption. Today, that little girl is 11 and she leaving me for 2 weeks to go minister to people that she can UNIQUELY relate to – impoverished indians in South Dakota.

This is Zoe in Guatemala when we first met her – she’s wearing the Christmas dress we bought her

For many girls her age, this would simply be another trip, but for Zoe this is so much different – it’s a milestone of restoration for a girl who faced a childhood of neglect, abuse, sickness, extreme poverty, days without food, mass death through natural disaster and child labor. For my Zoe, today begins a pilgrimage back to her sorest place and past. She will wrestle through memories of her pain and the loss of her childhood as she connects with people in similar circumstances. She will face her past head on and her mother and i will not be there with her. She may be too young still to recognize the significance of this or what lies beyond that door, but i am confident that she is now ready to face it.

For me, today i realized a tremendous blessing of adoption. Once again, i’m shown that adoption has little to do with what I can do for my children, but what God shows me through it. In only 4 years, i have watched a resiliant girl overcome untold odds and today, she is restored … not in the way that she doesn’t hurt, but in that the pain and fear that once reflected in her eyes has been replaced with a calm softness. Today, her brokenness is not a weakness … it’s an asset that helps her connect with and minister to other broken people in a way that I cannot.

Zoe with her sisters

It wasn’t an attractive process watching all of the pain that went into her come pouring back out onto us. But today … today … it just hit me that God has succeeded again where the world has failed. A girl with every excuse to harbor bitterness has grown perhaps the softest, most sincere and biggest heart i know. While He put Zoe in our care, He did not leave the job of restoring her to us. Instead, He is restoring US through restoring her. This realization has made an ordinary day quite special.

For all of you who have adopted or will adopt, i hope that this will be your blessing too. Thank you Zoe for this gift. You are a blessing, INDEED!

They also underscore a broader reality orphan advocates sometimes miss:  that the situation facing orphans in any given country can change markedly over time.  Drivers of change can range from more obvious factors like natural disaster or a jump in AIDS rates, to more subtle drivers like economic growth or decline.  As a result, the number of orphans, their typical characteristics, and the unique dynamics orphaned children face can shift dramatically, sometimes in short periods.

The first article describes a reality we’ve noted for some time:  the dramatic drop in healthy children available for international adoption from China.  It reads, “As China has prospered and government restrictions have increased… the number of U.S. couples being allowed to adopt there has dropped sharply, and experts say there’s little reason to believe the trend will reverse.”

The second piece—actually a blog recap of a talk given by Amy Eldridge on the changing dynamics of orphans in China—carries a deeply insightful view of the factors underlying the superficial “fewer-foreign-adoptions” trend.   (I can’t personally vouch for all the statistics shared, but the claims strike me as entirely consistent with things I’ve heard and observed as well.)  The blog post is a long read, but well worth it for people concerned about China’s orphans.  For those interested in a briefer read, below is a “Comment” posted by Amy Eldridge that synopsizes some of the key issues:

Amy Eldridge said…

As I mentioned to several people after the talk, the important thing for people to remember is that social issues around the world constantly change. We all know there was a time when there were thousands of healthy baby girls who needed homes from Chinese orphanages. Families from around the world sent in their files to adopt those babies. But with the decreased abandonment of healthy girls along with a marked increase in domestic adoption, the orphanage population has changed dramatically. Now when an orphanage gets in a healthy infant, it is the exception. And then there are many Chinese families in the cities who are willing to adopt a healthy child….so there are truly very few NSN children available for international adoption, except for older children.

The bigger issue is the increased number of children with special needs who need homes. More and more orphanages are willing to make their kids with SNs available to families through the waiting child path, but of course many families don’t feel they could commit to a SN adoption. That is why I believe education is so important, and why families considering Chinese adoption should educate themselves about the different special needs and the treatment required to see if it is a path they could handle. I think the important thing to remember, however, is that for most Americans who hear the label “special needs”, they are thinking of much more severe needs (often including mental retardation) than a lot of the kids waiting for homes today on the shared list. Almost all of the kids in our programs are classified as “special needs”, and they are these amazing, wonderful kids who would bless any family. And of course we need to keep encouraging people to at least consider a boy, as so many boys are never chosen, and they would be the most wonderful sons!

Everyone involved in Chinese orphan care is having to adapt. Orphanages are adapting to a changing population of kids and learning how to submit the files of kids with special needs. The government is adapting by increasing the per child stipend needed to provide for the essential needs of children and by introducing programs like the Blue Sky plan. Adoption agencies are having to adapt now that the NSN program has slowed and having to learn how to counsel parents considering children with medical needs. And charities are having to adapt as immediate access to health care has become such a critical need.

I am very happy for the changing attitudes that I see among so many young adults in China who now say it doesn’t matter at all to them if their child is a boy or a girl. But my heart is still burdened in a tremendous way for all of the children who have medical needs who AT THE MOMENT only have a real chance at a family through international adoption. I hope in the next ten years that we will see a marked increase in the number of Chinese families wanting to adopt through the SN path. But for now, finding families around the world is these kids’ real hope. And so anything that we can do to promote special needs adoption is very important. Even if a family decides they can’t personally take that path, they can continue to let other families know that the special needs program in China is a wonderful way to form a family.

There’s certainly a place for frustration at the reality that guides news programmers:  most consumers of news can sustain concern for tragedy for no more than a few months at most.  But, of course, that is the world we live in, as much a testimony to the Fall as the earthquake itself.  Equally significant, if we tried to sustain concern for every tragedy we’ve ever seen, we’d likely break down in paralyzed sorrow.

So what do we do with that?   Here are just a few thoughts:

1)       Do what we can. Prayer requires no news cameras, and it is a commitment any believer can make to a tragedy—for months, years and even more.

2)      Support the ongoing work. Many Christian Alliance for Orphans member organizations served in Haiti long before the earthquake and are now as hard at work as ever.  Buck the give-when-an-issue-is-fresh trend and support their ongoing work.

3)      Be reminded. As news outlets mark the six month anniversary with stories on Haiti, take a moment to renew concern with a window into what is happening now: from The Independent’s story of Wideleine Fils Amie, to CNN’s report on an adopted Haitian orphan to ABC News coverage from this weekend.

4)      Focus on your calling. Feeling obligated to address every need we’ve seen can paralyze us, finally dissolving into a blend of apathy and low-grade guilt.    I’m pretty sure that’s not how God would have us respond.  Rather, in each moment He invites us to focus on a single task He’s set before us:  the broken individual we encounter on the Jericho road.  Yes, we often can give prayers and financial support to a broad range of needs.  But ultimately, to truly love our neighbor requires focus on particular needs in particular places.   If that’s Haiti for you, pour yourself into it with abandon, joining with others who share your calling.  But if you sense it’s elsewhere, let Haiti remind you that there is a higher calling for our abilities than just feathering our own nests.  Our gifts, our strengths, our money, our time, our creativity, our passion are needed for Kingdom work.

Raise Him Up

When I first met his momma
She was just 19
Couldn’t say for certain who the father was
I have known him since he was a pup
And I’m gonna raise him up

If you never knew your daddy
Like I never knew mine
It feels like everybody knows you’re fatherless
This boy may not be blood of my blood
But I’m gonna raise him up

I’ll provide for him
Walk beside of him
I am strong enough
Cause it’s time he knew
What a son can do
With a father’s love
He can change the world

Ya’ll may have to look at Joseph
A couple thousand years ago
When he held a newborn baby he named Jesus
He said he may not be blood of my blood
Still I’m gonna raise him up

I’ll provide for him
Walk beside of him
I am strong enough
I will show him too
What a son can do
With a fathers love
And he will change the world

33 years later
When the Son was in his grave
Broken and abandoned by a world he came to save
His real Dad said he’s mine
Blood of my blood
And I’m gonna raise him up

I’ll provide for you
Walk beside of you
I am strong enough
I have seen from you
What a son can do
With a fathers love
One man changed the world
And he can change your world
But you gotta raise him up
Raise him up

It sometimes seems Christian men are ten steps behind the women in responding to God’s call to care for orphans, whether via adoption, foster care or global orphan care.  There’d be a lot to say about reasons why.   But whatever the cause, one thing is clear:  men need to know that when we talk about reflecting God’s heart for the orphan, masculinity is every bit as needed as maternal love.

Yes, to meet an orphan’s needs does call for much nurture and caregiving.   (I might add that any loving father should join and relish these involvements, too.)  But there’s another side to the call as well, a fiercer side.

The word translated “care for” or “visit” in James 1:27 is a much more potent term than we often imagine.  It carries a hint of the same thought as in our colloquial saying “show up”—as in, “…then, the Marines showed up.”   In Luke 1:68 the term is set in the context of God’s mighty rescue His people:  “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people” (KJV).  We get a taste of this same call to masculine action in Isaiah’s mandate: “Defend the cause of the fatherless” (1:17).

Ultimately, the wellspring of all our actions on behalf of orphans is God’s action on our behalf:  His role as the rescuing and defending Father, His fierce pursuit and rescue of us.

This kind of active, pursuing, sacrificial, even aggressive “visiting” of orphans is a call to every man who claims the name of Christ.

The truth is, the fatherless child often faces the world without provider or protector; she lives on a precipice between poverty and predators.  Men are needed.  Real men.  As protectors and providers.  As adoptive fathers and mentors.  As defenders and champions.  The role demands struggle; we must grapple in prayer, in sacrifice, in wresting a young life from those that would use and abuse it.  This can be a bloody road, sometimes literally.  And it calls out for men to stand alongside their wives, sisters and daughters to truly “defend the cause of the fatherless.”

There is reason for hope.  Men are waking.  A small, hand-written note was left for me at Summit VI, unsigned.  It read simply, “I know of quite a few women in my hometown who would love to and have a desire to adopt or open their home for fostering children.  Sadly, none of their husbands are open to this in any way.  I’ve wondered, ‘Where are the men with a heart for the fatherless—a heart like my heavenly father.’  This is my first time at the Summit and I am blown away by the number of men here!!  And I am very encouraged.  Just wanted to pass that on.”

You can watch the webinar “How to Help without Hurting” here.  Alongside other practical advice, presenters Elizabeth Styffe and Kay Warren put forward a strong argument for always rooting care for orphans in 1) the local church and 2) in adoption (whether local or international) to the fullest extent possible.

All Alliance organizations would affirm these principles in theory, but there is often vigorous debate over how to implement them, particularly amidst the vast need and complex situations in much of the developing world.  We invite you to add to this conversation with a response post here, whether of affirmation or respectful disagreement…

That the leading print voice of evangelicalism in America would choose to make orphan care and adoption the center of its July magazine underscores what many of us already knew:  God is stirring His people to again be known as those who “defend the cause of the fatherless” (Is 1:17).

Page 18 begins a tremendous article by Russell Moore, which gave the magazine its cover language, “Abba Changes Everything.”  I’ve heard Dr. Moore articulate this message from the podium, via radio and over the dinner table, but I must admit I felt my heart expand against my ribcage as I read this fresh expression.  Beautiful and heartbreaking; daunting and inspiring; and profoundly rooted in the ultimate reason for it all:  the Father-love of our God revealed through the Gospel.

Page 23 starts the cover story, “Coming Alongside Parents:  Churches are getting real about adoption’s challenges—and helping families after the child arrives.”  It shares the experience of Summit VI and highlights the robust growth of orphan ministry within churches.  Writes author Carla Barnhill, “…[T]he Summit drew more than 1,200 attendees, most of them ministering to orphans through their home churches.  Watching those gathered, I knew this was not my parent’s generation.”

Finally, page 52 carries the section “My Top 5 Books on Orphan Care” that I had the opportunity to provide:   Russell Moore’s Adopted for Life, Dr. Karyn Purvis’ The Connected Child; Melissa Fay Greene’s There is No Me Without You; Tom Davis’ Fields of the Fatherless, and Doug Sauder’s The One Factor.  (Several others came to mind after I’d submitted that I wish I’d included as well, but five was the limit).

If you can, pick up a copy of CT from the newsstand today.  If not, all these articles will come available online over the month ahead, and we’ll post them on the Alliance blog as they do.  In the meantime, advocates of the orphan care take heart:  God continues to build both passion and action in His Church for these children He so deeply loves.

This story shared with me today is of one young man from Kolfe, named Solomon, and a very special couple I met at Summit, Eileen and Jerry Mestas.  It brought a broad smile to my face, and I imagine it will for you as well.    (As a side note, Rachel confessed feeling she was in the presence of a celebrity when she learned that Eileen Mestas was not only a champion of adoption and orphan care, but also had developed the patent for the original “hooter hider” nursing cover, for which many a mother is undyingly grateful.  But that’s another matter…) :

______________________________________________________________

Solomon Bekele is 19 years old and has been living in an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the last 10 years. He was living without hope or plans for a future and he thought he was forgotten, even by God. He was all alone with not one living relative in this world. The Kolfe Orphanage with boys ranging in ages 7-21 years had not been maintained in over 30 years. The living conditions were tragic, with raw sewage seeping up from the ground, broken windows in all the dorms, and the beds they slept in were trash pile worthy. They only had injera (their national bread) and soup to eat every day, three times a day

Then in November 2007, the Mestas family from Wake Forest, NC traveled to Ethiopia to adopt a sibling group of three. They were taken to visit the Kolfe orphanage and met Solomon. They became pen-pals and miracles began to happen through the letters to Solomon.

Upon returning home from Ethiopia, the Mestas family started speaking all over the country on behalf of orphans and were instrumental, in just 2 months, of raising over $50,000 to renovate the orphanage. Eileen Mestas started posting Solomon’s letters on their family blog www.jobsdaughters.blogspot.com which began spreading around the country like wildfire. How many people get to know a real orphan boy in Africa and hear his cries for help and his heart’s desire to be loved? People from all over the U.S. started to visit Solomon at the Orphanage in Ethiopia, and continue the humanitarian aid efforts. When he was asked how many people had visited him he said; “Too many to count.” In two short years, the Kolfe orphanage has become famous and is being transformed. Solomon has been instrumental in getting several of the younger boys adopted, and many more of them sponsored by American families.

Solomon failed the Ethiopian Government National School Exam in 10th grade and was considered not worthy of further education. He was not permitted to attend any more government schools or University and was destitute with no hope for a future.

The Mestas family started to financially support him going to a private school in Ethiopia where he graduated in August 2009, as Valedictorian! Out of 400 students he was the only orphan. Through a series of miraculous events, Solomon was awarded a full tuition scholarship to attend The College at Southeastern in Wake Forest, NC.

The president of Southeastern, Dr. Danny Akin, agreed to give Solomon a tuition scholarship if he could get to the United States. This was the greatest challenge of all, since the US Embassy normally does not grant student visas to orphans. It is mandatory for all international students to return to their country after they graduate. All students must prove ties to their native country, such as family, property, bank accounts, and other resources. Typically orphans have no ties to ensure their return. The odds were against Solomon again.  The Mestas family elicited the support of several organizations, such as the Gladney Center for Adoption of Fort Worth, Texas, Open Door Baptist Church in Raleigh and others who wrote letters of recommendation in support of Solomon’s application. They also engaged the Office of Senator Kay Hagan, who assisted in the expedition of his VISA approval just yesterday, Monday June 21, 2010!! He received his Visa this morning and is booked on a flight to the USA tonight which arrives at RDU tomorrow, Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 1:30 p.m.

God performed another miracle for Solomon and he will be living with the Mestas family and joining their speaking ministry for at least the next 4-5 years. Solomon has become the VOICE OF THE ORPHAN!

A crowd of at least 100 people is expected to welcome him at the RDU airport tomorrow.

Crossing the Sahara

A gripping scene in The Soloist is a moment of dark epiphany for the film’s antihero protagonist, L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez. Casting about for a story to fill his syndicated column, Lopez discovers that a homeless schizophrenic he’s happened upon was once a virtuoso cellist named Nathaniel Ayers. Although Lopez has interest in little beyond good writing material, the clumsy relationship that grows between the two men slowly wakes him to genuine concern, setting Lopez on a quest to rescue Ayers from both mental illness and the streets.

After many false starts, Ayers seems to have finally turned a corner, accepting a rented apartment and playing the cello once again. But when Lopez asks him to sign some forms, Ayers’s paranoia re-ignites. He seizes Lopez by the neck and drags him to the floor, thumbs nearly crushing the terrified writer’s windpipe until Lopez finally wrests himself free and runs for dear life.  More…

The book is a page-turner, no question, in the vein of Clancy or Ludlum.  And despite its relentless pace, the book’s descriptions of Russia and its people are rich.  I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the former Soviet Union, and again and again found myself in the grip of nostalgia, nodding or grinning at the way Davis captured the beauty and quirks of the mystery-shrouded land and its people.

Beyond the sheer pleasure of a good read, however, the significance of the book is far deeper.  It leaves the reader awash not just in knowledge, but in the experience and emotion, of what it means for an orphan to live without provider or protector.  It helps us not only to understand, but to feel, why God calls us to “defend the cause of the fatherless.”

That’s why every movement in response to God’s call for justice requires not only good theology and strategy, but also good art.   As CS Lewis describes it in The Abolition of Man,  our head can only rule our decisions “through the chest [heart].”  That means that as vital as right thinking is, it is ultimately a rightly-formed heart (will, desire, emotion, aspiration, longing) that most impels right action.   (This is why Scripture urges, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life”—Proverbs 4:23.)  Good art, from truth-telling stories to music to movies, can powerfully stir and shape our hearts.  It can draw truth from idea to action.  Good art leads a migration from mind to heart, and then from there to hands and feet.

That’s just what Davis sought to do via a can’t-put-it-down thriller in Priceless.   He accomplished his goal marvelously.

One upcoming event I’m particularly excited about is the Mid-Atlantic Orphan Summit on November 5-6, hosted by a remarkable team of local believers in Hershey, PA passionate for Christ and orphans.  With a first-rate lineup of speakers, the conference promises to be a rich and inspiring event.

But here’s another facet that’s particularly encouraging:  until recently, the Christian orphan movement was much less visible in the Northeast than, for example, in the South or Midwest.  I believe that’s starting to change, and this conference will be both a visible indication and a special catalyst of that expansion.

My prayer is that this conference will not only inspire and equip believers across the region for orphan ministry, but also bring together many men and women who’ve long been serving faithfully despite feeling a bit isolated in their mission.  The truth is, they are part of a much bigger, deeper, richer movement than they may have dreamed.  The Mid-Atlantic Orphan Summit stands to be just what’s needed to give orphan advocates across the northeast and beyond a fuller sense of the countless passionate co-laborers they have in their work.

What struck me most, though, is how the family is responding to God’s call to care for the orphan: together.  In the family office, pictures of individual children they’ve sponsored around the world are spread across a map, prayed for most every day.   The family is looking seriously at adopting, too—something all the kids are cheering on.  Following Summit, Eric presented to the elder board about creating a new foster and adoption ministry in the church, a project all of them will be involved with as it grows.

Perhaps best of all, later this month the family will be hosting its fourth annual Riverbend Ranch Charity Carnival to raise money for orphan care.   The kids were nearly breathless as they described their plans for the carnival, their respective roles in it, and how they love working together as a team to make it happen.   From pony rides, a 24-foot slide and a dunk tank to enviable raffle prizes and mouth-watering foods, this is going to be one heck of a good time, with every penny made going to help orphan ministry.  And each Kjeldgaard kid plays an indispensible role.

What’s the fruit?  Certainly, many orphans’ lives have been impacted by the Kjeldgaards, and many more will be over years to come.  But I also see such fruit in the Kjeldgaard family as well:  spiritual maturity, compassion, real joy, a sense of family mission.

A short blog post by one of the two outnumbered Kjeldgaard girls, Kate, after our visit captured the spirit I sensed in all the kids.  (You can see it here.)   Kate’s words and her presence reflect the kind of heart I pray God will help Rachel and me cultivate in our children as they grow:  passionate for Jesus Christ and lit up by Him in love for others.   I suspect that one of the best ways to do just that is to make orphan ministry a family affair like the Kjeldgaards have done.

The conference promises to be rich in reflection, as well as practical knowledge, for Christian action.  As always, Together for Adoption will weld together unswerving commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the biblical call to care for the fatherless.   See here to register!

In 374 AD, the Christian emperor Valentinian banned the practice. But for centuries prior, a marginalized group gained a reputation for rescuing these children: Christians. The early church was known, even among many who despised it, as a people who defended the orphan. Believers went outside the city to find infants abandoned there, taking them in, and often raising them as their own. This witness was one powerful factor in the vibrant life and growth of Christianity in its first 300 years, and at other high points in history as well. It can be that way again…

Read the full article here.

The piece highlights the vast need, warning “the future of Ethiopia’s children is heading toward a crisis of epic proportion if measurable and immediate action is not taken.”  But alongside this vast need, the article emphasizes where hope lies as well:  not in big institutions, but in individual families and the local church.

The article describes a new project Bethany Christian Services is spearheading to care for orphans in-country.   Like many of the very best orphan care initiatives of Alliance member organizations, this one is centered in local churches.  As the article describes, “These are one-on-one relationships; essentially, the U.S. church provides the necessary financing for foster care and the Ethiopian partner inspires its members to help find families and develop loving, local communities. The two churches coordinate their efforts in a symbiotic fashion, working not only on adoption issues, but also any other missions projects that they wish.”

If this project proves successful, it will add one more vital model to the growing array of church-to-church partnerships that can be harnessed to address the global orphan crisis in a way that is both family-centered and saleable.   In my view, response centered in the local church provides not only the best, but also the only, real promise of solution to the needs of orphans worldwide.

As I’ve often seen firsthand, many orphanages in Russian and Eastern Europe do an entirely adequate job providing food, shelter, clothing, and other physical necessities.  What most fail to provide, however, is the very thing children need more than anything else:  consistent  love and nurture.

Sanghavi describes a Russian orphanage visited by a colleague:  “The problem wasn’t that the children were neglected: They were kept fastidiously clean and were well groomed and well fed. The problem was that they were bereft of normal human contact. “

As Sanghavi presents it, many Russian orphanages still reflect theories of care-giving championed by progressive psychologists in the 1920s, when some parenting books discouraged mothers from hugging children and the head of the American Psychological Association literally went so far as to recommend only one kiss per year.

Western theorists eventually woke to what most any parent knows by common sense:  that love and affection are vital to a child’s well being.  And so efforts to care for orphans in the West moved decisively away from orphanages in the 1950s and 60s.  Sanghavi notes, “By 1965, only 4 percent of American orphans remained in institutions.  But attachment theory did not influence child welfare programs in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc…. At the time of a 1998 Human Rights Watch report, hundreds of thousands of children were committed to orphanages in Russia, while only several hundred lived in family-size foster-care settings.”

Furthermore, as Sanghavi describes, “A culture of adoption has never taken off in Russia: Of an estimated 800,000 Russian orphans today, only about 15,000 are adopted each year, half of them by foreigners.”

Describing the dire consequences of leaving children in institutions, Sanghavi refers to a watershed 2007 study by Harvard professor Charles Nelson, working in Romania.  The study found that of 136 infants placed either in foster care or orphanages, children in foster care produced significantly higher IQ scores, and the younger the child at the time of placement, the bigger the difference.

“Institutional care is bad for kids,” the study’s author told Sanghavi. “The fact is that institutional care always does worse than family care.”

We appreciate the 700 Club’s decision to take this modest step to remove the commentary from news clip.   However, we would encourage further steps to more directly correct the troubling comments and convey the deeper truth that Mr. Robertson missed as he mused on the “risks” of adoption.   Five core truths need to come through loud and clear:

1)       Many orphans do indeed carry deep wounds and real needs—emotional, physical, relational and spiritual.  Any Christian contemplating adoption, foster care or other ministry to children from hard places should do so with a full sense of both the joys and the challenges that may lie ahead.  We must “count the cost”—not just theoretically, but via serious reading, study and discussion.

2)      The potential difficulty of caring for orphans, does not diminish God’s heart for the child that has no family, nor His call to His people to join Him in the sacrifice-requiring work of “defending the  cause of the fatherless.”

3)      What every child most needs is a loving, permanent family.   Certainly, Christians should be at the forefront of every form of caring for orphans, and sometimes the vast expanse of need may call for larger-scale, institutional response, even orphanages.  But to the fullest extent possible, the priority should always be to move toward the most family-like setting that can be achieved—the permanence of loving adoption whenever possible.

4)      If God’s best for children is a loving family, then Christians must be willing to be that family.  We must be challenged to confront the fears and take the “risks” associated with adoption.  Certainly, not everyone is called to adopt, but we all have a role to play in supporting, encouraging and enabling it.

5)      Finally, after we have weighed the costs, we can also know that God offers unparalleled blessings along the road of adoption.  This is a discipleship journey; it will not leave us the same, thank God.   Each adoption experience is different, of course, but, speaking for myself and countless others I know, this is what I’ve seen:  alongside real difficulties, adoption brings some of the deepest joys life has to offer.

Many orphan advocates likely will wince as they hear Robertson express sentiments like, “It [adoption] can be a blessing, if you get the right child.”  The troubling statements, however, offer a striking reminder of three important realities.  First, that many people harbor deep and understandable fears about adoption that must be gently and honestly addressed.   Second, that even many Christians still hold the mistaken view that a successful adoption is primarily about building a family by finding the right child, rather than a decision born of both obedience and love–both of which spring from response to God’s loving adoption of us.  And third, that much has changed even in the past several years, as Christians have re-awoken to the biblical call to care for orphans in their distress–not merely by sending checks overseas, but by opening their hearts and homes.

Explicit in Robertson’s concerns is an important theme wise adoption advocates repeatedly sound as well:  “Count the cost.”  Yes, many adopted children come from very difficult places, and the journey to a full sense of belonging and permanent family often is rife with difficulty, sacrifice and even sorrow.  But this is only one piece of the story, and not the most important.

A segment of Robertson’s exchange with his co-host Terry Meeuwsen, who powerfully defends a truly Christ-hearted view of adoption, captures the issue well.

Robertson expresses serious concerns about adoption, warning of serious emotional, developmental and spiritual problems, and worrying, “If they’ve been brain damaged as a child, what’s going to happen?”

Meeuwsen affirms Robertsons’ fears, but then challenges: “…I think all children who’ve been through any kind of trauma certainly have emotional needs, for sure, and as you’re saying, spiritual needs.  On the other hand, I would say, ‘If not us, who?  Who sets those children free?  Who teaches the truth to them?  Who loves them to wholeness?  It ought to be Christians.”

Robertson:  “Well, I think it’s all real lovely but…”

Meeuwsen:  “Well, it’s not ‘real lovely.’  I mean I think that lady that talked at the end [Lisa Harding] said it all when she said, you know, ‘I have the privilege of being daily being delivered from my own selfishness, from my own irritations.’  And you are.  I’ve always said that if there’s a flaw in your marriage, in your family, in your character, it is all going to rise to the top.  But it’s a bigger picture and if you’re called for it, go for it with gusto!’”

Terry Meeuwsen would know; she is a mother of seven, five by adoption.

See the full story and commentary here:

The news report by Charlene Israel captured well the spirit of Summit VI and the passion for orphans and adoption that surrounds it.  (See here for a sampling of blog posts on Summit.)   Along with other elements, it provided great snapshots of several of the adoptive families that attended Summit, including the Reynolds (the remarkable family interviewed on stage at Summit) and the Twietmeyer’s (another unforgettable clan, and the founders of Project Hopeful).

The report builds around the story of Tague and Lisa Harding of Lakeville, MN.  The couple already had five children, the youngest ten, and had been anticipating the freedom of an empty nest.  But on a mission trip to Africa, a concern for orphans budded into a sense of calling to adoption.  A year and a half ago, they adopted two boys from Uganda, 3-year-old Phillip and 4-year-old Zachary.

Lisa Harding expresses what I’ve heard from so many adoptive parents in recent years:  that the desire God stirred in them to care for orphans has most definitely not reached its completion in the adoption.  Rather, they see adoption as one part of a life-long call to live out James 1:27.   Speaking of their plans to attend Summit, Lisa expressed, “I’m excited about refueling what’s already a passion in us because this is not a period at the end of a sentence now that Philip and Zachary are in our house. Now, it’s what’s next?”

Just as significant, Harding’s words at the end of the interview capture the power of God’s intent in adoption and orphan care.  It isn’t just about rescuing orphans; it is about rescuing self-absorbed Christian adults as well.  Caring for orphans is a journey of root-level discipleship, because love for orphans transforms.  As Lisa Harding concluded, “People have said, ‘Oh, aren’t they lucky, you rescued them from whatever.  And I think, Are you kidding?  I’m the lucky one.  I get to be their mom.  And I get to be daily rescued from my selfishness, and my impatience, and things that are just as disease-ridden in my soul.”

Controversy springs following the news report, however, as Pat Robertson adds personal commentary.  See more in the next post…

The full story is worth the read, but certain key points come through loud and clear, first among them the ache of realities so many children face:

When Jelani Freeman came home after school one day, his mother was gone. Eight years old, he waited, realizing as the hours passed that she would not be back. She was mentally ill and in need of treatment. His father was in prison. “I just knew that was it,” he recalled…. In foster care, he was first placed with a woman who barely talked to him. “Dinner is ready,” she would announce, without using his name.  His next foster family left him home when they went to the circus, the movies or Chuck E. Cheese’s…. He lived in one group home, then another. His final placement, for a year and a half, was with an older sister who took him on a foster-care basis, he said, and told him he would have to leave when he turned 18.

Where Jelani is today, however, is a tribute to the profound difference personal involvement from caring adults can make in the life of a foster youth.  Just this week, he graduated from law school.  (A quarter of former foster youth who aged out of the system like Jelani have no high school degree, and just 6 percent even acquire a 2-year AA degree).   The elements that Jelani believes were key for him are worth noting:

For Freeman, what’s made the difference has been a kind of makeshift family of those who have cared along the way. Some cooked him dinner. Some steered him toward opportunities. One couple paid for a year and a half of his law school tuition. Many gave him the kind of advice a parent might bestow.

Alongside the many smaller involvements, one woman played a particularly significant role as a mentor:

“There were so many things going on, I sort of didn’t care about school,” he says. But that began to change when he met Jackie Booker, a Xerox manager and mother of three who became his mentor in the 11th grade through a community program….After school, he worked in her office at Xerox, and a few times a month they went out: to church, the bowling alley, the mall. They talked a lot by phone….Said Booker: “He needed to know somebody was around who cared. He needed to know I was there and if he had problems, I was going to help him resolve those issues.”

Looking towards his Law School graduation, Jelani concluded about Booker and the many others who opened their lives to him:

“This didn’t magically happen,” he said. “People encouraged me. People supported me….”One person at a time, he has pieced together something akin to family, and as he prepares to cross the stage once more, he says, “that’s more important to me than the degree.”

The National Foster Care Prayer Vigil takes place each May through collaborative efforts of a number of Christian Alliance for Organization members.  The Vigil invites followers of Christ to gather in communities across the country during the week of May 16-23 to pray on behalf of children in foster care, as well as their families, their social workers, and the church as it responds to their needs.

A local prayer vigil can take on many forms, from a formal, church-wide event to an informal gathering with your family after dinner.  Ideas suggested by the organizers include doing it as:

• Part of a regular Bible study group in your home
• Part of a regular Community Group meeting
• Part of a Sunday School class
• A Prayer walk through your city
• A gathering of friends at a park, or the beach
• A lunchtime gathering with co-workers
• Or whatever and wherever you want it to be

If you’re ready to register an event, you can learn more here. You can also see the national map for a listing of vigils already scheduled.

The simple truth is that alongside the deep joys of adoption, significant challenges are part of the picture as well.   The toughest of these often center on difficulties faced in building a strong parent-child connection, especially when the adopted child comes from an institutional setting or has faced other trauma.

I’m thrilled that Dr. Purvis has teamed up with Michael and Amy Monroe (also very well-received presenters at Summit) to release the new “Created to Connect” study guide to help adoptive families on these issues.  As their website describes, this free(!) downloadable resource “is designed to help adoptive and foster parents better understand how to build strong and lasting connections with their children, and is ideal for use in small groups as well as by individuals or couples.”

What’s also tremendously heartening is to see how this new resource both confirms and will help enable the deepening of the Christian adoption and orphan care movement.  A few years ago, adoption advocates often fell into merely “cheerleading” for adoption, extolling its virtues while glossing over the more complex questions and potential challenges involved.  Today, I’m consistently seeing something much deeper:  affirming wholeheartedly both the beauty of adoption and the patience and sacrifices often required along the way.

This new study guide is a powerful tool that church adoption and foster care ministries can use to build from “adoption cheerleading” to a robust, church-wide vision that prepares families fully for adoption…and then serves and supports them along a life-long journey.

“To say that the conference was inspiring is putting it lightly! I came away with my cup of joy and hope absolutely overflowing and was (and am) eager to share all I’ve learned with anyone who asks…”  here

“I have never laughed, cried, and talked so much in my life. I loved every minute of it!”  here

“It is obvious that God orchestrated my attendance at the conference to provide fresh wind and fresh fire to our involvement in and passion for adoption and orphan care…. I am thrilled that God allowed me to identify a potential ministry partner in every area we are currently working (India, Uganda and Mexico). It will be exciting to see how these relationships grow over the next several months and how His kingdom is served.” Here

“…Full of highlights, full of insights, full of God.” Here

“… it’s clicking finally. Seriously, I think I just “became a Christian” this weekend. Or I am growing through sanctification. One of the two. As a result of starting to grasp this better, I was able to see more clearly how caring for the Orphan is much bigger than anything I had ever understood it to be…” here

“We just got back from the national Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit in Minneapolis. It was truly an amazing experience. To be with over 1000 people from 37 states who are as passionate about orphans as we are was an absolute treat.” here

“I guess my ramblings come down to this.  The conference was awesome…” here

“…a spectacular gathering of ministries and organizations and ordinary people to share what God is doing in response to James 1:27. The conference was overflowing with information…” here

“The conference was powerful – inspiring speakers, helpful breakout sessions and great conversations… I experienced something deeper than happiness. It was joy…”  here

“I can sum up my experience at the Summit in one word: AMAZING. I can also sum up my feelings after the Summit in one word: BLESSED. Okay, maybe two words: BLESSED AND HOPEFUL. Beyond that, I don’t even know where to begin.”  Here…

“It has really opened my eyes to the need of the orphans in the world.”  here

“It has been an incredible time! The praise and worship time, the fellowship with other adoptive families, and learning about practical ways any and every person can care for orphans worldwide has refreshed and encouraged us.”  Here

“Just a quick post to say that the Orphan Summit was wonderful! So much to learn.  My head was about to explode…”  here

“Wasn’t the entire Summit amazing though?! Loved it so much.”  here

“I can’t wait to share all of the amazing events that unfolded, and all of the things we learned while we were there…”  Here

“It was an amazing conference and one that I think every believer should go to. I would go every year if I could. It was a reminder of the heart of God for the world, orphans and making disciples who will love future generations to come. It was a refreshing challenge to walk by faith and serve the Lord in a way that I’m not used to being challenged.”  here

“… it was like drinking water through a fire hose! And I loved it!….”  here

I can’t wait to go to Summit [7] next year, I have already started saving for Brian and I to make the trip together to where every it is going to be.  The conference was awesome and it was a huge blessing to be able to share two days with people who are advocating for orphans locally and globally and are really, really passionate about Gods call to …care for the fatherless…  here

“an incredible conference of adoption and orphan advocates….men and women called by God to give a voice to orphans and help care for them physically, emotionally, and most important of all, introducing them to the saving love of Jesus.  Here

“…a very powerful place to be.” here

“We had such an amazing time at the Summit VI conference this week…This conference was the first official adoption event that we’ve done since we brought our sons home and I knew it would be good, but I didn’t expect to feel so very encouraged.” here

“This is our first Summit and we are so thankful we came!…we made significant connections with families and organizations around the country, as well as became educated in many new facets of adoption and orphan care.”  Here

“AMAZING…left not only fired up, but also feeling equipped to begin making a difference….It was truly one of the best weeks of our lives and even in the few days that we’ve been home, we’ve already seen the Lord working in mighty ways!  here.

I have been to many conferences in the past but have never experienced anything quite like being around 1000+ people with a passion and heart for orphans!  Here

The people I met — I would not have the opportunity to meet them anywhere else…all in one place.  here

Perhaps the most value gained from this conference was in witnessing how God is “infecting” His passion for the fatherless into the hearts of His people around the world. here

I was just incredibly impressed with the high caliber speakers they flew in to share their stories or positions on caring for the orphans all over the world. here

It is SO AMAZING!!!! It is just like this giant oasis for me right now. God brought this to me at the perfect time. I cannot tell you how good it feels to be in a room, praising God with 1500 people who all have a heart for Orphans. These people are as crazy as I am. I love it!!! here

Countless individuals have prayed for Summit for months, and we rejoice in prayers answered beyond what we could have asked or imagined.

But even more, we now pray that seeds sown and cultivated at Summit will grow to produce much good fruit over decades to come.  That relationships forged become lasting partnership, ideas born become concrete choices, passions stirred become faithful action.

For those impacted by Summit, I’d like to share a few of the thoughts I’ve been reminding myself of over the days since Summit, particularly as we ponder steps each of us may be called to take in response.

Don’t let a big vision keep you from a small obedience. It can be thrilling to catch the vision for a great undertaking, from building a new ministry to becoming a foster parent.  Yet it can also be paralyzing, especially as we consider all it would take to bring it to completion.  But that’s not God’s call to us today.  His call, most often, is to a little act of faithfulness today, a single step forward.  All that lies on the road beyond the present is God’s business.  Our responsibility is to the one action we can take today.

Be fervent in prayer. To draw near to an orphan is to draw near to God.  Whether via adoption, orphan ministry, or otherwise, we come—like Moses did—to stand on holy ground.  So we must always tread forward with deep reverence and supplication.  Equally important, if God cares deeply about this work, we ought to keep in mind that His enemy does as well.  As much as any aspect of life, this battle is not against flesh and blood.

Walk the road with others. Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs, and Paul never traveled alone.  If God is calling you to deeper ministry to the fatherless, I’m confident He wants you to engage it with co-laborers, mentors and other allies.  Seek these out, both in your church and community, and also as a member of the growing community of the Christian Alliance for Orphans.

Never lose connection to the one Source that’s good for the long journey. The world’s need is vast, and we have every reason to weep over it as Jesus did at the tomb of Lazarus.   But this alone will not sustain us for the distance, especially as we encounter disappointments and difficulty.  The world’s great need will always outstrip our enthusiasm to solve it.  The only wellspring that will never run dry is to draw always from the unfathomed love of our God, who pursued us, defends us, and calls us His own.  “We love because He first loved us.”

Join us at 7:30pm tonight to hear from Sergey Demidovich and John Piper.

Live-blogging by Dan Cruver (Director of Together for Adoption):

The article tags Summit as a key part of the Christian orphan movement, carrying a great quote from Dr. Russell Moore on the commitment of believers to adoption and orphan care:

“There’s more momentum than I’ve ever seen,” Moore said. “We are at the beginning stages of a wave of momentum not just toward adoption but orphan care of various kinds. The church is beginning to have its conscience awakened when it comes to the orphan crisis.”

The article pulls no punches in condemning unnecessary barriers to adoption:

The political and cultural barriers [erected by governments to make adoptions very difficult] stem from warped ideas about what is in a poor child’s best interest. It isn’t in the best interest of abandoned children to grow up destitute and barely literate, regardless of the imagined cultural benefit of remaining in their home country. Haiti itself is a vivid example of injustice. The government tolerates a modern form of child slavery by allowing 225,000 children ages 6-14 to work as restavecs (unpaid, indentured domestics).  Adoption, domestic or inter-country, should not be looked down upon as inferior at best or as a last resort.

If the article were to be extended, two small additions would be helpful.  First, given the natural inclination many people have towards seeing orphanages as the solution for kids that can’t be adopted, it’d be helpful to make clear that orphanages should be viewed most of the time as temporary, last-resort solutions.  Children need consistent, personal love and nurture that rarely can be provided in an institutions.   Solutions that are as close to a home environment as possible, ideally via adoption, are most often far preferable to an orphanage.

Second, given the confusion over orphan statistics, it’d be helpful to clarify that current estimates of the number of orphans in the world (whether the numbers the U.N. provides or the 210 million referenced by the article) include children that have lost only one parent.   Thus, the vast majority of these orphans—while often facing great difficulties and in need of help—are not in need of adoption.   Adoption, both in-country and inter-country, is vitally important in situations where children have no parent or relatives that can care for them.   But that portion of the overall orphan statistics is relatively small.  (For a fuller discussion of this topic, see here.)

Coming from a voice with the gravitas of Christianity Today, this article represents a very important affirmation of the Biblical call to “care for orphans in their distress”—via adoption as well as other means.

And do you have a friend who is still wondering if Summit VI is for them?  Share this with them..

The mother certainly merits the sharp criticism she’s earned, and, if we can find it, compassion and prayers as well.  She cleary lost grip on the reality of what adoption represents:  that is a permanent intertwining of lives, a sacred commitment.  Her choice was like that of a new mother imaging she could simply reverse motherhood by taking a crying newborn back to the hospital—just as, sadly, sometimes happens.

The story highlights a number of important issues.  A few of these are:

The vital importance of thorough understanding and preparation before adoption. Initial reports strongly suggest that the mother had no anticipation of the difficulty she might face in seeking to care for the 7-year-old boy.  Children who have spent many years in an institution often carry wounds that take time, sacrifice and much patience to heal.  The simple truth is that because every child so deeply needs the love and permanence of a family, years in institutional care are not without consequences.  This, of course, is precisely why adoption is to be far preferred to orphanages whenever possible, and why it’d be a tragedy multiplied by thousands if the Russian government allowed this exceptional case to halt international adoptions, as they are now threatening.

The need for community. Adoption should never be viewed as a “just-me-and-my-child” undertaking.  All parents, especially single ones, need the support, encouragement, advice and practical aid of others as they raise their children.  This is particularly true with adopted children coming from difficult backgrounds.  This is why the local church is key to a full vision for adoption.  Adoption should not be seen merely as a family wrapping around a hurting child, but as a community wrapping around a family wrapping around a child.  The best church adoption ministries never focus just on the process of getting a family to the point of adoption, but on the whole journey that will include many years of great joys and real challenges after the child has arrived.

The significance of motivations. Adoption should never be undertaken merely as a way to fill our own cavernous needs.  It’s always wise to avoid judging motives, but it does appear that the Tennessee mother was adopting in large part to fill an emptiness within her own life.  Of course, just as with marriages entered for such reasons, adoptions in which the child is primarily a means to personal fulfillment, comfort, or other self-focused reasons are bound for trouble. No other human being will ever fill the gaps in our own lives completely, especially those with profound needs of their own.  So, if we are not prepared to give much more than we receive—whether as parents or in marriage—we’re likely to “want out” before long.

There are real risks that this sad situation could derail other Russia-to-U.S. adoptions, and thus relegate thousands of adoptable orphans to life in institutions.  In light of this danger, our friends at JCICS have done a great job pulling together a concerted response to this situation.  They’re seeking to confront the serious wrong done to the 7-year-old Russian boy, while also working to send a clarion message to our friends in Russia that this situation does not reflect the reality the vast majority of adopted Russian children experience in the U.S.   If you have stories that can help them convey this message, I’d encourage you to join their “We are the Truth” initiative here.

By their mid-20s, less half of those who’d aged out of foster care were employed.  More than 80 percent of males had been arrested (compared to 17 percent of all males).  And of women who’d aged out of the foster system, 68 percent were on food stamps, compared to 7 percent of all women.

As the study’s lead researcher explains, ““We took them away from their parents on the assumption that we as a society would do a better job of raising them.  We’ve invested a lot money and time in their care, and by many measures they’re still doing very poorly.”   See the troubling chart from the NY Times on the statistical outcomes below, and to read more, click  here…

In the midst of this disturbing reminder, however, there’s reason for much hope.  As noted in prior blog posts here, Christians nationwide are rallying to this need.  In some regions of concentrated effort, it is entirely conceivable that we will see a day when virtually no children whose parental relationship has been terminated grow up without being adopted.  For example, as noted in this post from February and in today’s “Capitol Commentary” from the Center for Public Justice, the number of children waiting for adoption in the Colorado foster system has been slashed in half, from nearly 800 to 365, since November 2008 (despite a continual inflow of new children in need of adoption.)  The simple truth is that, daunting as the needs are, this is a challenge that can be overcome.  If just a small percentage of America’s 300,000 churches created small foster care and adoption ministries, the number of children waiting for adoption in the foster system could be reduced to virtually zero and the statistics highlighted below could be fundamentally transformed.  That’s a vision worth dreaming, praying, and working towards.

Chart of Stats on Foster Youth from NY Times

Adoptive families that are currently in process or have already applied for the Humanitarian Parole program by midnight on the 14^th will still be considered for humanitarian parole.  After the 14^th, all adoptions will need to go through the normal adoption process, including application for an I-600 visa.  Also of note, CIS has now resumed its normal adoption process as well, and has begun accepting applications for I-600 visas for children that would not have been eligible for the special Humanitarian parole.

See below for the official US CIS press release on this issue.

Special Humanitarian Parole Program for Haitian Orphan

Final Opportunity to Request Consideration

Introduction

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will stop accepting new requests for parole under the Special Humanitarian Parole Program for Haitian Orphans effective April 13, 2010, because the Haitian government has requested that the United States bring the program to a close.  While USCIS believes that the vast majority of requests for special parole have already been submitted, any remaining prospective adoptive parents or adoptive parents will have until April 14, 2010, to submit a request under the special program.

Background

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established the special parole policy and process as part of the overall U.S. government response to the January 12, earthquake.  The policy and process was designed to address the circumstances of a specific group of vulnerable Haitian children:

• those who either had full and final adoptions completed by United States citizen parents before the earthquake or,
• who were far enough along in the adoption process that both the governments of Haiti and the United States could verify the identity and eligibility of the children for adoption, and the United States government could confirm the suitability of the adoptive parents.

To date, more than 1,000 Haitian orphans have been approved for travel to the United States to join their adoptive families under this expedited process.  USCIS is in the process of considering several hundred more requests and anticipates that ultimately some 1,200 children will benefit from this program.

USCIS will process all requests for parole under the special program received at HaitianAdoptions@dhs.gov by April 14, 2010. USCIS is no longer accepting “walk-in” requests at the USCIS embassy in Port-au-Prince.

Initiating a Case

If initiating a case by sending an e-mail to the HaitianAdoptions@dhs.gov mailbox, please include in the subject line the last name of the prospective parent(s) and the name of the child to be adopted.

Please also provide the information below to help us process the case as expeditiously as possible:

• The name(s) and date(s) of birth of the adoptive parent(s);
• The name(s) and date(s) of birth of the orphaned child(ren);
• The address and contact information for the adoptive parent(s), the adoption service provider, if applicable, as well as the caregiver for the child(ren) in Haiti;
• A signed Form G-28 or privacy waiver if you wish USCIS to communicate about your humanitarian parole request with an attorney or other representative;

• A recent photo(s) of the child(ren); and,
• Documentation showing that the child was either:
  • Being adopted prior to January 12, 2010 and was legally confirmed as an orphan available for inter-country adoption by the government of Haiti through an adoption decree or custody grant to suitable U.S. citizen adoptive parents; or

• Identified by an adoption service provider or facilitator as eligible for inter-country adoption and matched to prospective American adoptive parents prior to January 12, 2010.

Please see the Fact Sheet on the Humanitarian Parole Policy for Certain Haitian Orphans for additional details on the evidence that supports a request for parole.  If you do not have all of the evidence necessary to establish eligibility for parole and are in the process of gathering that evidence, you may still submit a request to the e-mail box before the deadline, with an explanation of the evidence you are seeking to obtain.  You should also, at a minimum, provide the following information:

• Full name(s) and date(s) of birth of the Haitian child(ren);
• Full name(s) and date(s) of birth of the U.S. prospective adoptive parents;
• Contact information for the prospective adoptive parent(s).

-USCIS-

This new post on the Tapestry blog provides both a chance to take stock of what’s transpired in five years, and also words of hard-earned wisdom for churches and individuals new to adoption, foster and global orphan ministry.

One of the breakouts at Summit VI will also explore this issue, taught by Laura Lederer, who formerly helped lead efforts at the U.S. State Department to combat human trafficking and now helps lead Alliance member Global Centurions.   In addition, an interactive, hands-on experience created by iEmpathize will help Summit attendees understand the issue as well.   For individuals committed to “defending the cause of the fatherless,” issues surrounding human trafficking can’t be overlooked.

The need is great, the call is clear

Presently, more than 130 million orphans are estimated to be in the world. “Scripture is very clear that if we desire to reflect God’s heart in the world, one of the key ways that works itself out is in loving service to orphans,” said Jedd Medefind, president of the Christian Alliance for Orphans. The Alliance is a cohort that “works to ignite and equip individuals and churches for effective, Christ-honoring service to orphans,” according to its Web site.

“What’s also tremendously significant is when Christians choose to love orphans, they are mirroring the love of our Heavenly Father who loved us when we were wayward and alone,” he added.

Orphans’ physical needs such as food, water and shelter can be met on a mass scale through governments and big organizations.
“But it takes loving individuals to meet the deeper needs of a child without [one or both] parents,” Medefind explained.

This is where the local church comes into play as the essential instrument for effective orphan care.  “The local church empowered to care for its community is God’s vision for meeting human need,” Medefind said.  Therefore, he concludes that local Christians rooted in the local community are usually the ones most capable of providing long-term care.

Specifically, American churches play a powerful role in carrying out this vision. Domestically, the alliance is seeking to equip American churches for all forms of orphan care, including local foster care, adoption ministry and global orphan care partnerships. As a result, American churches will then have the resources and expertise to come alongside indigenous churches and teach them how to care for orphans in their own communities.

For example, the alliance is a part of a combined initiative called HORT (Haiti Orphan Relief Team), which is working “to identify, train and resource Haitian churches to be the direct rescue and care mechanism for Haiti’s hundreds of thousands of orphans,” according to  http://haitiorphanreliefteam.blogspot.com.  As part of the effort, U.S. churches are being recruited by HORT to partner with Haitian churches to strengthen orphan care in their immediate communities.

However, Medefind says that both adoption and in-country care are vital parts of the solution to a growing need.   But as the need grows, Medefind said there is a single statistic that matters more than any other: “It only takes one caring individual to make a lifelong difference for an orphan.”

Yet, orphans aren’t the only ones changed through this type of ministry. Orphan care ministry is also transformative in the life of the church.

“I’ve come to realize that discipleship and caring for people in need are not separate goals, but both are deeply intertwined with a Gospel-centered life,” Medefind explained. “We shouldn’t see evangelism and discipleship in contrast to orphan ministry.
They are integrally related. … If we’re truly seeking to live as apprentices of Jesus, we’ll continually be focused on both the spiritual and physical needs of our neighbor, just as Jesus was.”

ENGAGE

▶ Talk to your church leaders about involving your church in the HORT initiative.
▶ Stay up to date with the latest trends and information in orphan care by signing up for the Alliance’s monthly newsletter at www.christian-alliance-for-orphans.org.
▶ Attend Summit VI – Establishing and growing church-centered orphan ministry is the focal point of Summit VI, to be held April 29-30 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The annual two-day conference is a growing effort of the Christian Alliance for Orphans. It is designed to inspire and equip Christians for effective orphan ministry, which encompasses adoption, foster care and global orphan care.

Attendees will hear from some of the national champions of orphan care including John Piper, Tom Davis, Al Mohler and Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman, among others. There will also be more than 50 workshops providing the nuts and bolts for church-based orphan ministry.

Summit VI is open to anyone interested in defending the cause of the fatherless. The conference will offer practical knowledge and allow attendees to build relationships and partnerships while gaining an understanding of where God is leading the church in terms of orphan care.

For more information and to register, visit www.christian-alliance-for-
orphans.org/summit/. For questions, send an e-mail to info@christian
alliancefororphans.org or write to Christian Alliance for Orphans, 6723 Whittier Ave., McLean, Virginia 22101.

The article explains:

In Islam, the concept of child adoption does not exist. Islamic Law does not permit an orphan to take the family name of a non-biological parent. “They should be named after their fathers,” said Al-Azhar University scholar Abdel Mouti Bayoumi.

Foster parents can support the child financially and raise him or her in their home, but, in Egypt, there is nothing called adoption, which is forbidden by both civil and Islamic law–so fostering remains the only option.

Because Islam sets stringent rules governing relationships between males and females, foster parents may not keep an orphan in their home beyond puberty. “Religious rules are such that the mother of an adopted boy or the father of an adopted girl must ask the child to leave the house when they reach puberty,” Sheikh Gamal Qutb, former head of Al-Azhar University’s fatwa committee, told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The article notes that, under Islamic law, some foster families are able to keep children beyond puberty if the foster mother was able to nurse the child before it reached the age of two.  Even in such circumstances, however, the child can never become a true member of the family.

“It is a world that considers him of a lower category,” said Iman Shalaby, chairperson of an orphanage in Maadi. “This world lacks a system that eases their integration into society. As a result, the adjustment to life outside isn’t always smooth.”

…For example, when a boy grows up and wants to get married, the family of the bride will inevitably inquire about his parents and family, and the fact that he is an orphan–lacking a known lineage–could end up being a deal breaker. As a result, orphans often marry each other, Shalaby told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

“Orphans in this society require shelter, respect and secrecy of their origin,” she said.

Click here to read the full article…

Child sponsorship programs have the advantage of helping personalize the needs of children overseas by pairing individual American sponsors with specific children.  This approach can be a tremendous way to help connect Americans to a real-world sense of the needs and preciousness of individual children and the joy of helping meet them, sometimes opening a door for long-term relationship as well.  However, sponsorship programs sometimes have the shortcoming of being disconnected from the local church:  making a sponsor-to-child connection while leaving out any element of church community on either the U.S. or the local side.  (Certainly, not all sponsorship models have this weakness, but some do.)

Beau Fournet is a businessman in the finance sector and also helps lead orphan ministry at Watermark.  (He’s also a member of the Christian Alliance for Orphans’ Church Orphan Ministry Council as well, and will be leading a panel at Summit VI on partnering U.S. churches with indigenous initiatives to serve orphans overseas.)  Along with others at Watermark, Beau helped develop a child sponsorship model that works through their church community—pairing both individuals and the church community as a whole with local believers and churches in Africa to aid orphans.

Watermark began a partnership with its key partner ALARM (a ministry in Central Africa) in 2006 with an initial focus on equipping church and government leaders to pursue a biblical approach to leadership and conflict resolution.  Early in the process, it became clear to Watermark’s leadership that a more holistic approach was required to respond more fully to the call of Scripture.  This began an expansion of the ministry, first in Uganda and now in Burundi, to include providing clean water, addressing structural aspects on injustice, comforting the sexually traumatized, developing small businesses and basic education programs for widows, and caring for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC).

Two years into the program, Watermark and ALARM are partnering to care for 600 OVC children in Uganda.  The program provides school tuition, supplies, and uniforms for every sponsored child.  In addition, other basic minimum needs are addressed where appropriate; for instance, homes are built for child-headed households, medication is provided for HIV-positive children, and food supplements are provided for malnourished children.  A key partner in the ministry is local churches.

In addition to local churches assisting in the identification of those children most in need, mentors are identified at local church partners and then hired and equipped to disciple the children and address other needs of families in the program.  For instance, mentors train the older children to resolve conflict biblically, share the gospel with children and their families (many do not come from Christian homes), and work with the children to identify any trauma that needs to be addressed.  The program has hired 28 mentors to disciple the children, and each child is visited multiple times per month, through school, church, and the home.  In addition, there are a handful of events each year that bring all of the children in each town together, such as VBS type program, holiday parties, and education classes.

Watermark and ALARM are jointly developing a number of new training classes and programs to send Watermark leaders to Africa to teach and encourage the four key constituents of the program: the children, the mentors, the custodians/parents, and the local church leadership.

The OVC care will continue to be integrated with and rely upon other aspects of the ministry.  For instance, providing water wells in communities frees up the time a child previously spent walking hours per day to attain clean water, and this is as important and tuition funds in allowing a young girl to begin attending school for the first time.  In addition, the trade school recently built by Watermark and ALARM will provide the children graduating from high school an opportunity to further their education.

So how does this personally impact individual members at Watermark?  In the early stages, the program was fully funded through the general operating funds of the church.  However, in early 2009, the church leadership identified an opportunity to allow each child to be individually sponsored by a member at Watermark, proving an ongoing experience that would directly impact 500 families at the church through the use of their time, talents, and treasures.  This led to the launch of a new orphan sponsorship site, http://watermarkworldwide.com/ where members are now sponsoring and praying for individual children in the program.  Click here to watch a video about the program.

This model may not work for every church, but it is yet another great example of creative, entrepreneurial approaches to helping American believers care for orphans in their distress in and through the local church.

Some of the factors behind these changes are positive, including apparent increases in domestic adoption rates and a relaxing of China’s infamous “one child” policy, which prompted many boy-seeking parents to abandon newborn girls.  Such developments can be celebrated.  But it is also believed that the Chinese government may be intentionally increasing wait times and limited adoptions of non-special needs children, in part to diminish the impression that China has an “orphan crisis.”   To the extent that such policies essentially relegate healthy children to life in an institution, they are tragic.  Even so, there’s every reason to rejoice that many American families are rising to this new challenge.   Adopting a child with special needs should never be done lightly or without serious deliberation.  But for families prepared to do so, such adoptions mirror God’s love like almost nothing else in the world.

In such moments, I experience deep ache, sorrow…as well as gratitude that God has finally pierced my often-calloused heart enough to get me to feel at least a small bit of what so many children live with every day.

But there’s a danger in such moments….

Catch the full guest blog from Jedd Medefind on “The Danger of Caring for Orphans” and also a new contest promoting Summit VI on the blog of Tom Davis, a keynote speaker at Summit VI.

Started by businessman Rocky Gill (yes, a true entrepreneur in both ministry and the corporate world), Hope for 100 launched in January 2009.  Its ultimate goal was clear:  to help one hundred children find permanent, loving homes through families in Green Acres Bible Church.  Today, the goal is within reach, with 93 children having joined families over the past 15 months or soon to be placed.

Hope for 100 includes five primary elements:

• Raising awareness of the plight of the fatherless.
• Issuing a specific challenge to the Church to care for a targeted number of orphans.
• Beginning to match interested families with families who have already answered the call to be foster or adoptive families to give guidance and encouragement.
• Providing an array of opportunities to care for orphans through an Ongoing Orphan Care Ministry.
• Helping provide the necessary funds to families seeking to adopt.

The vision for Hope for 100 doesn’t stop with Green Acres.  Rocky has teamed up with Alliance member organization, the ABBA Fund, to help other churches start their own versions of Hope for 100.  This includes the option of creating ABBA Fund “adoption support funds” that provide financial support from a local church community to adoptive families.  (The ABBA fund charges nothing to churches for this service.)

You can learn a bit more about Hope for 100 at their website, including video of an impactful sermon given by Green Acre’s Pastor, Dr. David Dykes, challenging their church community to reflect God’s heart for the orphan.

TOWERS: If you were a pastor in a church wanting to promote an orphan care culture, what things would you do and say?

MEDEFIND: You can always begin with Scripture because God’s heart for orphans is so clear. That should be the wellspring of orphan ministry, and all ministry, as we expose people in the church to the fact that caring for orphans in their distress is a central part of following Christ.

Second, an orphan care culture becomes particularly powerful when pastors are modeling it. When a church sees a pastor that has adopted kids or is somehow involved with the foster system or in other ways is caring for orphans, then it is just natural for people to begin modeling that.

A third thing I would emphasize is the importance of focusing not just on process, but on the journey. The process is the paperwork, the finances and the preparation to adopt. That is very, very important. However, the journey of a life with a child— everything prior to the adoption, in the adoption and for decades afterwards — is part of what adoption means and the church has a role in all of that. The church especially has a role in ministering to adoptive families after they adopt, supporting them through difficult times: everything with help with childcare to counseling if there are very difficult issues. So, I would argue that a full adoption culture includes support not just of process, but of community wrapping around the adoptive family to love them through all the ups, downs, joys and challenges of adoption….

Read More in Towers Magazine (the final page).

To encourage and support adoption, the adoption tax credit was expanded by President Bush and Congress in 2001.  This increased the value of the credit from $5,000 to $10,000, and indexed it for inflation (meaning the credit would increase each year to keep up with inflation.)  For 2010, its value had risen to $12,170.  However, the 2001 increase was scheduled to “sunset” at the end of 2010.  This would mean that any adoptions finalized after December 31, 2010 would be eligible for—at most—a credit of only $5,000.

This sunset has now been extended one year.  That means that it will need to be extended again before the end of 2011.  For the present, however, this extension comes as very welcome news for families considering adoption or in the adoption process.

Specifically, the provisions contained in the health care bill include:

• The current adoption tax credit has been extended until the end of 2011;
• The value of the adoption tax credit has been increased from $12,170 to $13,170.
• The increase is “retroactive,” meaning that any adoption occurring after January 1, 2010 is eligible for this higher credit.
• The credit is now refundable.   This means that even families that owe zero taxes can receive the full tax credit in the form of a tax refund to help with their adoption-related expenses.

To read the legalese in the bill itself, see page 903 of 906 here.

The article relates that no children from the Brantwood Children’s Home in Montgomery, AL have been adopted in the past 4 years.  This is a tragedy.  But alongside this tragedy is hope that the CBS news crew may know nothing about.  In communities across the country, from Florida to Kentucky to Texas to Arkansas to Colorado, Christians are opening their homes as never before to welcome in foster children—via both foster care and adoption.   All of these church-centered efforts, led by members of the Christian Alliance for Orphans, will be highlighted at Summit VI…and the vision will continue to spread.

The needs—both across the sea and close to home—are tremendous.  The good news is that the Church is rising to respond!

In what may be a surprise to some, the article is explicit about the driving force behind this amazing success:  Christians across the state who’ve opened their homes to kids who’d been growing up in the foster system.  The article highlights the tremendous work of Focus on the Family’s “Wait No More” campaign, which has worked with hundreds of churches to rally thousands of Christians to consider adoption from the foster system.  Other Alliance members, from  Project 1.27 to Bethany Christian Services, have played a key role in this success as well.  (Each of these groups will be sharing about their work, and how to replicate it, at Summit VI.)

Imagine if the Church in America could be known as the people who help find a permanent home for every last child in the U.S. foster system.  Colorado proves this is not as impossible as some might think…

From Paul Myhill’s blog:

“I need to tell you something,” the teary-eyed girl said to Campus Crusade’s country director for Haiti, Esperandieu Pierre, during his recent visit to one of the tented camps near a hospital in Port-au-Prince.

The nine year-old orphan had been raped by multiple men.

After taking her to the hospital, Esperandieu was told by the nurse that the rape of a child, especially an orphan, is now a “common event” that she sees daily…

On the same day as this post, an article in the Wall Street Journal began:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—In the aftermath of the earthquake, scores of unaccompanied Haitian children are living in fetid tent camps here. A few miles away, Dixie Bickel, an American nurse, is having trouble filling dozens of empty beds at her tidy orphanage.

Haiti’s welfare agency stopped sending kids there on the advice of the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, Ms. Bickel says. The UN agency worries that many children have been temporarily displaced by the quake. Putting them in orphanages like Ms. Bickel’s could lead to adoptions overseas that separate them from family here …

What Can We Conclude?

The simple truth is that commitment to family reunification and other in-country efforts to care for orphans should not be viewed as contradictory to viewing inter-country adoption as the very best option for some children.  The tension between the two needs to be shown for what it is:  a false dichotomy.

Certainly, if there is a reasonable chance that a child could be reunited to with living parents, that option should be the first priority.   No child should be taken out of a country in the immediate aftermath of disaster, unless he or she was known to be an orphan before the disaster struck.  I have little doubt that Dixie Bickel shares this perspective as well.

In reality, however, the pretext of protecting children from human trafficking or other evils is actually locking them into situations that are tremendously unsafe.   It is time for the U.N. to stop presenting inter-country adoption and reunification as mutually exclusive activities.

Reunification efforts should be aggressive and thorough.  Meanwhile, efforts can also be initiated that will identify those children that truly have no options for being raised in a family locally.  Such children should not be relegated to life on the streets or in an orphanage simply because many—including myself—hope that someday there will be much better options for in-country care than now exist.  We should pursue that future doggedly.  But until every child can be part of a family in Haiti, we cannot allow pursuit of this dream to force a generation to grow up without one.

“Police briefly detained the women [who’d been accompanying the children] and the orphans — ages 1-5 — spent three nights sleeping on the ground in a tent city.”

Notably, this is a situation in which the Haitian government, the U.S. government and the U.N. were all aware and involved.  Most orphans, of course, can hope for far less “accommodation.”

This story highlights vividly what is very often the real world alternative to inter-country adoption.  Adoption advocates should certainly put robust energy into backing a full array of in-country supports for orphans.  But individuals who support these efforts to the exclusion of adoption should keep in mind what it means to children to make them wait for years for far-off reforms:  sleeping on the ground in a tent city…and often much worse.

However, several addition observations should also be made that the headlines seem to miss:

1) The children’s families sent them with the group voluntarily. As the Miami Herald described, “A reporter’s visit Saturday to the rubble-strewn Citron slum, where 13 of the children lived, led to their parents, all of whom said they turned their youngsters over to the missionary group voluntarily in hopes of getting them to safety.”  This doesn’t excuse errors made by the group, but it does set the matter in clearer context.

2) The primary issue wasn’t adoption. Prior to traveling to Haiti, the group expressed hope on their website that they’d eventually be able to enable adoptions from the orphanage they planned to build in the Dominican Republic.   However, there’s no indication the group intended to send children that still had living parents off to the U.S.  Nor would U.S. law have allowed them to do so without thorough documentation.  It appears this general portrayal—mostly by rumor and innuendo—was promoted by groups that wanted to associate adoption with amateurism or bad actors.

3) It’s unhelpful to equate this effort with human trafficking. Circumventing Haiti’s laws to get the children to care in the Dominican Republic was both wrong and unwise.  However, to equate these actions with “human trafficking”—one of the most vile crimes imaginable, often perpetrated with the goal of slavery or sexual exploitation—is very unhelpful.  It casts far worse light on the Baptist group and far better light on traffickers than is deserved.

4) This is certainly not the worst thing happening in Haiti. Right now, children are experience untold evil within Haiti, from amputations and severe hunger to household slavery and worse.  Even the U.N. has affirmed that it is “failing to adequately manage the relief effort.”  This isn’t necessarily an indictment of the U.N.  It’s just that responding to disaster, especially in the developing world, is always going to be difficult and messy.   

5) Broad misunderstanding of the term orphan. The NY Times article on the issue began with the words, “There is not one orphan among the 33 children that a U.S. Baptist group tried to take from Haiti…”  The U.N. definition of orphan, however, includes children that have lost one or both parents.  Thus, while the children did have living relatives, many of them were—by U.N. definition—orphans.  This isn’t a particularly important point, aside from the fact that the decision by the U.N. to use this definition of an orphan for all of its official statistics has created widespread misunderstanding.

I am struggling to find a balance to educate people.  Some things seem too awful to put in writing.  In the rural areas, there are still MANY bodies visible in unreachable places in the rubble.  Like many third world countries, Haiti has lots of dogs and they are feeding on the carcasses.  Children are seeing this.  One person with me says 80 countries and several war zones have not prepared him for what we are seeing.  Most of the public schools were shoddy government construction and hundreds of children died in them but I have not seen this reported. We have seen heavy equipment digging where schools were and bodies of children remained.. One man told us the villagers already went thru the rubble searching for their children, but they found “mostly parts not bodies.”  We all have photos and stories like this but not sure how to share. Please pray about this…we need discernment.  Most of the media have stayed in Port au Prince downtown..  The world has not seen the full reality and may never now that we have Tiger Woods and the Olympics.  This is only a 3 hour flight from the U.S and Americans can help in such big ways. This is way beyond 3rd world poverty…

All that being said, while I write this, the sun is setting and people are singing praise songs on the roof next door.  Another church near us has no roof but the people kneel there at 4:30 every morning on the concrete to pray and worship. The faith here is overwhelming.

Here is the start of the most recent post from Paul Myhill…

Things don’t have to be shattered to be deeply broken. During the night (Wednesday night), the rains came. The pastor’s house we’re staying in started to leak at multiple points, including waterfalls gushing into a bedroom and stairwell. From a distance the home looks fine but, up close, you see the cracks running deeply at the ceiling line throughout the whole structure. Under foot, the tiles shift and rock on the second level, evidence of a floor that had buckled just enough to separate ceramic facade from concrete plane. Sure, the house is fine under normal circumstances but, when tested by the storm, it gives way to penetrating outside forces….

You can read more here, but be warned that the details Paul describes are very strong.  If you haven’t taken steps to help Haiti yet–sharing financially, or praying or anything else–and definitely don’t intend to, it might be better for you not to read the rest.

Dr. Purvis has teamed up with our friends at Tapestry to produce a suite of tremendous new resources through what they are calling, “Empowered to Connect.”   They’ve recently added several new items to their growing online library, including two new topical videos featuring Dr. Purvis.   Click here to view Empowered To Connect video resources as well.

Whether for an adoptive parent, a supportive friend, or ministry leader seeking to support couples in their adoption journey, Empowered to Connect is one of the most important resources available in the adoption world today.

It’s thrilling to see the ways so many Christian Alliance for Orphan s’ organizations and churches joining their strengths in this initiative.   It is also tremendously encouraging to see the truly unselfish way in which World Orphans has worked to provide lead coordination to HORT, continually emphasizing not their brand name, but the broader coalition.

Current HORT organization partners are below—a list that will continue to expand over the months ahead as an extensive network of American and Haitian churches are paired in joint orphan care efforts:

• Together For Adoption
• Hope for Orphans, a ministry of FamilyLife
• World Orphans
• Sweet Sleep
• Orphan Lifeline
• Loving Shepherd Ministries
• Love Haiti
• Global Aid Network (GAiN), a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ
• Lifesong for Orphans
• Project 1.27
• Stop Child Trafficking Now (SCTNow)
• Orphans First
• University of North Carolina School of Public Health

One phrase—offered  to explain the perspective of those resistant to inter-county adoption within Haiti’s government—deserves a bit further attention.  Bond  describes, “Haiti has these restrictions [on inter-country adoption] to make sure they aren’t wiped clean of children by richer nations.”

This phrase, and the sentiment it describes, is worthy of much discussion.  The best place t start is with empathy and an effort to understand why some feel this way.  I dare say it would not be easy for many Americans if we realized that some of the children in our communities would do better with families overseas.

Still, two central facts directly counter the assumptions underlying the outlook Bond highlights.  First, even if inter-country adoptions from Haiti increased significantly, the impact upon the total number of children within Haiti would be entirely negligible.  While boosting adoptions could significant cut the percentage of children living on the streets or as “double orphans” in orphanages without any living relatives, Haiti would certainly not be left with a dearth of children.

More importantly, inter-country adoptions are certainly never about “wiping countries clean of children.”  Rather, adoptions—rightly carried out—are about erasing the reality of thousands of children growing up outside of a loving home, living on the streets or in institutions, waking each morning without the care of mother or father.  This is something we can all agree ought to be “wiped away.”

According to Rep. Hoekstra’s office, the HOPE Act addresses those Haitian orphans that were not covered by the DHS policy exemption by:

1. Having DHS create a “third category” to expand their humanitarian parole policy on a case-by-case basis for Haitian children who were legally confirmed as orphans eligible for intercountry adoption prior to the earthquake on January 12, 2010.
2. Providing that, if a suitable family is not found to provide care for a Haitian orphan, they are eligible for placement in the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program.

From the Chalmers Center:

The webinars are scheduled for February 17th, February 24th, and March 3rd, from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (US).  They will be presented by Steve Corbett and Dr. Brian Fikkert, authors of “When Helping Hurts:  How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself,” a paradigm-shifting book about the causes and solutions to the problem of poverty. The book is in its fifth printing since it was published in July 2009 (www.whenhelpinghurts.org).

This webinar series is intended for all those responding to the needs of the Haitian people, including churches, missions boards, missionaries, ministries, Christian relief and development organizations, NGOs, individuals, volunteers, donors, and short-term missions teams. The webinars will help participants:

1. Gain an understanding of the harm that can come from an improper understanding of the nature of poverty and its alleviation.
2. Identify the basic principles and tools needed to develop relationships with low income individuals.
3. Be able to implement biblically-based economic development ministry programs.

The principles taught in the webinars are not a magic formula for success. However, they are powerful, and they have been used by God in even extremely difficult settings (including in the tsunami of 2004 as described in the book).

Registration

There is no charge for the webinars. However, to join a live webinar session, you must register. Register Now »

If you cannot join a live webinar, a download link of the recorded webinar will be posted on the webinar registration page within two business days following the date of the live webinar session.

Nearly four weeks after the earthquake, Port-au-Prince remains a place defined by ruin, smoke, dust, stink, chaos, hunger, tears. But the most telling measure of the escalating despair afflicting Haiti comes in three stark words: Take my child.

Herald reporter Kathleen McGrory walks into a sprawling, filthy, stinking survivor camp this past week, not far from the Port-au-Prince airport. In a place where hope has been reduced to a desiccated memory, the sight of a American woman provokes unfathomable requests.

“Take my child away. Take my child to America.” Not the words of one or two parents. Kat’s besieged by a tragic chorus. At first, about 10. “Then I was swamped. Suddenly, there were 40 or 50 people.”

They said: “You’d like my baby.”

“My girl would make a great daughter. She is very obedient.”

Across town. Same day. Another camp. Another place choking on its own filth, where the smell crawls across your flesh and into your hair like a rodent. Kat enters in pursuit of a story about parents begging orphanages to take their children. Instead, she encounters more parents begging her to take their child away from Haiti. “My little boy doesn’t get in trouble,” a father tells Kat. “He works hard.”…

At the same time, this situation has also taken far more media attention than it should.  One would almost imagine that the other several hundred thousand orphans and vulnerable children in Haiti are all doing well…and will be just fine as long as they can be protected from misguided American philanthropy.

Of course, this is not the case.  The need remains crushing.   As I’ve heard through people on the ground in Haiti,even those children that have been rounded up into the large U.N. camps designed to keep unaccompanied minors safe and begin the reunification process remain highly vulnerable–perhaps especially so, since, according to local observers, the sites teeming with hundreds and even thousands of children often have no guards at night.

That said, the Idaho group remains a matter of serious discussion.  So, it’s worth at least contemplating the thoughtful argument put forward in the following blog post.  It highlights especially the complexity of human need and the tangled familial relations many orphans experience.

Dan Cruver: God’s given the church the responsibility to care for orphans. Orphan care is in the church’s DNA. Sometimes it’s dormant.  But over the past 4-5 years God’s been awakening that portion of the church’s DNA. It’s a bona-fide movement now.  The Haiti Orphan Relief Team (HORT) is evidence of this movement. What Haiti & its orphans need most is the church. HORT’s purpose is to connect U.S. churches with Haitian churches, to come alongside them for the sake of Haiti’s orphans…

Jedd Medefind: How does this fit with your Church-Centered Haitian Orphan Care Initiative?

Dan Cruver: Our objective is to mobilize U.S. churches by the gospel to be the Haitian church’s hands/feet to care for its orphans.  We’re seeking to do this in two ways.  (1) writing blog posts that help Christians look at Haiti’s orphan crisis through a gospel lens. Ex: http://bit.ly/czmLUm.  (2) by harnessing our sphere of influence to connect churches with tangible & long-term ways to care for Haiti’s orphans.  What I love about HORT is that it’s centered on the gospel & provides tangible, long-term ways to care for Haiti’s orphans.

Jedd Medefind: What kind of response are you seeing?

Dan Cruver: Many churches across denominational lines have contacted us. Most encouraging is the number of pastors that have inquired.  But initial response must turn into long-term engagement. The gospel is the power to do this & HORT serves as a mechanism.  HORT provides gospel-driven churches with the opportunity to connect with Haiti’s churches in tangible, long-term ways.

Jedd Medefind: So many Christians are ready to open their hearts and homes to meet the great need.  What is your primary advice for Christians who want to help?

Dan Cruver: There are two critically important ways for Christians to help Haiti’s orphans right now. Pray and give…  Pray: God is a helper and father to the fatherless. So praying to Him about Haiti’s orphans is essential, critical.  Give: In his providence, God’s already put reputable relief organizations on the ground in Haiti. Regularly give to them.  Lord willing, HORT will provide opportunities for substantial, long-term engagement with Haiti.

Jedd Medefind: You’ve recently written about needing “Gospel patience” when considering adopting from Haiti.  What do you mean?

Dan Cruver: Adoption’s A PIECE of the solution to Haiti’s orphan crisis. But it likely won’t be in play any time soon.  So, if families think God may be calling them to adopt from Haiti, it will require significant patience and endurance.  Only the gospel can produce the necessary patience and endurance. I explain what I mean here: http://bit.ly/8MA61O.

Jedd Medefind: We are looking forward to having you join us for #SummitVI in April.  What are you speaking on?

Dan Cruver: My breakout title for #SummitVI is “A Lifelong Love: Keeping the Gospel at the Center of Orphan Ministry”.  What we’ll do in my breakout is look at how the gospel creates and sustains orphan care ministry.  Without the gospel, the danger is that orphan care ministry will be a mere flash in the pan & not a permanent movement.  It’s through the gospel that God does his redemptive work. So, the gospel must be central to the orphan care movement.

Jedd Medefind: What would you say to folks who are trying to decide if #SummitVI is for them?

Dan Cruver: #SummitVI provides an unmatched opportunity to connect with & learn from those God has uniquely gifted in orphan ministry.  The orphan care movement is a gospel-movement, and #SummitVI will help you connect with others within the movement.

Visit Jedd Medefind and Dan Cruver on Twitter!

The Haiti Orphan Relief Team (HORT) is a collaborative effort of Alliance member organizations to do just this, with focus on partnering U.S. churches with Haitian churches to care for orphans.  Lead coordination is being provided by World Orphans, in partnership an array of Alliance members and a team of disaster response experts from the University of North Carolina.

An initial HORT on-the-ground team will deploy for a two week period beginning on February 14, 2010.  In addition to more immediate response & recovery efforts, the team will work to identify churches in Haiti that can be paired with U.S. churches for ongoing partnerships in caring for orphaned children.  Alliance organizations will also provide ongoing support and guidance to these church-to-church partnerships to ensure healthy, effective long-term partnership.

For individuals and churches interested in being part of this initiative, we invite you to:

1. Register for further information - If you have interest in the possibility of partnering your church with a Haitian church, enter your information on the “Awakened by Haiti” page and answer “yes” to question one.
2. Pray – Pray for the churches in Haiti the HORT team will be working with, and for the HORT team as they travel, serve and lay foundation for the long term initiative.
3. Support Financially – You can donate several ways – send a Valentine eCard or give a gift at www.haitiorphanrelief.org.
4. Advocate – Spread the word about HORT via its blog based information center, via HORT’s Facebook page, viaTwitter (@haitiorphan) or via e-mail. If you belong to a church, let your pastor know that HORT is looking for U.S. churches interested in partnering with the churches of Haiti.

Newswires buzzed recently with reports that a group of ten Americans from an Idaho-based Christian charity were arrested trying to transport 33 Haitian children into the Dominican Republic contrary to the rules of Haiti’s government. Although details are still emerging, the story thus far suggests a potent mingling of good intentions with ill-advised plans. Fellow Christians embarrassed by the incident should have the grace to withhold the abuse many observers are now piling on the group, but we can still take a strong lesson on the need to match zeal with knowledge in every effort to “care for orphans in their distress.”  More…

The Christian Science Monitor today includes further analysis of the efforts of ten Americans from an Idaho-based charity to bring 33 Haitian children out of the country.  The group was stopped at the border and arrested for seeking to remove the children without government approval.

As quoted in the Monitor article, the group’s goal was to “rescue Haitian orphans abandoned on the streets, makeshift hospitals or from collapsed orphanages in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, and bring them to New Life Children’s Refuge in Cabarete, Dominican Republic.”  This “Refuge” in the Dominican Republic, it appears was actually a temporary facility being operated out of a hotel, and the group planned to construct an orphanage and other facilities over time.

It is always important to avoid over-quick judgment as a story filters out piecemeal via media reports.  However, the emerging details seem to indicate a serious case of individuals charging in to do good with the best of intentions—yet lacking informed guidance and discernment regarding the best and wisest way to approach the situation.   It is no small tragedy that a single story like this one can become exhibit number one against countless other far more informed efforts to aid orphans, from volunteer-led service projects to international adoption.

Even so–and despite the very real harm their well-intentioned actions may cause over time–the American group, now incarcerated in Haiti, deserves our prayers that good will yet come to them and for orphans through it all.

Reuters is reporting that a group of ten Americans was stopped as they sought to cross the border from Haiti into the Dominican Republic with 33 Haitian children, ages 2 months to 10 years.   The Americans, who report being with New Life Children’s Refuge, a charity based in Idaho, were questioned and taken to a jail cell at Haiti’s Judicial Police Headquarters.  They apparently had no papers to prove they had cleared the children to leave the country.

Fears in Haiti are running high regarding the danger of human trafficking and other forms of exploitation of vulnerable children, so the un-authorized transport of these 33 children struck a nerve with Haitian authorities.

While it appears that the children were being taken to the Dominican Republic with the best of intentions, the incident will likely be used by those unfriendly toward international adoption as a reason to slow in-process adoptions and prevent future ones.

As the UPI reported this morning, the Haitian government has suspended flights of orphans out of Haiti.  This apparently includes flights of children previously approved to travel under the agreement between the U.S. and Haitian governments that allowed an expedited travel-approval process for children previously matched for adoption with American families.  According to the Miami Herald, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive says he has issued an order that children cannot be released for adoption without his personal approval.

However, on a call with U.S. government officials this morning, it was explained that this order is not a permanent change in policy.  Rather, it represents a precautionary measure taken following reports that some orphans had been illegally taken out of the country to the Dominican Republic and possibly elsewhere.  The halt in flights was ordered so that further assurances can be made that no child that has not been authorized for travel is taken out of the country.  U.S. officials believe that flights of orphans will resume by early next week if not before.

Also mentioned on the call—while firm statistics are not yet available—officials described the number of Haitian orphans who meet the standards for expedited processing (i.e. previously matched with a U.S. family) at “more than 500” with “several hundred” transported to the U.S. already  and “hundreds more” yet to travel.

Our friends Michael and Amy Monroe, who lead the Tapestry Adoption and Foster Care Ministry at Irving Bible Church, are always an excellent source of both information and discernment regarding adoption-related matters.  The email Tapestry sent today, pasted below, provides an insightful and appropriately-cautious overview of key issues regarding Haiti and adoption:

As the pictures from the devastation in Haiti continue to pour in, the reality of the long, slow road of recovery and rebuilding is becoming more apparent. But even in the midst of the tragedy, heartache and seeming hopelessness, God is clearly at work. Over the past days we have seen and heard inspiring stories of remarkable faith, hope and courage from Haiti. And the response from Christians across the U.S. – particularly toward the orphans and vulnerable children in Haiti – has been equally encouraging.

Understandably, the situation in Haiti has led many Christians to begin asking questions about international adoption, and specifically about adoption from Haiti. There have been countless news reports about the status and future of international adoptions from Haiti and, not surprisingly, no small amount of confusion has resulted.

In an effort to provide some reliable facts and some helpful next steps, we wanted to let you know what we have learned about the current adoption landscape in Haiti. In doing so we are only attempting to touch on the high points. As always, if you have questions or need more information please contact Tapestry at tapestry@irvingbible.org and we will be sure to follow up with you.

Some Basic Facts about International Adoption from Haiti

Prior to the earthquake there were (according to recent estimates) as many as 380,000 orphans in Haiti. Tragically, some have estimated that the number of orphans in Haiti may double or even triple as a result of the earthquake. Yet despite this staggering number of orphans only a little more than 300 Haitian children were adopted by U.S. families in 2009.  In addition, the average time to complete an international adoption from Haiti pre-earthquake was close to three years.

We could write a book about why this disparity between the number of orphans and the number of international placements exists, whether it is defensible (or not), why the wait time is so long, why the tension between adoption and humanitarian organizations exists and so on. But the reality is that international adoption was not adequate to address the needs of the vast majority of Haiti’s orphans pre-earthquake, and that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. As a result, we must all focus on the crucial importance of continuing to pray, give, advocate and serve – not just for the immediate needs in Haiti (which are many and urgent) but for the long-term. Along those lines, let us encourage you to continue to pray about how God would have you, your family and your church be involved to serve the ‘fatherless’.

Adoptions in Process Pre-Earthquake

The U.S. and Haitian governments have determined to “expedite” many of the adoptions that were already in process prior to the earthquake. This is being done via a process known as “humanitarian parole” and it relates to two categories of children whose adoptions were already in process pre-earthquake: (1) children who had been legally confirmed as orphans eligible for intercountry adoption by the Haitian government and (2) children who had been identified by an adoption service provider or facilitator as eligible for intercountry adoption and were matched to prospective U.S. adoptive parents. Certainly this is terrific news for the children and families affected and we rejoice with them.

Adoptions Post-Earthquake

We can make this real simple – as of now no new international adoption processes are being started for children in Haiti. As we noted earlier, one of the best and most reliable places to go for information on all international adoption programs (including Haiti) is the Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS). The JCICS webpage for Haiti indicates very clearly that new adoptions from Haiti by U.S. citizens are “closed.” While there does seem to be some discussion in the U.S. about streamlining the international adoption process for Americans wanting to adopt from Haiti (and possibly other countries as well), there is no clear indication as to whether or when that will happen.

How You Can Respond

The fact that Haiti is currently closed for new adoptions should not discourage you from taking the next step and getting involved. There are many different ways to serve orphans in Haiti and around the world, and we would be happy to discuss your options with you – so don’t hesitate to contact us.

If God has opened your eyes to the needs of the ‘fatherless’ and is calling you to adopt – even if you feel called to adopt specifically from Haiti – there is still much that you can do. Many people think that beginning the adoption process means that they must research information about agencies, gather the necessary financial resources, fill out applications and start waiting. Some people are even considering rushing out to obtain a generic home study.

These are all certainly ways you can get started, but let us encourage you to “get started” in a somewhat different fashion. By pouring yourself into the tangible steps listed below you will be “getting started” in a direction that will help you build a strong foundation for one day loving and serving a child in need – whether from Haiti, your own community or wherever God may lead you:

●  Pray – To some it may sound almost cliché, but the first step (and a continual part) of any adoption journey for those who are followers of Christ must be to pray. No matter where your journey leads you please continue to pray.

●  Examine – Your motivations and expectations matter when it comes to adoption, and yet many people spend far too little time examining themselves. Read this helpful article about the importance of continually examining your motivations and expectations.

●  Prepare – Children who are impacted by adoption and foster care have histories that can have profound impacts in a multitude of ways. These “children from hard places,” which certainly includes all of the orphans in Haiti, will need parents who not only have huge hearts and a deep well of compassion, they need parents who are informed, equipped and committed to building trust and helping their child heal. There are some great resources available to help parents understand these challenges and how to meet them. Some of the best resources can be found at Empowered to Connect.

Tapestry is committed to helping and serving families called to adoption and foster care in any way that we can. As the situation in Haiti continues to develop we will be sure to provide periodic updates on the Tapestry Blog.

In the meantime, please let us know how we can best serve you as you prayerfully consider how God would have you respond.

Individuals who want to how ordinary people can make a lasting difference for orphans—in Haiti or otherwise—may have no better opportunity than Summit VI in Minneapolis, MN on April 29-30, 2010.

More than fifty workshops will deliver practical know-how for building adoption, foster care and global orphan care ministry in local churches.   Keynotes will include nation champions of orphan care and adoption, such as John Piper, Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman, Tom Davis, and Al Mohler.  Compelling voices of the global church will join as well, from Africa and Eastern Europe to the First Lady of Guatemala City.

For those desiring to make their response to Haiti more than just a one-time gift, Summit VI will offer the tools for long-term response.  Click here to register.

On one side will be those emphasizing large-scale models of response to human need led by government and globe-spanning NGOs.  While affirming international adoption in theory (at least as a “last resort”), these groups often quietly work to make these adoptions as difficult and rare as possible.  On the other side of the issue will be smaller groups, agencies and advocates championing adoption and emphasizing the importance of a permanent home and family for the well-being of children.

An article in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune hints at this conflict over international adoption, which has, in fact, been simmering for years—mostly out of the public eye.

In this time of heart-rending pictures, potent emotion and unforgettable stories about newly-made orphans, those who wish to affirm the importance of adoption have a dual call.  We must stand for the conviction that every child needs a family.  At the same time, we should do all we can to avoid the sensationalism and reflexive responses that adoption critics rightly point to as highly problematic.  It’s important that we consistently affirm:

1)       Our first focus after disaster like Haiti’s earthquake needs to be on ensuring basic necessities of food, water, shelter, medical care and security for all those affected—not merely airlifting out a small percentage of those impacted.

2)      After basic needs are met, aggressive efforts should be rapidly engaged to reunite apparently orphaned with their parents or extended families.

3)      Only after this process has been completed should children be considered for adoption.  The search process should be as thorough as possible.  However, it is unacceptable to relegate countless orphans to institutional settings for years (the UN recommends at least 2 years) for this purpose.

4)      Finally, adoption advocates must affirm clearly that adoption will almost certainly never come close to meeting the needs of every orphan.  Thus, we must articulate and show by our actions that we are serious about finding the best, most nurturing and most permanent care possible for every orphan.  Emphasis should be placed on a continuum of options that place every child in the most permanent and nurturing environment available.  To the fullest extent possible, this should be with a family via adoption—in country if available, and international if not.  When adoption is not possible, permanent, family-like options should be consistently preferred to large, institutional settings.

Advocates for the adoption of orphans should do all they can to make common cause with others who care for orphans, even when they disagree on the best way to approach care.   At the same time, we have every reason to be bold and unequivocal in standing for the proposition that every child needs a family.

Martha Osborne at Rainbow Kids created a helpful synopsis of a call today hosted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), Department of State (DOS) and other government agencies on the situation in Haiti related to orphans and adoption.

A key excerpt:

During the meeting today, it became apparent that discussing the hundreds of thousands of orphans without ties to the US was not on the agenda. “We are still 2-3 weeks from processing the last child in our current categories” stated one DOS employee. For children on the ground in Haiti, the focus must be on creating safe-havens where they can receive shelter, clean water, and an environment free of fear.

For the full text of Osborne’s notes, click here.

Difililipo did a good job of affirming two equally important realities:

First, in the short run, the disaster response needs to be on meeting emergency needs locally, not shipping kids overseas.  Even as order is restored and first-wave needs are met, it is vital that full time and diligent effort be allowed to ensure that each apparent orphan truly has no extended family or other local homes willing to take them in.

Equally important, though, once a child has been clearly identified as an orphan and local home options exhausted, government and aid organizations should progress as rapidly as possible toward adoption—wherever that option may be available.

Some groups (see “Earthquake Appeal:  Do Not Adopt Earthquake Orphans”) are so vested in their model of humanitarian program, so passionate about the idea of preserving a child’s birth culture, and so resistant to the idea of international adoption  that they find an endless number of reasons to keep children in institutions and other non-family settings indefinitely.  We respect and value such organizations’ desire to care for orphans, but would respectfully disagree with this approach.  Certainly, there are times when group care is necessary.  But the simple truth is that the very best place for a child is a permanent, loving family.  When such homes are available, after extended family and local homes have been shown in a timely manner to not be options, children should be given the opportunity for a permanent home.

From the NPR Transcript:

Difilipo: …So we’ve learned those lessons over the past decade, so when things happen like the tsunami, just about every credible aid and relief organization, UNICEF, Save the Children, Joint Council and others, we all said the same thing. Let’s wait until we can determine that these children are true orphans. And then if they are, then aggressively use international adoption or other local solutions.

Certainly, we support local solutions before international adoption, but they should be used aggressively once you’ve determined the child is, in fact, an orphan. One of the problems with this that some have is the reunification efforts, reunifying the child with the parent is (unintelligible) can sometime take years. And we don’t support that either.

We’ve had instances where children go in the refugee camps. They live there 10 years. That’s not healthy for a kid. Two or three years is not healthy for a kid. There should be an aggressive move, very aggressive to get these kids reunited, so we can determine their status.

For interview link and full text, click here.