OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED

In the beginning, JD adamantly only wanted two children. I thought that four would be perfect. Once we caught God's vision of putting orphans into families, our plan was multiplied by God. We are currently blessed with 12 children; five biological, six adopted and one more waiting in Ethiopia. Our first adoption was from the U.S., the next three were from Liberia, West Africa, and our last two were from Ethiopia. We are supporting our 12th child in Ethiopia after her adoption could not pass court.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Orphan Statistics and One Little Face

I've read and compared a lot of orphan statistics; these seem to be quite conservative. I've heard over and over, "well, you can't save them all." No, I can't, but if everyone did their part, we could make a huge dent. The reality is that each one of these children are a soul and matter to God every bit as much as our children do. Can you imagine what we would be capable of if our child's very life hung in the balance? You can literally save a life for $20-30 a month. That is the cost to feed, clothe and educate a child on a child sponsorship program. I can highly recommend Mission of Mercy, we've sponsored children with them for our entire marriage. 100% of the funds go to your child, their over-head expenses are covered by corporate donors. Consider saving an orphan today!

Every 15 SECONDS, another child becomes an AIDS orphan in Africa
Every DAY 5,760 more children become orphans
Every YEAR 2,102,400 more children become orphans (in Africa alone)
143,000,0000 Orphans in the world today spend an average of 10 years in an orphanage or foster home
Approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, but…
Every YEAR 14,050,000 children still grow up as orphans and AGE OUT of the system
Every DAY 38,493 children AGE OUT
Every 2.2 SECONDS, another orphan child AGES OUT with no family to belong to and no place to call home
In Ukraine and Russia 10% -15% of children who age out of an orphanage commit suicide before age 18.
60% of the girls are lured into prostitution. 70% of the boys become hardened criminals.
Many of these children accept job offers that ultimately result in their being sold as slaves. Millions of girls are sex slaves today, simply because they were unfortunate enough to grow up as orphans.



Tomorrow I plan on doing a Flashback Friday on my little Victoria. I am still amazed at how God spared her little life. Here's our referral picture of Tori; she was about 1 1/2 at the time of our referral.

I spent hours in 2006 staring at this picture; it's the only one we ever got before we arrived to get her!

2 comments:

  1. What a magnetic little face! I would have spent hours staring at it too. How I wish I could adopt a dozen kids. Hey who knows, maybe God will provide the means for us to do so. Do you feel God asking you to adopt again?

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  2. So SO precious!!!!!!!!!!!

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