Adoption: Looking at the Numbers

According to the U.S. governments “5th Annual Report to Congress on Public Law 109-95” there are 153 million orphaned children worldwide. Of those children 34.5 million have lost their mother only, 101 million have lost their father, and 17.8 million have lost both parents. 

 To put it into perspective the current population of the United States is just a little over 311 million.

That number is mind boggling for me! So what am I supposed to do about it?

Not everyone is called to adopt. I was a thirty year old single professional who was very satisfied with just taking care of myself and my dog. I could travel, attend concerts, take shopping trips...but something was missing. Repeatedly I was struck with the plight of all of the children in the world who had no one. But what could I do? I had never met a 'single' who had undertaken the process of adoption, let alone an international adoption. I didn't really have a desire to go to a foreign country to try to navigate the government process (on both sides of the ocean) to make a child a member of my family. Yet it kept coming to me, a strong pull to put myself out there and definite feeling that somewhere out there my son was waiting for me. So, I took the leap. In September of 2008 I met my son for the first time in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is amazing. He is my son and I truly can't imagine my life without him. Do I have a great deal of disposable income to throw around anymore? No. Turns out a lot of the things I thought I needed, were just wants.