[Today is post #5 in our annual, summer Guest Writer Series. Note that the opinions expressed may or may not be held by the Intramuralist.]
Close your eyes and imagine with me…
You are seven years old. You are with your family. You are at home. Home, a place that is familiar and safe. Or at least it should be. Then your father comes to you and asks you to come with him. The two of you head out the door. You ask your father where you are going, no response. You wonder what adventure you must be going on. You ask again — no response. Finally, you find yourself at the train station. You are standing on the platform surrounded by a sea of faces you do not know. You turn to ask your father where you are going. When you turn your father is nowhere to be found. You search the station but it is no use. He is gone. Finally, a woman notices the lost look in your eye. She takes you to the security officer who promptly takes you to the local orphanage.
Unfortunately, the above story is all too often someone’s reality. There are 143 million children around the world waiting, in eager anticipation, for a forever family. Why are they given up or abandoned? The reasons range from death to disease to poverty. Some are even given up for adoption because the parents realize that they just cannot handle another mouth to feed. I cannot even begin to imagine the questions that must ravage the hearts and minds of the little ones who are left in orphanages and on the streets of our cities all over the world. I think the most heart wrenching question of all must be: do they not love me anymore?
God, if you are real, do you not love me anymore?
When we are honest with ourselves, each one of us has felt the very emotions I speak of. We have asked the same questions ourselves. There is within each of us that longing and desire to belong. To be grafted in. To be CHOSEN. We long to be a part of something beyond ourselves. I believe, with my whole heart, that longing is planted deep inside of us from the very minute we were conceived. The very one who created you and me is the very one who put that longing within us and has always had adoption on His heart… “A father to the fatherless… God sets the lonely in families… for he chose us, in him, before the creation of the world.”
Despite which side of the adoption line each of us falls on, the truth of the matter is this:
(1) Each of us, deep in our souls, when we are totally honest with ourselves, longs to be loved and to belong.
(2) Each and every life on this planet matters and within us we each possess the ability to be a catalyst of change for another person. Why not be that change for 1 of the 143 million orphans in our world?
Let’s take a peak on back at that 7 year old who was left at the train station…
The story is real. The 7 year old has a name; his name is Jia Wang. He lives in China and his father really left him at the train station. For the last three years he has been at an orphanage in China. In December of 2015, Jia got to come to America on an exchange program. He was placed with a family in Jacksonville, FL where he lived for 3.5 weeks. He was shown what the unconditional love and acceptance of a real family looks like. He got to see, in action, what it is like to have a mom and a dad who love you regardless. He got to experience having brothers and sisters who loved him for who he is. Going home in January was the very last thing he wanted to do.
Little did Jia know that in January that family would do a 21-day fast where they would ask: “God, what do you want us to do in 2016?” And God would answer with: “This little on needs to be with his forever family.”
And within 72 hours of requesting to adopt Jia, the Chinese government responded with an emphatic “YES!” They had very nearly been turned down as a possible host family for Jia Wang. Now, in the final phase of the adoption process, Scott and Mindy, wait for the word “go” and stand in humble amazement of how the God that they love has moved mountains, on their behalf, to bring this sweet boy home.
I thus wait and watch daily for that sweet hashtag, that looks something like this: #OrphanNoMore.
Respectfully…
LJ
Many children don’t have forever homes, yet every child deserves one. I appreciate the love Scott and Mindy have in their hearts and home for Jia Wang. He helps to complete their family. Thank you for sharing.