I wrote this in my journal a couple months before bringing our son home. He has indeed added strength to our family and helped remind us of the important things in life. I am so thankful to have him apart of our family.
The severe neglect was evident to me as a 21 year old college student volunteering in an orphanage in the former Soviet Union. Babies were not held with a care giver gazing into their eyes while drinking from a bottle. The bottle, instead, was propped against the steel bars of the metal crib. A few of the older children were receiving treatment from foreign doctors for club feet. The majority of the disabilities were ignored. No medical treatment, no therapies to help them progress. Children lay in wet and soiled diapers for far too long. Human touch and love were withheld which caused some of the children to clamor for the attention of the volunteers while others recoiled even at our presence. At the time I thought most of the older children were between two and four years old. Today, as I've followed along the journey of sweet Katie, adopted as an 11 pound 9 year old, I realize that many of the kids could have in fact been 8, 10, 12 years old, the effects of severe neglect stunting their growth.
When it was time to officially begin our adoption journey both my husband and I felt God leading us to Hong Kong. We were interested in adopting a child with special needs and HK primarily adopts children internationally with special needs. When we received our son's profile we realized that God had prompted me to pray for him over a year before during a critical time in his life and the life of his birth mother. We have learned that the English name we have chosen combined with the Cantonese name his birth parents gave him means "add strength" in Cantonese. The kind lady helping us learn the meaning of his name said God knew he was our son and prompted us in his name because he will add strength to our family. I know he is our son. I have seen God leading him to us and yet sometimes I have wondered. Hong Kong takes very good care of the children in the custody of the state. Medical issues are addressed, therapies are given and the children in an orphanage setting are loved by their care givers. Many children, like our son, are in a family setting cared for by foster parents. They are not neglected. I have wondered why God would lead us to a child who is receiving good care when there are so many children who are suffering the effects of severe neglect. And as has happened many times in this adoption journey God showed me how this physical process of adoption parallels a spiritual truth. You see, while a temporary foster family is good, a permanent forever family is best. Children in both situations are in need of permanent, loving, forever families.
This is true is a spiritual sense. We all know someone whose life mirrors the life of the neglected orphan. The pain, the fear and the neglect are obvious as is the need for rescue from a life that is seemingly so hopeless. There is a need to be adopted into God's family.
There are also many of us whose life reflects the life of my son. Our lives are full of good. We cultivate our talents. The need for something more is not immediately obvious, but yet something is missing. Our good is not God's best. There is far more that He has for all who will ask and follow. He wants us all to be apart of His family.
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