3/10/2008

I thought I would share some statistics I found on another adoption blog about orphans both domestically here in the U.S. and also internationally.

In America, there are more than half a million children in the foster system, this represents a 90% increase from the year 1987. 12-18 months after aging out of the foster care system: 27% of males and 10% of females have been incarcerated, 33% were receiving public assistance, 37% had not finished high school, 50% were unemployed. Children in foster care are 11 times more likely to be abused in a foster home than they are in their own home. 80% of prison inmates have spent time in the foster care system. I wonder if more true believers in Christ who knew how to share the love of Christ were involved in foster care, could these numbers be changed?

Now here are some statistics from overseas: Every 15 seconds another child becomes an Aids orphan in Africa. Every day 5,760 more children become orphans in Africa. Every year 2,102,400 more children become orphans in Africa alone! 143,000,000 orphans in the world spend an average of 10 years in an orphanage or foster home. In the 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 sell them into slavery. Millions become sex slaves simply because they were unfortunate enough to grow up as orphans. The sad reality is that there are so many children in such desperate conditions yet what do we do in America? Do we rush out and take our rebate from the IRS to buy yet another tv, pc, video game etc etc. Within the past year my wife Lisa started a babysitting job and our income rose about $700 a month. It was really just enough for us to live on a budget like we should putting aside savings properly, budgeting for home and car repairs etc, but I found myself beginning to look on a regular basis at the newspaper ads from places like Best Buy. I wanted to buy things like a new laptop, a new tv, a GPS among other nice little electronic gadgets. It was so easy to get sucked back into things! I am not saying all of these things are evil, nor am I saying we all should fast for 12 months ( Lord knows it wouldnt hurt me) to send all of our money overseas or here in the U.S. for those in need, but man can't we strike a balance in our lives. Can't we listen to Gods heart and do our part at least! In the end, our joy will be tied to what we do for others not by how many toys we get.

I'm reminded of a short story I wrote once from something I experienced when I was at the hospital waiting for my Moms surgery. Here is the story.

Crayon Love

Sometimes in life it's so easy to get caught up in keeping up with the Jones' and so it is with the giving of gifts. In the technology era in which we live there seems to be even a heightened sense of this philosophy as we all frantically search online and at the local Best Buy to get the "in" gift with the latest bells and whistles. Every once in a while something happens that brings back a proper perspective to our frantic search for the material things in life, like watching news footage of a famine area in Africa, or a human interest story we read in a magazine about a young mother dying of cancer. Well, just yesterday I experienced just a moment like this and I decided to write about it because it seemed to me to be a story that needed telling.
It was around 10:30 am and my Stepfather and sister-in-law were returning from the snack shop to the surgical waiting room. My mother had just had her gall bladder removed successfully and we were waiting to see her after she woke up from surgery. Upon returning to the waiting room we noticed that there were no areas left open where three seats could be together so we decided to sit in the corner of the room where only one chair was open. My stepfather and I sat on the floor and let my sister-in-law claim the chair, who says chivalry is dead. Anyway, there was a table nearby with four chairs surrounding it, and older gentleman who appeared to be in his seventies sat next to a young woman and a young man, I believe the woman was the older man's daughter. He noticed that I was on the floor and quickly stood offering me the extra chair. His act of kindness, and the fact that he was wearing a Cleveland Indians sweater as was I, made me like the man immediately. We spoke a little and he went back to his seat. I began to watch him and noticed that he was coloring something intently. He would study his paper, select a crayon, reselect after nodding his head no, tilt his head as if to bend the paper with his eyes, and this went on for several minutes. I decided I had to find out what he was doing and so in my typical non-chalant manner interrupted his work of art with a rude claim to "make sure you stay in the lines". I was forced to repeat this I think because he was hard of hearing and did not hear me initially. Once having heard my comment he proudly turned and stood showing me his drawing. I was delighted as he allowed me to peruse with my eyes his drawing of several flowers. The man must have been an artist or at least had some training because it was truly beautiful. He looked deep into my eyes as if he wanted to communicate a great truth of his heart to me, and he said, "This is for my wife, she is having a tumor removed from her leg and will have to go through therapy for some time, I want to give it to her when I see her in the recovery room". His eyes sparkled with the look of love that normally rests on the eyes of a newly wed husband, yet obviously this man had loved his wife for many years and the love was still as fresh as the day he committed his heart to hers forever. I have been thinking of this man and what I was chosen to see that day. I wonder why some of us find such joy in little things? How can one express true love as simply as with a crayon, and yet others of us never quite seem to be happy with the palm pilot we bought our wife? Why do our kids have to have the latest and greatest play station game? Where is it written that love expressed with a gift has to be what everyone else is giving or getting? Let's try to remember that love is a matter of the heart, and each of our hearts are filled with treasures so special, and so individual, that we lose out on what relationships can be if we were to just be ourselves, and give of ourselves. So the next birthday, Christmas, or Valentines day you have to buy that someone special a gift, remember this little story, get some crayons and construction paper, and let your love flow.